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Monday 29 october 2018

Made in Aruba, Unique Gifts from Local Artisans

ORANJESTAD — They are right at fish by Lionfintastic. Lionfish are an
the hotels and offer unique, locally invasive species from the Pacific
manufactured artisan products. and Indian Ocean, voracious eat-
Foundation Aruba is organizing an ers with no known predators. The
art market that gives you the op- handmade soap and skin care
portunity to admire and/or pur- from olive oil and shea butter by
chase some genuine products, all CC Bath & Body is another unique
locally produced by local artisans. gift as well as the wonderful jew-
“This is not your regular souvenir elry made by recycled materials
that you may encounter in vari- of Miljenou Tromp. Gloria Filiciana
ous Caribbean destinations, this is creates awesome artisan jewelry
made in Aruba and only offered from among others genuine Aru-
here”, says Wendy Op De Weegh, ban sea glass and what to think of
one of the board members of the a necklace of driftwood, created
foundation. by Wise Wood. Turning a discarded
material into a unique art craft is
Wendy Op De Weegh, Tia Hurk- what Cemu offers you. But there
mans and Gabriella Gonzalez are is much more. You really need to
the three board members of Foun- check it out for yourselves as this is
dation Aruba, all artisans them- your change to bring home a real
selves. Wendy: “I started making piece of Aruba. The best vacation
my own beads of glass and that memory or genuine gift.
triggered Tia and Gaby to join. We The artisans market is on Mondays
were friends and we noticed that at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort be-
we needed a platform to present tween 4.30 and 6.30 PM, at Tues-
our art. We were occasionally or- days and Thursdays between 6
ganizing events at home, but we and 9 PM at the Marriott Resort &
were looking for more public.” That Stellaris Casino and at Fridays be-
is how the three came to the idea tween 7 and 10 PM at the Renais-
to find more local artisans and en- sance Marketplace in Oranjestad.
countered a foundation that was Check their Facebook Foundation
in a kind of non-active state. They ArUBA for more information.q
decided to take over and that is
how it all started. “2013 our first or-
ganized event happened at Fort
Zoutman in Oranjestad with Christ-
mas time. It was a big success and
from that time on it really took off.
More and more artisans were en-
gaged and the government also
initiated the national seal for arti-
san products at that time and pro-
vided us with a list of artisans that
were registered.”

Your Vacation Memory
The aim of the foundation is to
engage the artisans that create
smaller pieces, locally produced
and linked to Aruba. The perfect
gift or souvenir. Think of jewelry in
different materials, art with drift-
wood, soap and skin care, small
paintings and so on. There is the
jewelry made of the tail fin of lion