Colombian Coal Jewelry

The land of the small mining community of Morcá,a four hour bus ride south of Bogotá, Colombia, has degraded from years of mining. This situation has left few economic alternatives for its inhabitants. The people of Morcá primarily rely on the revenue generated from their coal mines.

Young men and boys work in mine shafts that have only rudimentary support infrastructures and unsafe conditions. Many boys and adult heads of households have died from collapses and inhaling the buildup of poisonous gases.

In 1995, the Colombian government established a workshop to train boys how to carve figurines and jewelry from coal, hoping that revenues generated from craft production would provide an alternative to working in the mines.

In the morning the boys attend academic classes, and then go to the workshop to learn to carve coal and to work on their projects. Unfortunately, the workshop has not yet reduced the need to work in the mines.

Although the boys are skilled in producing beautiful crafts, there are too few markets.

Without income, and needing to support their families, the boys feel obligated to leave the school and workshop and return to the coal mines.

While this is the current story of Morcá, it's not the final chapter. One World Projects has recently joined forces with students at the National Pedagogical University in Bogotá to open new market opportunities for Morcá's crafts.

We hope that with your help we can provide consistent work for the boys at the workshop, so that they can continue with their education and not return to the mines. We hope to expand the project to include more people.

Hand-etched Muisca Design Pendants We also have a series of round coal disks, hand-etched with a variety of Muisca animal, sun, and scroll designs. Each of these pieces are also pendants on strings (see left for a Duck as an example). The Muisca culture were people who lived in the Andes Mountains of central Colombia from about AD 1000-1550, and are known for their gold work. The sizes and designs of these individually hand-carved pendants vary somewhat, with the average diameter being about 2 inches. Wholesale Customers may order an assortment of all Muisca design pendants seen below, or an assortment within each design type (ex: assortment of scrolls, assortment of animals, etc). It's possible that we'll have additional variations within each design type in the future. If you're a wholesale customer needing a quantity of one particular design, such as for a catalog or specific event, please contact us. With lead time, we can meet your needs.

Scroll Designs
MAYSCROLL-2	MAYSCROLL-4	MAYSCROLL-5

MAYSCROLL-7	MAYSCROLL-8	MAYSCROLL-9

Sun Designs
MAYSUN-1	MAYSUN-2	MAYSUN-3

Animal Designs
MAYBRD	MAYDCK-1 Duck #1	MAYDCK-2 Duck #2

You might also like to see
Colombian
Coal Christmas Ornaments.

Did you know that....
Colombia is the only country in South America with coastlines on both the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea?

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