hope sculpture

Add a touch of warmth and joy to your holiday decor with this lovely nativity figurine by Maria Estela Perlera Portillo. It depicts the Holy Family as they embrace under the Star of Bethlehem. It's sculpted from pine wood and hand-painted in a bright palette of deep blue, violet, and bright yellow.

Maria Estela Perlera de Portillo started her workshop alongside her husband. After he passed away, she decided to take the reins of the family business and continue to grow it.

Crafted from jute and agave fiber with accents of handwoven cotton in yellow and other colors, Joseph and Mary gather over baby Jesus. El Salvador's Marcela Moran creates this hope-inspiring nativity sculpture, which is displayed atop a round base of cortez wood.

Costa Rican artisan Blanca Padilla designs and handcrafts this lovely trio of angels from fiber extracted from cabuya or fique, a succulent that looks similar to agave. The cabuya fiber is a beautiful creamy antique white, and the artisan works with its natural texture to from the features of this wall sculpture. Gold thread is woven with the cabuya to accent each angel's halo and the hem of her gown, and she carries a lovely bouquet of paper and natural dried flowers in red, yellow, and green. A star shoots over the trio.

The art and skill of creating handicrafts from cabuya or fique has been handed down through Blanca Padilla's family for generations. The artisan sources her material herself, growing and harvesting the cabuya, extracting the fiber, and preparing it for use in the handicrafts. Blanca Padilla hopes to help revitalize the cabuya craft industry with the success of her designs.

This elegant angle wears green, a colour thought to represent hope and new life. Molded and painted by hand, the heavenly messenger features colonial-era style wings and a gown motif of interlocked circles. Believing God set her on this path, artist Arlen Estrada has dedicated herself to creating ceramic pieces that take their inspiration from Nicaragua's past, both colonial and indigenous.