joyas | the Spider's Workshop

When I drive to my daughter’s school I pass the La Serena Airport. The road parallels the runway and sometimes we see planes landing or taking off. Also this road is driven by many impatient idiots who think it is actually a racing track, and overtaking will get them to their destination faster and not killed.

So after a near miss by one of these race-car drivers in the morning, I was edgy driving to my daughter’s school to pick them up. As I approached the airport a shadow came over me, (literally, not metaphorically) and an Airbus came in to land. It flew alongside me, bigger and faster than me, and with Coldplay on the radio it was quite something. And if that wasn’t enough, a jogger running towards me, stretched out his arms wide, smiling, in what looked like pure joy. It was just a moment, in the right place.

Life is full of these small moments when the actions of others seem to fall together. Coincidences, angels, luck? I believe in all three.

However, the return of Creatif was desire, not luck! Desire to work as a group, (which isn’t always easy), and the desire to create a space for art…for learning and teaching as well as selling. The group has some of it’s original members, and some new. Some of the members who left the group have formed a new craft fair replacing the Observatorios.

Creatif is looking for an alternative to fairs, experimenting, and discovering how we can work together and use are individual strengths.

Our first activity was yesterday, where we displayed our work in a private setting. It felt different from the Observatorios, more relaxing. I think this was because it was smaller and in a closed space, so there was more security.

The space was full of colour!

And for our return, it was the right place!

Creatif is a Cultural collective of artists, crafters and designers, who believe in the creation of spaces where artists can display and sell their work, as well as educate and connect with other artists.

My first encuentro with Creatif was on a cold winter day, in June 2012, when my family and I visited a small craft fair. I didn’t know who they were and my main memory was how pretty and original the products were. Fast forward six months to the summer of 2013 and we visited the 1st Observatorio. It looked beautiful and I loved that everything was handmade, and we could watch the crafters and artists share their techniques with the public.

I started to follow them on facebook and when they asked for new applications for their 3rd Observatorio, I applied, and was accepted! I was nervous participating in my first fair, but it was full of great people, and I believed in Creatif’s goal; to show the public how local art and crafts are made, and why people should be supporting them.

After the 5th Observatorio the group Creatif invited me to join and work with them. Yeah!

We are a diverse group of women who work with different materials to create beautiful objects. We come from different backgrounds, with different ideas and strengths, which we use to compliment each other.

“CREATIF es una agrupación Cultural sin fines de lucro, es un espacio de cooperación entre creadoras y emprendedoras de la región de Coquimbo creada en el año 2012 con la idea de compartir, organizar, participar, integrar y convocar.

Desarrollando desde su creación un conjunto de soluciones relacionadas al emprendimiento, la educación, la difusión y la generación de nuevas redes, por este motivo uno de sus principales objetivos es generar espacios de interacción que faciliten el quehacer creador y que permita generar alianzas, convenios e intercambios, potenciar oportunidades y abrir espacios de difusión de iniciativas y trabajos tanto en Chile como en el extranjero.” – From Creatif’s blog.

Creatif is made up of nine women. Here are links to some of their blogs and examples of their work.

Los Vuelos de uno Paloma