How’s Simón doing? Better. Both artistically and financially. No, I don’t have any photos of Simón with his new SUV in front of his new McMansion. But he is most definitely a success story. Before we began to work together, he could not earn enough from weaving to support his family. He worked on...
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Simón Espinal is the best weaver in the world. I have been buying his entire production for years, paying him double what he used to earn, plus an artist’s commission on sold hats. But he had heard rumors of easy work and high pay in Venezuela. Yikes. Not true, but he doesn’t know that....
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Those are the hands of Simón Espinal. Son sin iguales, los manos de Simón Espinal: They are without equals, the hands of Simón Espinal. I searched for fifteen years to find those hands. Those hands create the finest hand-woven hats on planet earth. Possibly, the finest ever. Hats that are, quite literally, the stuff...
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Entirely hand-woven in Ecuador, the finest Panama hats can require months to complete. But did you know that the process of making a hat requires even more than weaving? Before weaving can even begin, a certain part of a certain plant has to be found, harvested, and processed, and after weaving is finished a...
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Looking for the stuff of legends? A Montecristi Panama hat woven so finely that it seems to be made of cloth, not straw? I mean the real deal. As in all the way to the top, the very finest in the world. The absolute highest expression of the Art of Montecristi. The ones all...
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The business was created in 1988 with the specific goal to prevent the impending extinction of the art of fine hat weaving in Montecristi. Weavers, artisans, dealers, all told me that hat weaving was diminishing year by year. In 1986, author Tom Miller (The Panama Hat Trail) predicted the demise of fine hat weaving...
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Jorge and I were in Pile in the home of a weaver. She had invited us to eat our lunches at her family dining table. We’d brought our lunches with us, knowing it would be a long day and that there are no restaurants in Pile. We bought cold drinks from her, supporting the...
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Thanks to the Montecristi Foundation, Inc., an eye doctor visited Pile last Saturday. The doctor conducted exams for weavers, their families, and many others in the village, and new glasses will be delivered in a few weeks. Here are some photos from Gabriel and Andrea. Eye doctor, carrying her equipment into the village. The...
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One of the most exciting new projects undertaken by the Montecristi Foundation, Inc. is the weaving school in Pile which opened this January. Remember: the number one goal of my dad, the single obsession that started all of this, was to preserve this incredible art form. When I was a little kid, our house...
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Remember the boy whose story appeared on BBB’s website and that we reposted here? He’s doing well with his new glasses! Here’s a photo of him from Christmas: His mother reports that his eyes are improving, and as his eyes change the Foundation continues to provide him with new lenses. The many weavers who...
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