crafts
The pride of the Boruca people is their ornately-carved wooden masks. The Boruca masks come in many different varieties and styles, but the skill of a craft passed on for many centuries can only be seen in an authentic Boruca mask. Learn more about the different styles, the craft process, and the Diablitos festival from which they stemmed.
Today, drums are made from hollowed out cedar or balsa trunks with cow hide stretched over the two ends. Rope is used to secure the skins in place. Originally, in place of the cow hide, wild peccary hide was used and fastened into place with strips of the same leather.
drums
The women of Costa Rica’s Boruca are traditionally taught weaving, though today men learn as well. Boruca has a long tradition of hand-dying threads from naturally found colors from sources including leaves of the sangrilla tree, bark of the carbonero tree, clay, indigo plants and occasionally the ink of a mollusk. After spinning thread from locally-grown cotton, they use a loom to weave the thread into handbags, wall hangings, coin purses and more.
