VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Wayuu bags are not made equal. There’s a big price difference and a large part of it is due to the amount of love and time spent making a Wayuu bag. Attention is in the details and by being able to check for them, you’ll be guaranteed to take home a quality Wayuu bag.
How to spot quality in a Wayuu Bag
Quality is so important to me as I take a lot of pride in all the quality of the products in my store and I wanted to show you how I check for quality in my products and how you can do the same if you want a quality Wayuu bag.
1. Look for a Wayuu bag that stands on its own
The only sign of quality tourists are told to look for is stiffness. The stiffer the Wayuu bag, the tighter it was crocheted.
If you place the bag down and it folds over it means that the artisan had a loose hand when crocheting, and as a result, the bag will kind of collapse instead of sit up straight.
2. A pretty pattern on the bottom of the Wayuu bag
The second thing you can look for when you’re looking for quality is if the Wayuu bag has a design on the bottom.
This one for example has a small design at the bottom, as does this one. Not all bags will have designs on the bottom. If an artisans takes the time to crochet something at the bottom of the bag, I take it as a sign of love as they didn’t just hurry to get it done.
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3. No visible errors in the pattern of the Wayuu bag
The next thing I look for are any errors in the pattern. Little errors that don’t affect the pattern are OK. But if a line that’s supposed to be straight but looks curvy or a pink background has blue in it, I would definitely reject the bag.
By just taking a few seconds to review the bag, you’ll be able to see if something is off. I do take into account that it is a handmade product and accept small errors that don’t compromise the quality of the Wayuu bag.
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4. No threads are peaking out from underneath
When you look at a well crocheted bag, you will not be able to see the threads underneath the design. Well, right here there’s a bit of thread showing underneath. This isn’t a big deal, but if you have a lot of these showing it would be a sign that the bag is not good quality.
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5. Recognize the different drawstrings
Another thing you can look for when it comes to quality are the drawstrings. So, here as you can see, you have a very basic drawstring. This was made using the twist method. But you also have other types of quality which take more time.
So here you have a braided drawstring. See the difference? You have the twist, the braided and another drawstring which is woven. The woven takes the most time, and as time is also related to quality, it’s considered to be the highest quality drawstring.
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6. Good-looking tassels
Another thing I look at when I look for quality are the tassels. Tassels are super important as they are what dance around and what you touch when you wear your Wayuu bag.
I make sure that the tassels are full and that they don’t look like a mouse’s tail, that they look nice and luscious. Tassels with mixed colors are faster to make because artisans can take several balls of yarn of different colors and roll them all together, while tassels with separate colors have a more time-consuming process. Same goes for tassels of a single color.
7. Look at the Wayuu bag finishings
Once I’ve made sure there’s no errors in the pattern, that there’s a beautiful design on the bottom, that I like the drawstring and the tassels, I look at the finishing.
So, for example here you have a woven strap and this woven strap was attached manually with a thread and needle. I make sure that the attaching thread is straight as sometimes it can be uneven.
If you have any other question, please let me know in the comment box down below and I will be more than glad to answer your question!