As for Niebla, one might could wonder about its characteristic handicraft , its origins, its present situation , and its future prospects The origins of present handicrafts should be looked for in the most ancient inhabitants. From them until the present time there is a long evolution through which some of the popular arts have been transformed, others have gone through periods of inactivity, and many others depending on a rural way of living have disappeared. One of the most characteristic handicraft activities of Niebla is the stone cutting, and proofs of it are the wall enclosure, some parts of the artistical monuments of the town and , more recently, the construction of the monument to Columbus in Punta del Sebo (Huelva), in which some workers of Niebla participated. Niebla's lime, highly demanded because of its high quality makes us think of the ancient calerín (where lime was extracted), which was located where the present cement factory is nowadays. Other important handicrafts are: pebble craft, pottery, shoemaking, guarnicionería (horse equipment craft), empleita (a special kind of basketmaking typical of Niebla which uses leaves of palm trees), embroidery, elaboration of thyme essence, and subsequently, eucaliptus essence, etc. The antecedents of the empleita, as those of any kind of basketmaking in general, are remote, for it is well known that primitive men used baskets for carrying and storing food and other things. The techniques used have scarcely varied since then, for the two essential elements of the process of production are still the same: the raw material and gifted and skilled artisans. As for the raw material used in the empleita, the palmito (small palm tree) is called several names in our country: palmitera, palma de palmito, palma enana, palma de escoba, etc. It has a double purpose: as food, and as raw material for utilitarian objects (baskets). It is this utilitarian purpose that we want to remark in the handicrafts of past times, for nowadays only an aesthetic and decorative purpose remains. The palmitos of our area are not very tall, because they have been harvested since remote times. This plant grows forming thick bushes, because it sprouts profusely. Sickles or knives are used for the harvesting. The palm leaves are tied together in sheaves using a palm leaf itself. Then the shieves are taken to the place where they will be left to dry, they are untied and finally laid in the sun; the dark green colour of the leaves fades and changes into the characteristic yellowish-ochre colour. The drying in the sun is stopped before the palm leaves lose their necessary flexibility, they are stored in a dry place. From that moment the palm leaves are ready for two different crafts: empleita and tomiza. Tomiza: It is a kind of cord which was used by Greeks and Romans for bows. Tomiza and empleita, trenzado and cogollo are usual words for those who work the palmito, for those ancient shepherds who plaited the palm leaves in the quietness of their lonely work, for those men and women that, nowadays, continue to devote to the ancestral making of mats for the drying of grapes and figs, baskets, hampers, capachos, rugs, brooms and hats, a wide range of handicrafts typical of Niebla that sould not fall in the oblivion. As for the borde (embroidery), it is important to note that present embroidery has its antecedent in the traditional embroidery made for some women in the past, which was almost always related to the religion world. At the present time, embroidery relates to trousseaus or to the making of mantones de Manila in more recent times. As for the traditional pottery of Niebla, there are remains dating from ancient periods which prove the presence of inhabitants and can be used to know about their way of living: remains of the Vaso Campaniforme culture in the Bronze Age, pots found in the Tholos del Moro, remains of the tartessic period found in the Palmarón, Roman remains, a great deal of Arabic pieces (ataifore and other pots), medieval elements, etc. There were utilitarian objects without number, such as dornillos, lebrillos, plant pots, jars, orzas, pans, plates, pitchers, whistles, alcuzas, tinajas, bowls, botijos, botijas, botijones, tiles, alcaudes and canjilones. A wide range of traditional objects, some of them lost, others remaining in hidden places of our homes. José Ramos García can be mentioned as one of the closest antecedents of Niebla's pottery and, maybe, as the last potter of the town. He devoted many years to this activity and got to participate together with other craftsmen of the province in the Latin-American Exposition of Seville of 1929; as a proof of this there is a document signed on behalf of Alfonso XIII. Since then, all the traditional crockery and pottery have been gradually replaced by other lighter objects, made of plastic in many cases. Niebla castle had never been exploited to the full until now, even though it had already been used for the celebration of a number of more or less far-reaching cultural events |
ur present society shows an increasing interest in handicrafts, either because these objects are different from those of the standardized mass production of present industry, or because the productive techniques of handicrafts are far from the present technological sophistication , or simply because these objects can be the explanatory key of the way of living of past generations.