The tour through Ojo de Agua village, in the South of the province of Santiago del Estero, starts at an old building constructed in 1901, with an informal web of telephone and electricity wires covering its front.

The village was founded in 1884, when the Corvalans establish in it; and the church was built in 1892, 8 years later.

A village frozen in time. While walking through its streets visitors can bump into a rooster that pays no attention to the summer’s high temperatures, or discover a horse protecting itself from the sun underneath a shelter.

What few people know is that a very important group of craftsmen are active behind that apparent quietness.

Mrs. Baez dyes and spins sheep wool

One of them is Mrs. Baez, who dyes and spins sheep wool. She does not use any of the industrial anilines, which are so common nowadays; but she employs vegetable dyers instead, using the original method for dying wool.

Like most craftsmen, she taught herself the art and her designs are created at the moment of doing the knots, following her inspiration.

Her designs are not always the same; but all of them are influenced by the Chaco-Santiagueña culture. Although her mother never did so, she keeps the habit of spinning with a spindle.

Andres Saravini

Another craftsman from Ojo de Agua is Andres Saravini. Andres Saravini not always dedicated himself to artcrafts. In other times, he worked as a monthly employed farm labourer; in farm sowing with horse plows and even as a van driver.

In relation to the preparation of the leather for his work, Andres Saravini explains that the leather is first stretched out between stakes until it is dry and, afterwards it is skinned with a stick.

His best works are whips or riding crops and long whips, the handle of which are made of cow or horse bones covered with plaitings weaved by him.

More precisely, all the whips or riding crops that the visitor discovers in his studio belong to his private collection.

Before leaving Ojo de Agua’s art and natural wonders, an inner door is discovered which seems to have arrived to Ojo de Agua from who-knows-were in order to protect this village from modernism.