Photo Tour of the Phoenix Heard Museum Spanish Market

Mel Rivera is among several artists helping to revive the lost art of straw appliqué on crosses, boxes and retablos. Mel cultivates his own wheat straw, letting some of the stalks weather into a deep golden hue which he prefers for his floral designs. He showed me how he is beginning to use colorful corn husks in his work to add different colors. The artist works at his craft part-time in Santa Fe. He can be reached at strawart@earthlink.net