Tag Archives: lauburu

Rosettas

rosettas-doneThroughout the Basque Country, on cabinets, headstones, and books, one finds various designs that adorn pretty much everything. There is of course the ubiquitous lauburu, but there are also other figures, rosettas, that are very common.

The Enciclopedia Aunamendi has an article on “popular art” where they have an image of a number of rosettas from various sources. The image is a scan from a book, and the original image seemed to be hand-drawn, so was relatively rough. I’ve vectorized it to both clean up the images and make them perfectly scalable. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t like EPS files, so I can’t upload them here. Instead, a PNG file will have to do. If anyone would like the EPS file, just contact me and I’ll be happy to send it along.

Hand-forged Knives by Andy “the Basco” Franco

Visitors to Buber’s Basque Page likely already know Andy Franco.  Since discovering his Basque roots, he has been very involved in the Boise Basque community.  Owner of Calico Forge and Knife Company, Andy has weaved his Basque heritage into his work.  He made the replica harpoons that were featured in the Boise Basque Museum’s exhibit on Basque whaling and he also created the amazing lauburu that he donated for the 2008 dinner/fundraiser for the Boise Basque Museum and Cultural Center.

His focus more recently has been knives, as evident by his company website.  New Mexico Euskal Etxea asked Andy if he would be interested and able to donate something for our own fundraiser, a Tapas and Wine event to be held on June 19.  Andy seized the opportunity to take his knife-making in a direction he’d been thinking about for some time: kitchen knives.  He made two beautiful knives, pictured below, that he generously donated to NMEE.  He also made an iron stone hunter knife, also pictured (with the rougher-decorated blade).  All three pieces are wonderful.  We thank Andy for his generosity in sharing his amazing skills with us.

Two new tattoos featuring lauburus

The lauburu is such a Basque symbol that most of the tattoos that I’ve received prominently feature it in some way or another.  The two most recent tattoos are no exception.

metcheberry-tattooMegan Etcheberry is a second generation but 100% Basque who lives in Portland, Oregon.  Her tattoo features an encircled lauburu on her back.  Simple, but, as always, elegant.

cfarrell-tattooColin Farrell isn’t Basque, but spent time in the Basque Country as part of the pro surfing tour and fell in love with the place.  He recently added a lauburu to what I assume was an exisiting tattoo featuring a surf scene.  He writes: “I spent some time in Mundaka and Bilbao in 2007 when I was studying abroad and absolutely fell in love with Euskadi.  Since then I’ve actually written my senior thesis on the influences of Sabino Policarpo de Arana y Giori and have begun to make plans to move there permanently.  I just got the lauburu tattoo about 2 weeks ago at Tattoo Paradise in Washington DC.  The artist, Nikki, is part Basque herself!

Eskerrik asko Megan and Colin!

Tatu lauburuak

Seth Jordan and Dax Arguello have both sent photos of their new tattoos, both of which prominently feature the lauburu.  Seth’s tattoo, of a big lauburu on his forearm, was done at Tattoo Revolution in Meridian, Idaho.  Dax’s, features a lauburu centered in a bigger design, was done at Guru Tattoo in San Jose, California.  Large versions of these photos can be found in the Tattoo Gallery.  Thanks for sharing guys!

Lauburu + Oak Leaves = Great Tattoo

Kevin Paul shares his tattoo, done by Tattoo 13 in Oakland, CA. It is a stylized lauburu in which each of the heads of the lauburu is an oak leaf. A great idea! Thanks for sharing Kevin. This, and all the tattoos, are in the Tattoo Gallery.

If you have a tattoo to share, feel free to send me a photo and a caption to blas@buber.net.