January of 1992 we decided to open our workshop and gallery, to sell our art work directly to our clients. During the XIX Century the Historical District of Mazatlan was the heart of the port, where the social and cultural activities happened, but after the cholera disease it was abandoned and a very few families stayed living in the area, most of the people moved to the new neighborhoods. It was
until the late 80's where the intelectual artists, and the government decided to renovate the Opera House and re-create the cultural activities. We felt that the Historical District would be reborn and become again an interesting place to be visited by locals and travelers so we bought an old and deteriorated building, restored it and create NIDART which was the first art studio and gallery in the whole historical district at the moment. Little by little people started to open restaruants, galleries, music, art and dance schools , so more artists moved into the area to open their studios. Today there is an Art-Walk from November through May, the first Friday of the month when visitors may take a free tour (walking) all through the many galleries, shops and studios of the historical district. The most representative hand-craft that we make at NIDART are the Leather masks, faces and sculptures with a technique that we developed in 1989. Thinking that the Mardi Grass (Carnival) is the most important popular celebration in Mazatlan and inspired by the italian Masks and the Moroccan leather techniques but using local skins and materials and making our own tools of horn, agatha stone, and glass we made our first mask. Later on we designed mermaids, animals, sailboats and nudes using the same technique. We use cow hide, goat skin and pig skin to create our pieces, sometimes we add fish and snake skin to give them texture accents . Each of our works is unique because we hand-craft them individually. For our designs we get inspiration from natural elements (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth), nature (flowers, shells, animals)and human expressions (serenity, happiness, fear, sadness, joy, innocence, wisdom). That is the main reason why we can't reproduce identical pieces. So the leather works that we sell at NIDART are made using the technique that us (Rak and Loa) created in 1989. Now on days we taught this technique to some of our children(Nida, Carito, Rosalba, Anis) that are part of the studio and make their own designs enhancing our offer with their creativity. Our other family studio is Limón y Mango, where we make functional pottery, lead free, ceramics and terracota sculptures. For many years we made the little people of clay and leather that were protective charms represented as children, fairies, clowns, oldies and elves making different human activities. Through the time we have invited other families, artists and coops. to exhibit and sell their art works in NIDART. Having NIDART has been a cheerful expierence in our lives and many of our best friends we met them here.
