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Teodolinda Seguil of Peru handcrafts this decorative box made from a dried mate gourd. Using a special tool called a buril, the artisan carves a magnificent scene of Andean pastoral life into the gourd. The lid is carved with a variety of motifs, including the sun and the moon.

Stylized peacocks and pretty flowers pose on festive ornaments — one each in green, red, yellow and orange. Working in an ancient art they learned from their father, the Canto Sisters craft the set from dried gourds harvested from the yerba mate plant. They are cleaned, dried and painted before the images are meticulously engraved around the surface by hand.

Cultivated on the Peruvian coast for 6,000 years, mate gourds were decorated with images of birds and fish by the pre-Inca Moche and Chimu peoples. But it was the Inca who went on to use the gourds as cups and bowls, in ceremonial objects and in musical instruments.

Because each unique piece is handcrafted from a natural gourd, please expect slight variations in shape, size and motifs.

Wearing colorful caps with flowers on the end, three owls patiently await the holiday season. Peru's Margarita and Martha handcraft the sweet bird ornaments of dried mate gourds. The bird ornaments arrive nestled in a storage box.

Dogon boards were traditionally placed on doors, and incorporated animal and human symbols to protect the entrance to the home. The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in Western Africa. Artisan Ayoma Alhassan presents his interpretation of a Dogon board, incorporating male figures that depict how strong the men are in working to take care of their women, female figures representing the carriers of the next generation, and a tortoise. The artisan names his original relief panel Balase, which means "unity" in the Bulsa tongue. The panel's raised motifs are formed from hardened calabash.