So I've been doing a personal search of info on how to craft with the higüera, a fruit that looks and behaves kinda like a gourd that grows on trees in Puerto Rico. But all searches for "higüera" online kept bringing me to higuera, which is a fig. (Note the little snake bite above the "u" in higuera.) After some creative word combinations I found a video that referred to the higüera as a totumo in Colombia, and the rest is arts and crafts online searching history. A whole door opened up to videos and images of people making things with the higüera and their final creative projects.
The first step was to find out how to prep the fruit for crafting. Because it is not technically a gourd, I couldn't follow all the amazing tips by all the gourd crafters out there. In PR, you cut the higüera in half (or in whatever shape you want), scoop out the guts and set it out to dry. But then it ends up drying really dark brown and I've seen samples with a cream base.
I found one video that followed an artisan through the steps of prepping the totumo and she said that you have to boil it.
But the video continues without an explanation of how long to boil it. I went back to Google and this time typed in "hervir totumo" and found a great Prezi, which I've embedded below for your viewing and instructional pleasure. Spending time on youtube, I've found loads of different ways to prep the higüera. I've also found out that it's also called "jicaro" in Mexico.
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