Javier S. Medina explains that he continues to train “with an 80-year-old man.” Because every job requires continuous improvement. He nourishes himself by “traveling, soaking up reading, learning new techniques. “I am amazed by the wonderful traditions of any small town in Spain.” This man from Extremadura chose to be an esparto maker, although he says that it was the natural fibers that chose him. He wanted to do Fine Arts, then take the exam to become a firefighter, but on a stretch of the road between Badajoz and the Madrid neighborhood of Malasaña he saw himself playing on the ground next to his grandfather, who was braiding reed chair bases and esparto grass curtains. “I try to make everything I do have truth and memory,” he explains. That’s why he uses his father’s leather apron, who was a shoemaker, and his grandfather’s tools. The curtains in his workshop were made by his mother.
Sarah Jessica Parker and the New York interior designer Nate Berkus went crazy for their vegetable bull heads. He became a famous craftsman, although “I spend less and less time in the workshop, the business world eats you up.” This artisan who Forbes has included among the hundred most important creatives, has traveled around the world from the windows of Loewe, has worked for Disney, for the designer Jonathan William Anderson and has created a clothing collection for Zara. He now prepares a bag for a high jewelry firm in New York.
He is a declared anti-bullfighting person, but his best-known creation, the one that seduced Sarah Jessica Parker, are bull heads. “They are ecological trophies, a nod to Spain. The aesthetics of a bullfight seem beautiful to me, but I do not share animal suffering,” he explains to the Magazine.
His favorite fiber is “pith or wicker, because you can make very beautiful shapes and textures”, and the motto that guides Javier S. Medina is “respect and try to maintain traditions that are part of who we are and where we come from. That do not get lost and adapt them to the current times. And yes, he can make a living from craftsmanship thanks to the fact that “the big brands have been able to capture its value, in the end you pay for something that is exclusive to you, you pay for the time, the patience.” In fact, if the project goes ahead, it is also a job generator. This esparto maker already has three people working in his workshop, and when big brands commission large installations, he hires more staff.
Even so, and although in Spain manufacturing is beginning to be valued more, “most of my clients are from the United States,” he acknowledges. “There they value the process and time more. Market haggling doesn’t happen in my case. “Before I was willing to jump through hoops, now I’m not.”
In Chiclana they collect the esparto grass as it has always been done and the women braid it so that he can mold his bullfighting trophies on El Escorial street, where he lives, has his workshop, a gallery and a cafeteria (Bread and pickles coffee), with its toaster. and its own blend. He has also set up a residency for artists in Fez and wants another in Badajoz, where he is already looking for a farmhouse. Another of his dreams is “to work with Jacquemus, I love his Mediterranean style.” I’m sure he can do it.
