Ceramics and Pottery

• The Quichua descend from the Inca.Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  The Quichua, one of the largest South American tribes, create lightweight pottery with intricate designs using natural dyes from berries and natural pigments from flowers for color. The Moche culture of Peru uses naturalistic motifs that represent the ceremony and mythology of their culture. Keeping it simple as one of only a few Amazon tribes to produce pottery, the Ashuar produce extremely lightweight pit-fired pottery glazed with tree sap.
  
  

Textiles

• Andean tribes dye and weave llama wool.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The native Quichuas relied on the llama much like North American Indians relied on the buffalo, and produced cloth from the llama's wool. Art items produced from the fiber include dyed and woven wall hangings, blankets and clothing items incorporating traditional motifs. In the Amazon basin, the Shipibo Indians in Peru are well known for their hand-painted cotton cloth distinguished by the patterns of giant anaconda skins in their designs. The traditional handmade textiles of many of South America's smaller tribes are now found only in museums.
  
  

Jewelry

• Some cultures create jewelry from animal bones.Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images
  
  The Inca used metallurgy to create gold jewelry and designs from other precious metals, but smaller tribes incorporated simple natural elements into their personal decorations. In the Andes of Ecuador, the Quichua still create intricately patterned jewelry items using tagua nuts, seeds and other natural products. The Penare of Venezuela use the bones, claws and teeth of rain forest animals to craft beautiful necklaces for their women.
  
  

Sculpture

• The jaguar and other rain forest animals are well represented in South American sculpture.Tom Brakefield/Stockbyte/Getty Images
  
  Common in many early South American tribes are sculptures made of clay or carved from bone or stone. These often depict religious, ceremonial, cultural and mythological scenes, figures and symbols, as seen with the Tairona of Colombia or the Valdivia of Ecuador. Today's Indian tribes of the Amazon basin, like the many sub-tribes of the Piaroa, carve the plentiful balsa wood of the rain forest. Typical wood sculptures depict rain forest animals, the jaguar, the armadillo, the eagle and various other birds.