When we admired the woven grass buffalo head in Hollister and Porter Hovey’s recent townhouse staging, they tipped us off about Javier Sanchez Medina: “We’ve been collecting straw animals for years now,” said Hollister. “Some are from the artisan market in Mexico City, some we’ve happened upon in New York and Connecticut, but Javier is really the reigning king of this craft.”
They might have also called him the Adonis—Medina’s creations and he himself have appeared of late everywhere from a new Loewe campaign to Icon magazine, and the Hovey sisters and Sarah Jessica Parker are among the many who have made pilgrimages to his atelier in Madrid. Count us among the intrigued.
![medina\2\17;s shop is in an atmospheric old carpentry studio in madrid&a 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-shop-workshop-madrid-733x916.jpg)
![medina is from extremadura, and calls himself a self taught \2\20;basket 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-straw-artist-madrid-studio-and-shop-733x914.jpg)
![visitors to medina\2\17;s shop get to see him at work. he only uses natu 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-straw-artist-via-conde-nast-traveler-espana-733x1100.jpg)
![medina opened his shop in \20\14; he now also sells his work on his website and 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-madrid-shop-via-loewe-loewepaulasibiza-davit-ruiz-photo-733x917.jpg)
![the animal heads come in a range of sizes and medina also makes decorative mirr 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-madrid-workshop-store-733x916.jpg)
![a lion head modeled by actor jaime zatarain. 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-straw-artist-madrid-lion-head-733x916.jpg)
![medina has preserved the historic feel of his atelier. 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-madrid-workshop-rhino-head-733x916.jpg)
![the shop is at \28 calle el escorial in madrid. medina also offers four day wor 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/javier-sanchez-medina-straw-artist-madrid-1-733x916.jpg)
Another must-visit Madrid shop: Casa González y González, Better Tools for Living
Also take a look at these DIY Wrapped Clothes Hangers from two Madrid boutiques.
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