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By Naomi Marshall
In the mining town of Linden, 21-year-old Renicia Marques has been putting her heart into art through her exquisitely designed wooden artifacts.
Marques is the co-owner of Vintage Home Guyana, an online store that provides esthetic interior décor pieces for the home.
Together with the main material, wood and Marques placing great thought and passion into creating her pieces, the Lindner is convinced that she brings something much more than pieces of decorations to the table.
“The pieces we offer at Vintage Home Guyana are unique. Out of the natural resource, wood you normally see the big bulky stuff, you do not really see these aesthetic antique pieces. So shopping at us we have a wide variety to choose from these unique antique pieces, we offer something new and affordable,” Marques told Village Voice News.
Marques grew up in the Wismar Housing Scheme, Linden in an extended family with her grandmother being the head of the home. She called her experience growing up in the said community, “beautiful”.
“We all live like family and enjoy playing outdoor games together and our community felt safe,” she related.
Marques attended the Mackenzie High School where she completed CSEC and did one year of CAPE. She then began studies at the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) in 2018.
In an interview with this publication Marques expressed her fondness for one of Guyana’s main natural resources, wood which she said, developed during her studies at GSA.
“Truly my experience at the Guyana School of Agriculture was life changing because this is where it all started. We went on multiple trips to the rainforest of Guyana to learn about the natural resource, wood, and I became amused and inspired,” Marques stated.
“There were a few courses that required us to create wooden artifacts so I put my hands and creative trait to work. I went beyond using just wood, I would use scrappy materials from around the house to create weekly planning boards, jewelry boxes and my classmates were all amazed by it. So I began making the items free of charge for my classmates because I found joy in creating them,” she said.
The joy that came from creating her artifacts at school made the forestry student dream of one day having her very own antique store.
After graduating GSA in 2019, the sponsored forestry student was looking forward to her entitled placement at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
However, she has not been contacted to commence work for the Ministry since then. Built up frustration pushed the young woman to think outside the box which lead to her launching her business, Vintage Home Guyana in 2019 which she now co-owns with her fiancé.
The young woman indicated that in the future, she sees Vintage Home Guyana having outlets in all or most of Guyana’s ten regions. She also sees the company creating jobs for youths and teaching them various skills pertaining to the business.
Marques’ advice to persons is to not only dream but be sure to put the work in as well.
“Do not just let a dream only be a dream. Once you got a vision make it a reality. It is going to be hard or scary, yes but start and remember the word of God says faith without works is dead. You cannot just have a dream and expect it to flourish if you do not put in the work. So have faith yes, but also put in the work and God will make a way,” she encouraged.
Persons interested in contacting Renicia Marques can send messages to her business Facebook and Instagram pages, Vintage Home Guyana. Interested persons can also call 6853491 or 6711737.
