When The Currency Of The Country You Live In,

becomes worthless, what do you do with it?

make it into something that has worth, all photographs Sergio Held/ Al Jazeera, Venezuela’s hyperinflation has made the Bolivar virtually worthless; Venezuelans that moved to Colombia commonly weave bills into bags and wallets, then sell them on the streets because they’re worth more as craft paper than as money,

this is Hector Cordero who makes wallets and purses from Venezuelan currency and sells them to tourists in Colombia,

Cordero uses about 70 notes of 100 bolivares each to handcraft a small coin purse, or 100 of the notes to make a larger wallet. A handbag can take up to 1,200 notes to produce. All in all, the artist incorporates 16 different denominations of Venezuelan currency into his crafts, He learned his technique by watching others in the streets of Caracas and by studying dozens of YouTube tutorials uploaded by fellow Venezuelans to teach people how to make what has become known as origami venezolano, “When I run out of bolivares, my brother goes to Venezuela and brings more notes,” Cordero said. “People have a lot of these notes and we buy them. We give them what they ask for.” He explained that people in Venezuela exchange unworthy bolivares by the weight for other forms of currency – usually United States dollars – or for food, I hope for him and countless other millions of people, tourist can start to arrive back everywhere soon.