Tag Archives: textiles

Pop-up Expoventa San Felipe Usila Saturday Only

Posted on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 4 Comments

Textile show and sale from San Felipe Usila

When: 1:30-4:30 pm, Saturday, March 7, 2015

Where: Las Granadas B&B, Avenida 2 de Abril #9, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

What: think Danza de la Pina — Dance of the Pineapple– at The Guelaguetza to picture what these garments look like

San Felipe Usila is a remote mountain village near Tuxtepec, about an eight-hour drive from Oaxaca. The women weave extraordinary textiles on back strap looms. I was there last October and met a talented family.

Jorge Isidro is coming with his mother, an accomplished weaver, and bringing excellent quality pieces to show our Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat participants. Because he is making such a long trip, I want to open up the opportunity to you to see and buy the work.

The sales go directly to the weaving families. Prices are reasonable because you are buying direct.

Please invite your friends and share this post to support fine indigenous Oaxaca textile culture. Thank you.

Norma H-Shafer

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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca travel, Teotitlan del Valle, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism

Tagged backstrap loom, exhibition, expoventa, folk art sale, huipil, Mexico, Oaxaca, San Felipe Usila, show, textiles, weaving

Chiapas Textile Museum: Maya Art on Cloth

Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2015 | 2 Comments

The contemporary Maya world spans political boundaries and crosses southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. Here in Chiapas there is a rich textile tradition that endures as cultural identity and pride. The Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya, The Textile Center of the Maya World, is the place to begin to see the finest examples of woven and embroidered cloth coming from throughout the Maya world.

No one comes to San Cristobal de Las Casas without buying at least one piece of handwoven cloth! We advise you come here first before you shop. That way, you will be able compare quality and price after seeing the hundreds of fine textiles on display in the museum, and then making a stop at the adjoining Sna Jolobil gallery where deep pockets help.

We were told that eighty percent of the items for sale in the Santo Domingo Church market are made by machine or imported from China. The market fills the entry area to the textile museum so the temptation is strong to forage first.

Yesterday, as I wandered this market, I did find a beautiful back strap loomed and embroidered huipil from Cancuc for about $70USD and two incredible Chenalho short blusas, also hand loomed and embroidered, for $18USD each. So, there are still bargains to be found of authentic garments if you know what you are looking for.

At the textile museum, the group from Penland School of Crafts had a private tour of the collection in English complete with an introductory video in English, too. We began to identify the designs of the cloth and embroidery with the villages where they are made. We saw the evolution of garment design with the introduction of Spanish lace and off-the-shoulder style. Many of those on exhibit are Guatemalan pieces since the cultural border is porous.

The detail work on the cloth is precise. The embroidery is exact. We sat down to a work table to create an embroidery sampler in the style of San Andres Larrainzar to better understand the textile making process. Needless to say, none of us was good enough to go into business.

One of us tried his hand at the back strap loom, and he managed to use the sheep bone pick with some ability to push back each weft thread to make a clean straight line. Then, with some heft and force, he used the shuttle to add to the tight piece of cloth. It takes three months, working five hours a day, to make a twenty-four inch wide traditional ceremonial sash, which was on the loom today.

Around the world, machinery and technology is replacing hand work. Mechanization creates precision and lower cost. What we lose is the beauty and variegation that is transmitted by the soul of the maker. This visit gave us a greater appreciation for indigenous culture, the beauty they create.

We organize small group workshop study tours for up to 10 people. If you and a group of friends or your organization wants a customized learning experience, please contact me.

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Posted in Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged art, back strap loom, Chiapas, cloth, culture, Embroidery, Maya, Mexico, Penland School of Crafts, San Cristobal de las Casas, textiles

Zinacantan Textile Flowers, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas

Posted on Friday, February 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

They speak Tzotzil here in the Maya highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. San Lorenzo Zinacantan is a village nestled in a beautiful valley about thirty minutes from San San Cristobal de Las Casas. It is a popular Sunday tourist destination combined with a visit to the mystical church at San Juan Chamula (which I will write about in another post), just ten minutes apart.

Zinacantan people yielded to the Spanish during the conquest. They enjoyed more favors and received fertile land in exchange for their loyalty. Today, the Zinacantan hillside is dotted with greenhouses where flowers grow in abundance to decorate church and home altars, and are a key part of festivals.

The village replicates these flowers in their embroidery that embellish cloth created on back strap looms. Over the years we have seen the patterns change from simple red and white striped cloth to sparkly textiles that incorporate synthetic glitzy threads of gold and silver. Much of the embroidery is now machine stitched, though the designs are guided by expert hands.

I’ve been coming to San Cristobal de Las Casas for years searching for a chal embroidered by hand to no avail. This time, Patrick, our guide took us to the home of Antonia, one of Zinacantan’s most accomplished weavers and embroiderers. Among the hundred chals (shawl or tzute) available for purchase, I found a blue one all hand embroidered. Technology is winning out over the made by hand ethos.

Identity is defined externally by the indigenous garment. Some say the Spanish imposed this upon local people in order to know where they came from and to keep them in their place. Others say the design of the garment endures because of cultural pride. The young woman above is from the village of Chenalho. I can tell because of the design of her beautiful huipil.

She is the tortilla maker at Antonia’s home, who keeps the fire going, makes us a fresh quesadilla of local cheese, cured chorizo, avocado and homemade salsa to remember the visit. Food is memory, too.

Nothing is wasted, not even the smoke. It curls up from the comal to cure the meats that hang above it. The corn is criollo, locally grown and ground by hand, pure and wholesome. Here in the shadowy adobe kitchen there is magic.

It is impossible to take photographs inside the church at Zinacantan. It is forbidden and cameras can be confiscated if you are found to violate this. Can you imagine a church altar spilling over with flowers from ceiling to floor, fresh, with an aroma of lilies, roses, gardenias and lilacs. The swirl of scent is like an infusion of incense, designed perhaps to bring one closer to god.

I organized this art and archeology study tour for Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. If you have a small group interested in coming to Oaxaca or Chiapas, please contact me. I have over 35 years experience organizing award-winning educational programs for some of America’s most respected universities.

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Posted in Clothing Design, Food & Recipes, Photography, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged art, backstrap loom, Chamula, Chiapas, course, culture, Embroidery, flowers, food, Mexico, photography, San Cristobal de las Casas, textiles, tour, weaving, workshop, Zinacantan

The Journey Begins: San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

Most of our Penland School of Crafts travelers continued on with me from Oaxaca to explore Chiapas. Our journey began at the ADO bus station where we boarded an overnight luxury bus called the Platino with twenty-five reclining seats, leaving at 8:30 p.m. and arriving in San Cristobal de Las Casas at 7:30 a.m. the next day.

Our destination, La Joya Hotel, is our base for exploring the art and archeology of the region. It’s a long and winding road! I recommend taking ginger drops in water, eating some crystallized ginger and taking a sleep aid! Hosts Ann Conway and John Do prepare a spectacular first night Thai welcome dinner after we visit Sergio Castro and his museum. Next, bed!

Chiapas vies for the title of Mexico’s poorest state along with Oaxaca. It is a sorry competition. Both states are filled with isolated mountain communities that have little access to health care, education, nutrition and employment. Rural life is tied to the land where people cultivate corn, squash and beans and weave on backstrap looms. The result is the creation of magnificent textiles, a tourist draw. Isolation has preserved tradition at a huge cost and the politics are complex.

Chiapas is rich in Maya culture filled with pre-Hispanic, indigenous folk practices blended with Spanish-introduced Catholic beliefs. Known as syncretism, we can see this in every corner of life ranging from food to textiles to religious celebrations today. The Mayan world spans southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras and her political borders are artificial and seamless.

Our expert first day guide is Patrick, fluent in English, who studied archeology and history at University of California at Berkeley, son of a Mexican mother and Irish father. His uncle was the famed Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, who mediated the peace treaty with the Zapatistas and the PRI.

We learned much from Patrick about Spanish colonialism, the cultural and political history and the life of indigenous people. One cannot visit Chiapas without putting the textiles into the context of the people who make them.

That’s why we include a visit to the Sergio Castro Museum as an introduction to Chiapas life on the first day, after a walking tour of the great pedestrian avenues of San Cristobal de Las Casas with Patrick. Much has been written about Sergio.

Sergio Castro is a hero, folk legend and medicine man who treats indigenous people who have suffered burn injuries at no cost. Donations from visitors like us help fund medicines and supplies. He has won many humanitarian awards.

We see everyday and ritual clothing. We see the skull rattle and string instrument made from gourds. We learn about the Maya language variations and the Lancandon tribe in the forest who escaped Spanish colonization.

The photos on this post include our walking tour around San Cristobal de Las Casas, and our visit with Sergio Castro to see his textile collection of the region and understand his work.

We are not guides but educators. Norma Hawthorne Shafer has spent over 35 years at major universities organizing and delivering award winning educational programs for adults. When you travel with us you can rely on getting an in-depth experience from local experts who are most knowledgeable in their fields. We can include hands-on workshops to enrich the learning experience. Our forte is developing customized programs for arts and cultural organizations like we did for Penland School of Crafts.

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Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged Bishop Samuel Ruiz, Chiapas, colonialism, culture, indigenous, language, liberation theology, Maya, Mexico, Penland School of Crafts, politics, San Cristobal de las Casas, Sergio Castro, Spain, textiles, weaving

Penland School of Crafts in Ocotlan de Morales, Oaxaca

Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2015 | 2 Comments

Our Penland School of Crafts group travels through Oaxaca arts and artisan villages this week. One destination is the regional town of Ocotlan de Morales where we met artist Rodolfo Morales through the murals he painted in the municipal building during the mid-century. These frescoes depict the rich agricultural tradition of the Ocotlan valley and honors the labor of the campesinos — the people who till, plant and harvest.

The Morales home is a treasure trove of 1930’s and 1940’s collectibles and folk art. It includes a traditional tile kitchen with walls adorned in tiny clay cooking vessels. Every room opens to a central, plant-filled patio.

The primary caretaker of the home is nephew Alberto Morales, who greeted us at the front gate and let us inside. He is also the head of the Morales Foundation that keeps the house renovated and open to the public. On our request, he generously opened the private bedroom and studio where his uncle slept and worked.

With more than an hour to explore the always diverse and culturally delicious Friday Ocotlan market tianguis …

we went off to San Antonino Castillo Velasco to visit folk art potter Jose Garcia Antonio. Jose and his family work in red clay sculpture and he is recognized as a Grand Master of Oaxaca Folk Art.

Next, a quick stop to the women’s embroidery cooperative. The quick stop became an hour-long shopping forage through the piles of gorgeous Oaxaca wedding dress style blouses and shirts, preceded by a demonstration about pattern making and stitching techniques. This coop is excellent quality with affordable prices!

Fortified by a delicious lunch at Azucenas Zapotecas at the San Martin Tilcajete crossroads, we backtracked to Santo Tomas Jalieza for a visit with Grand Master of Oaxaca Folk Art weaving family of Abigail Mendoza.

A long day, but not too long to return to enjoy a lovely dinner at Casa Crespo. I put together a tasting menu with Oscar Carrizosa made up of an array of first courses. It was just perfect.

Oaxaca Cultural Navigator organizes arts workshop study tours for groups of up to ten people. Please contact us for more information. Norma Hawthorne Shafer has over 30 years experience developing award-winning university programs.