On our textile study tour to Tenancingo de Degollado, Estado de Mexico (State of Mexico) we met ikat rebozo weavers, called reboceros, who use up to 6,400 cotton warp threads on a back strap loom.
Evaristo Borboa, grand master of Mexican folk art, weaves on a back strap loom
About 3,000 to 5,000 cotton warp threads are used on the fixed frame pedal floor loom.
Rebozo weaver Gabriel Perez at his floor loom
The technology is simple. The fabric created is complex.
The floor loom is faster. Weavers can produce a rebozo in about a week using this loom. It takes three months or more to make a rebozo on the back strap loom.
Weaver Jesus Zarate defies imagination with his ikat butterfly design
Because fewer warp threads are used on the floor loom, the cotton threads can be thicker and the finished cloth might be coarser.
A weaver’s took kit
As you might imagine, the cost for a rebozo made on a back strap loom is much more than one woven on a pedal loom. Except for the rebozos woven by Jesus Zarate! What do rebozos cost? From 400 to 16,000 pesos.
Bits and pieces of supplies that might be needed for dyeing
Would you work six months to earn $800 USD?
The pattern can be more blurred and not as detailed as those created on the back strap loom. Except for the rebozos woven by Jesus Zarate!
Fermin Escobar marks stiff bundles of thread with ink to make a pattern
There are fourteen different steps required to make an ikat rebozo. The most difficult and time-consuming part is the preparation of the threads before they are dressed on the loom.
Threads are soaked in starch to dry and stiffen before marking.
Ikat pattern markers are coated with ink, rolled along stiffened cords.
The weavers we met all repeated that the actual weaving is the simplest part of the process.
Weavers throw hardwood bobbins between the warp sheds to make the weft
Dipping the yarn into the starch to stiffen it
A better view of the pattern marked on the stiff cotton cords
Separating the cords so they dry evenly
Each mark must be hand tied to create the dye resist
Once the cords are marked in ink with the pattern, each mark is hand tied. The cloth will then be dipped in the dye bath. It is then washed and dried. The knots are cut and the pattern emerges on the warp thread, ready to be threaded on the loom.
Mexicans innovate and cobble together materials to keep things running
For rebozos with multiple colors, they can be hand-dipped in the dye pot or the part that is already colored will be tied off so it does not absorb the new color.
Over 4,000 warp threads pass through the hettles of these looms
The loom might be considered low technology, but it is a complex system for making cloth. Today, industrial cloth is made totally by machine. We are interested in the hand-made process.
Bobbin making system — a bicycle wheel
Making ikat for a rebozo on the pedal loom
One of Evaristo’s beautiful blue ikat shawls in blue, finely detailed
The enpuntadora hand ties each knot to create fringe, the finishing touch
Knotting the rebozo can take equally as long as weaving it — three months or more, depending on intricacy. We know one enpuntadora who takes a year to tie a complex fringe.
The fringe must equal or exceed the beauty of the shawl
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