Think Spring! 13 San Juan Colorado, Oaxaca Huipiles by Brisaida for You

SOLD OUT! Thanks to all for your support.

Brisaida is one of my favorite weavers from San Juan Colorado, on Oaxaca’s Costa Chica, that stretch of land along the Pacific Coast extending from Puerto Escondido north to Acapulco. We visit her on our Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour. She contacted me last week to appeal for help. She has some amazing huipiles and blusas available for sale. I said, sure, I’ll help you! Finding buyers for extraordinary work is the biggest challenge that indigenous weavers face. Most speak only a native language and without Spanish, markets elude them and they depend on middlemen who often pay less than the value of a textile and the work women put into making them.

Whatever sells in the next 10 days, Brisaida will package up and ship to me. This takes about a week to arrive in Taos. I’ll then package up what you choose and mail to you. I’d like to receive all that sells in one bundle to minimize shipping cost. So, please make your selections by April 28. Thank you.

We have 13 amazing pieces to offer you. They are all hand-woven on the back-strap loom, created from naturally dyed cotton. Dyes include Brazilwood, mahogany bark, raw and fermented indigo, guava, iron oxide, and wild marigold. Much of the cotton threads are hand-spun on the malacate (drop spindle) from locally sourced native cotton, grown since pre-Hispanic times. What you are purchasing is a piece of art! In doing so, you support a woman from a small indigenous community who has little opportunity to sell her work. Women here struggle to support their families with cash income when the men in their families are subsistence farmers who have no commercial outlet for their produce — everyone here grows corn, beans, and squash to feed their kin — when men stay! Most have left for employment in larger Mexican cities or risk their lives to go to El Norte with a coyote ($3-4,000 USD cost) to enter the USA as undocumented labor. It’s not an easy life. We have an opportunity to help!

How to Buy: Send an email to norma.schafer@icloud.com and tell me the item(s) you want to purchase by number, your email, your mailing address, your phone number, and which payment method you prefer: 1) Zelle bank transfer with no service fee; 2) Venmo or 3) PayPal each with a 3.3% service fee. Please send me your account name or number! I will send you a request for funds and then add on a $14 mailing fee. Happy to combine shipping if you buy more than one piece. These are one-of-a-kind. Note: Thank you for understanding that all sales are final. Please measure carefully.

SOLD. #1. Mahogany and raw indigo. Raw indigo has not been fermented. The leaves are rubbed on the cotton to give us a lovely fresh green color. 42″ long x 28″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD 2. Rainbow of natural colors with indigo and wild marigold brocade* embellished with hearts. 42″ long x 31″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD #3. Mahogany bark, guava, iron oxide and Brazilwood. 38″ long x 31″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD. #4. Pinole seeds and bark with indigo. 43″ long x 30″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD. #5. Mahogany, indigo, and natural white cotton. 34″ long x 30″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD. 6. Mahogany, iron oxide, and natural white. 34″ long x 30″ wide. $345 plus mailing.

SOLD. #7 Guava, Brazilwood, and natural white. 35″ long x 28″ wide. $298 plus mailing.

SOLD. #8. Subtle rainbow base cloth with indigo, mahogany, and white brocade. 34″ long x 29″ wide. $298 plus mailing.

SOLD. #9. Raw indigo and multi-color base cloth with multi-colored bordado. 32″ long x 29″ wide. $298 plus mailing.

SOLD. #10. Wild marigold, indigo, and mahogany. 29″ long x 26″ wide. $275 plus mailing.

SOLD. 11. Brazilwood, indigo and natural white. 26″ long x 29″ wide. $255 plus mailing.

SOLD. 12. Rainbow Rayas. 26″ long x 25″ wide. $245 plus mailing.

SOLD. #13. Brazilwood. 30″ long x 25″ wide. $245 plus mailing.

Care Instructions: Hand wash with a mild soap (Fels Naptha or Zote — do not use Woolite) and hang to dry. Press with a warm iron, if desired.

*About the Cloth: The cotton threads may have been grown locally, cleaned, beaten to smooth the fibers, and then hand-spun using the malacate (drop spindle). Weavers also use top quality, fine Omega thread sourced from the last cotton mill in Puebla, Mexico, and then dyed at home with local plants. The designs and patterns embellished in the cloth are made with the brocade (bordado) technique of adding threads into the woven cloth using the supplementary weft technique. These garments are perfect for spring, summer and fall, or layer them over an insulated T-shirt for winter dressing to add color to your life during the dark days. The pieces range from medium weight to gauze weave, giving us cloth that is breathable and luxurious for warm and hot weather.

Meet Brisaida. She is in her 30’s. I’m with her in San Juan Colorado in late January. Yes, she wove what I’m wearing and of course, it’s now part of my collection! Brisaida embodies the heritage of many Mexican women along the coast whose heritage stems from indigenous Mixtec roots mixed with the Afro-Mexican slave experience and their quest for freedom beyond the mines, sugar cane fields of Veracruz, and entrapment.