Oaxaca Rugs in Philadelphia, Pa.
Omar Chavez Santiago from Galeria Fe y Lola in Oaxaca is traveling with me to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the end of the week to start a series of rug exhibitions, sales and natural dye demonstrations. Events start on Saturday, October 27, 2018. We hope if you live in the region you can stop by. On […]
Mexico Trunk Show Going to Asheville, Last Day in Durham, North Carolina
INDIO Durham — Final Day Today, 1-5 pm We have had a successful show at INDIO Durham, thanks to owner Wendy Sease and our many NC friends. This is our last day, so if you live around the NC Triangle please stop by to say hello. We have many beautiful things to show you. We […]
Oaxaca Textile Marketplace: Shades of Gray
As I prepare to return to Mexico on November 16, I’m taking another sweep through my trunks, storage boxes, closet and drawers to offer for sale the pieces that I have collected, never worn or used. Perhaps there is a treasure here that would be a perfect addition to your home, wardrobe, or gifted to […]
Who Made My Clothes? Digging Deeper Into Fashion and Consumption
Who Made My Clothes? is a program of the Fashion Revolution. I’ve been following them and its co-founder Carry Somers since she came to Oaxaca in February 2016 to take one of my natural dye and weaving textile excursions. I introduced her to some of the weavers who make my clothes and the rugs that […]
No Plan to Live in Mexico: How I Got Here
The best plan might be NOT to have a plan. I spent my working life doing goals and objectives, setting annual plans and then evaluating whether I met those targets. They became part of my annual performance review. Yet, the serendipity of how my personal life progressed was never a conscious decision. Sometimes I felt […]
Women Weavers’ Cooperative Vida Nueva, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca: Part Two
This post continues the narrative about women weavers in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. See Part One for my introduction. Honoring Mother’s Day: For all women who gave and received life! *** Vida Nueva (“New Life”) Cooperative at the International Folk Art Market Twenty years ago, Vida Nueva cooperative was founded by six single women from […]
Natural Dyes and Indigo Blue Easter Eggs
I’ve never seen dyed Easter eggs here in Oaxaca, but perhaps someone could correct me if I just haven’t noticed them. Yet, here we are in the world of natural dyes. My personal favorite is indigo blue. So, when this post from Improvised Life came to my inbox this morning, I felt compelled to share […]
Oaxaca, Mexico: Source for Natural Dye Textiles
It’s an ongoing discovery. Finding the weavers who work with natural dyes. They live and work in humble homes or grander casas, on back alleys, dirt streets, cobbled avenues, main highways, hillsides and flat-lands. Their studios are filled with the aroma and sights of natural materials — stinky indigo dye vats, wood burning fires, prickly […]
Travel Oaxaca’s Natural Dye Textiles + Weaving Trail: One-Day Study Tour
We introduce you to weavers of wool, cotton and silk who work with organic natural dyes. This one-day educational study tour gives you in-depth knowledge about the artisanal process for making hand-woven cloth using sustainable technologies. We visit home studios and workshops to meet some of Oaxaca’s outstanding weavers in this curated day trip. See […]
Travel for Texture and Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshop
Natalie and her mother Olga traveled north from Guatemala, through Chiapas and came to Oaxaca to take a natural dye workshop with Taller Teñido Natural. We scheduled a two-day program for them to go deep into Oaxaca’s traditions for using natural plant materials, including indigo, fustic and wild marigold plus the cochineal bug to create […]
Looking for Secundino and His Textiles, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
On Monday around noon, I pick up Ester at her brick bungalow nestled under the shadow of Picacho, Teotitlan’s holy mountain. We drive down the cobbled hill, across the small bridge over the Rio Grande, now a trickle in the dry season, to get Janet, an expat friend who lives here during the winter months. […]
Oaxaca Weaving: The Flying Shuttle Loom
The flying shuttle loom is a European innovation brought to Oaxaca, Mexico, with the Industrial Revolution. It joins the back-strap loom and the fixed frame two-harness pedal loom as one of the major three weaving technologies still widely used in Oaxaca today. The advantage of the flying shuttle loom is that it can create […]
Basket Weaving Circle in Rug Weaving Village Draws Crowd
Beyond the stream they call the Rio Grande here, the women gather in a circle around the pine-shaded, packed dirt courtyard outside of Ernestina’s house. They are learning how to weave with another sort of material, not the usual hand-spun wool that is traditional for Teotitlan del Valle, the famed rug weaving village. They are […]
Natural Dye Workshop Yields Glorious, Colorfast Textiles
Working with natural dyes like cochineal that yield red, indigo blue, wild marigold (pericone) and fustic to give us yellow, is like being a pastry chef and following a recipe. It helps to know a little chemistry or have a willingness to learn. Eric Chavez Santiago and Elsa Sanchez Diaz, Mexico’s most knowledgeable natural dye […]
Color Intensity of Natural Dyes from Oaxaca Sources
Today I changed the banner of the blog to give you a picture of the range of intense colors we got from the natural dye workshop we just completed with Eric Chavez Santiago. Eric is one of Mexico’s most knowledgeable dye masters and his techniques include how to extract the color without wasting it. We […]
Oaxaca Natural Dye Secrets — 3-Day Fiber Arts Textile Workshop
Roll up your sleeves to learn the secrets of natural dyes. Oaxaca is famous for cochineal and indigo natural dyes, plus many others. January 2014 January 10, 11, 12, 2014 (arrive January 9) March 2014 March 13, 14, 15 (arrive March 12) Indigenous Mexican weavers also work with pecan shells […]
Big Oaxaca Rug Sale at Fiber Fiesta, May 17–Siler City, NC
Mark Your Calendar! Oaxaca Cultural Navigator’s Big Folk Art and Textile Sale in historic downtown Siler City, NC at Fiber Fiesta, Friday, May 17, 6:00-9:00 p.m. I have a stash of naturally dyed, hand-woven rugs from the Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca weaving studio of Federico Chavez Sosa and his wife Dolores Santiago Arrellanas. Spread the Word. […]
Workshop To Dye For: Cochineal, Indigo, Wild Marigold
It is a 10-hour day working together to dye the merino wool roving we are using for our Felted Fashion Workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico. Long, but satisfying. Our textile dye master is Eric Chavez Santiago who is also the education director at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. The colors we get are magnificent. We gather […]
Day of the Dead Exhibit at Duke University with Photos, Chavez Santiago Talk + Rug Sale
Map to Friedl Bldg/Duke University http://maps-test.oit.duke.edu/building/138 October 2, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Duke University is the ONLY North Carolina presentation/sale of Chavez Santiago family rugs. Eric Chavez Santiago is director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, a weaver and expert in developing and using natural dyes. Janet Chavez Santiago is a linguist and education […]
Making Indigo Dye in Santiago Niltepec, Oaxaca
The market for organic indigo dye is making a come-back in Oaxaca as more textile artists and weavers are choosing to work with the natural plant material. Today, the state of Oaxaca produces about 100 kilograms of añil or indigo each year. Up until about three years ago, the indigo dye making process had almost died […]
Oaxaca Organic Indigo Blue Dye — Añil or Teñido de Reserva
Indigo blue color is derived from an organic botanical plant that grows on the coast of Oaxaca in the village of Santiago Niltepec near Tehuantepec on the Isthmus. Do you hear the añil in the name? It takes 200 kilograms of plant material to end up with 1 kilogram of the hardened rock of blue […]
Oaxaca Collectible Textiles Sale, February 4, 2012
If you are in Oaxaca on February 4, 2012, don’t miss this spectacular sale of collectible textiles. Several well-known Norteñas who have lived in Oaxaca for many years are downsizing and editing their collections, including Mary Jane Gagnier who is a book author and formerly married to weaver Arnulfo Mendoza. If I wasn’t going to […]
In The New York Times: Oaxaca Cultural Navigator
Que milagro! The New York Times features Oaxaca Cultural Navigator in its 36 Hours: Oaxaca, Mexico article written by travel writer Freda Moon. The Travel section story on Oaxaca, the first to be published about the city since 2007, appeared in today’s online New York Times. It will appear in print this Sunday, January 15, […]
Oaxaca Weaver-Musician Keeps the Traditions
Secundino Bazan Mendoza began weaving at age 13, his daughter Ester Bazan Contreras recalls. It could have been earlier, but Ester is certain he learned from his uncle who took him in at age 6 when his mother died. Secundino is now almost 85 years old. For the past 53 years he has served the […]
Video: Mexican Rug Designs from Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
In the spirit of my own continuing education, I went to the Apple Store last night for a tutorial about how to make an iMovie using my photographs. My computer is storing over 6,000 photos — many of which are published on this site. I learned the basics and am now experimenting, so hopefully, over […]
Manta Cotton: Handwoven in Oaxaca, Mexico
I’ve been getting quite a few inquiries lately about whether Manta cotton is still being woven in Mexico and if it is available with natural dyes. What is Manta cotton? It is 100% natural unbleached cotton also known as “cotton crudo” or “wild cotton” or organic cotton. Typically it is used to make men’s shirts, […]
Film Review: Woven Lives—Contemporary Textiles from Ancient Oaxacan Traditions
This documentary film is a visual feast for the senses that takes us on a sensory journey across Oaxaca, Mexico. Here we meet the exemplars – the outstanding artists, artisans, and curators who are keeping the weaving traditions alive. This film captures sense of place, history, culture, and diversity. It creates a vital thread from […]
Dos Perros, Durham, NC, Mexican Restaurant Oaxaca Rug Decor
Durham, NC is the destination for dining, named among the top 10 locales in the U.S. for great restaurants and urban redesign. The downtown is renewed, gentrified and electrified. It is more than charming. It is full of spunk and sizzle. Turn the corner, discover another great dining room and bar with kick-A ambience. One of […]
Woven Lives/Vidas Entretejidas Movie Trailer — Public Premiere Coming April 23, 2011
Carolyn Kallenborn wrote to me today about the progress she is making to distribute the final cut of her film about Oaxaca weavers, “Woven Lives/Vidas Entretejidos.” I want to share her update with you and provide the link to the movie trailer on YouTube. The film features six weavers, one of whom is our dear […]
Woven Lives Movie — Vidas Entretejidas — The Best of Oaxaca Weavers and Their Textiles
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty member and textile artist Carolyn Kallenborn is in the final stages of completing the subtitles of the documentary film she has produced called “Woven Lives.” It features six extraordinary weavers from the state of Oaxaca who exemplify the best of contemporary weaving that has evolved over centuries. Their work is rooted […]