Guest Post: Thanksgiving Sale for Oaxaca Coast Textile Artisans
Most of us have made the difficult choice to NOT travel to Oaxaca at least until the pandemic is under control and a vaccine is readily available. I have heard from many people asking what we can do, absent of travel, to support indigenous artisans who have been VERY hard hit by the tourist economy […]
Vintage Tech: Tyrian Purple — Caracol Purpura on Oaxaca’s Coast
Writer Alex Szerlip came with us on the 2019 Oaxaca Coast textile tour to investigate and write about the purple snail dye that is on the verge of extinction. While she already knew so much in advance, we took her to the source: the Mixtec village of Pinotepa de Don Luis to meet the few […]
Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour 2020
Arrive on Saturday, January 18 and depart on Monday, January 27, 2020 — 9 nights, 10 days in textile heaven! Trip is limited to 11 participants. 7 spaces open. Cost is $2,795 per person shared room or $3,295 per person for private room. See details and itinerary below. This entire study tour is focused on […]
Purple Snail Dye, Pinotepa de Don Luis and Identity Markers
The caracol purpura is losing ground and so are the tintoreros, the dyers who milk them, applying the dye directly to the cotton cloth on the rocky Oaxaca coast to give up its extraordinary purple color, keeping the mollusk alive. The dyers, led by 78 year-old Don Habacuc Avedano, come from the Mixtec town of […]
Dye from Murex Snails Colors Ancient Cloth Blue and Purple
Writing from Santa Fe, NM: I’m staying at the house of my textile designer friend Norma Cross, who creates felted fiber clothing using natural dyes, wool, silk, and cotton. I brought with me a shirt made on the Oaxaca coast with threads colored purple from the caracol purpura dye. That led her to send me this […]
2019 Oaxaca Textile Study Tour: San Mateo del Mar and the Purple Snail
Saturday, January 5 to Thursday, January 10, 2019 — Six days, five nights immersed in the weaving and natural dyeing culture of Oaxaca’s southern coast. You can take this short-course independently or add it on to the front end of our Costa Chica study tour. Itinerary Saturday, January 5, arrive in Huatulco on Oaxaca’s mid-coast. […]
Reviving Lost Textile Traditions in Tututepec, Oaxaca on the Costa Chica
Villa de Tutupec de Melchor Ocampo is a mountain town above the Pacific Ocean on Oaxaca’s Costa Chica. During our recent Oaxaca Textile Study Tour: Valley and Coast, we spent almost a complete day there immersed in the region’s cultural history. Tututepec is tucked into the fold of a mountain that overlooks the Pacific coast and […]
Sunset in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico
My internet connection is funky and while I wanted to publish a post today about our Oaxaca Textile Study Tour trip to the mountain village of San Juan Colorado, it may not happen. The photo download is not cooperating. So in lieu of hand-spun green, brown coyuche and creamy white native cotton, I’m going to […]