The Social Justice of Textiles
Many of us find comfort in the handmade. We know that most handwoven, embroidered, appliqued, and other ornamental elements of cloth are made by women, many of whom live in rural areas that struggle with poverty, lack of access to health care and limited educational facilities. We buy, collect, wear handmade not only for its […]
Omar’s Discovery Tour: A First Visit to the USA
Omar Chavez Santiago is twenty-four years old. He is a weaver and natural dyer from Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. Last year, he graduated with a degree in industrial engineering after studying for four years at Anahuac University in Oaxaca. He is at a cross-roads. Does he pursue a professional engineering career and move to […]
Making PomPoms in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas
Wandering around San Cristobal de Las Casas last week I discovered Punto y Trama, on Belisario Dominguez #13b, just two blocks off the Andador Real de Guadalupe walking street. What drew me in was the sign on the door that announced PomPom workshops. Then, once inside I immediately noticed the furry wool Chamula woven shawls adorned […]
Cultural Meaning in Magdalenas Aldama: Chiapas Textile Study Tour
Magdalenas Aldama is an hour-and-a-half from San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, on a winding road deep into the mountains beyond San Juan Chamula. Its isolation is protection from the forces of modernization. The Spanish had difficulty getting there to evangelize. Traditions run deep and strong. Being remote is a double-edge sword. It guarantees lack […]
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 […]
Beating Wild Cotton on the Oaxaca Costa Chica
We’ve been traveling on Oaxaca’s Costa Chica for the past four days. This is the stretch of territory that starts at Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Ocean and goes north to Acapulco along Mexico’s Highway 200. A highlight of our 12-day Oaxaca Textile Study Tour that started in the central valleys of Oaxaca, was a […]
Chiapas Notebook: Tenejapa Textiles and Thursday Market
Tenejapa, Chiapas is a regional center in the highlands of Chiapas about an hour- and-a-half beyond San Cristobal de las Casas. It’s a regional administrative center, about midway between the city and the remote village of Cancuc, past Romerillo. Most roads splay out from San Cristobal like spikes on a wheel hub, dead-ending down a canyon […]
Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshop, Day One: Prep to Make 32 Colors
For three days I am immersed in natural dyes with Elsa Sanchez Diaz who teaches our Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshops through Oaxaca Cultural Navigator. We make 32 different colors starting with a base of gray and white natural wool. The natural plant and vegetable materials we dye with include palo de brazil (Brazilwood), nogal (walnut), cochineal (the […]
2017 Mexico Textiles and Folk Art Study Tour: Tenancingo Rebozos + More
This study tour is designed as an intensive personal learning experience. Here in Tenancingo de Degollado and beyond, you will meet artisans in their homes and workshops, understand family traditions and culture, and help honor and preserve craft. Tenancingo de Degollado, Estado de Mexico (Edomex), is the source for handwoven ikat rebozos or shawls made on […]
Pueblo Magico Malinalco, Mexico: Rebozos Are Here, Too
Now I’m back in Oaxaca after a whirlwind nine-day folk art study tour featuring the ikat rebozos of the State of Mexico (Estado de Mexico). Rather than cover a range of territory, I like to stay put and go deep. So, we spent the week meeting the people who weave rebozos and tie the elaborate […]
Handmade Basket Fair, San Juan Guelavia, January 31-February 7, 2016
Each year, the traditional Zapotec village of San Juan Guelavia showcases its handmade baskets made from strips of river reed, called carrizo in Spanish. (Thanks, Christopher Hodge for this tidbit of clarification. Carrizo is not bamboo!) This is another artisanal weaving tradition in the Tlacolula valley. If you are on your way to the Tlacolula […]
Visiting the Oaxaca Wool Mill: Lanera de Ocotlan
In 1996 Englishman Graham Johnson came to Ocotlan de Morelos from Mexico City to open a woolen mill. The mill was designed to streamline the production process for making yarn and weaving cloth from local churro sheep wool* without sacrificing quality. Graham was a tinkerer. He loved machinery, especially the old carding and spinning […]
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 […]
Felt Fashion Workshop: Oaxaca Style Art To Wear
We’ve invited Jessica de Haas back to teach this popular workshop again in 2014. Here is your chance to escape winter, roll up your sleeves and make an extraordinary felted wool garment that will bring ooh’s and aah’s. For seven nights and eight days, from January 30 to February 6, you will experience the textile […]
Indigo Blue, Color of Kings: Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshop
If you are looking for hands-on instruction, a cultural immersion into natural dyes of Oaxaca, and would love to have an experience learning from the Museo Textil de Oaxaca’s director of education Eric Chavez Santiago, please contact me. We organize programs for museums, textile guilds, fiber artists, designers and anyone wanting to know more about hand-dyeing with […]
Omar’s Hat: Spinning and Knitting Hand-Dyed Wool Roving in Oaxaca
Knitting IMHO is a form of weaving, so I fit right into Teotitlan del Valle where weaving is the culture. Fiber and textile artists tend to experiment with different forms of the art. But first, a bit about the wool. This is 100% super wash merino roving with a 23u top that I bought from […]
Happy Holidays, Discounts and Taking a Break
Felices fiestas de la temporada: Hanukkah feliz, feliz Navidad y feliz Año Nuevo. Happy celebrations of the season! I am in Santa Cruz, California now and will have lunch today with Debbie Mayfield and Bella Jacque, two Day of the Dead Photography Expedition participants. Bella is coming back to Oaxaca in February with her sister to […]
Young Oaxaca Weavers Honored and Encouraged
Faye Sims, a textile friend from Salt Spring Island, Vancouver, BC shared a blog story today about the new exhibition at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca and I wanted to pass the gist of it on to you! The story refers to Eric Chavez Santiago, our close family friend and we are incredibly proud of […]
Felted Fashion Workshop: Making Wearable Art Oaxaca Style with Wool, Silk and Cotton
For hands-on fun, escape winter and come to Oaxaca from February 2 until February 9, 2013. Together, during this one-week workshop, we will be immersed in the textile culture of Oaxaca to create naturally-dyed felted fabric combining wool, silk and cotton that can be hand or machine stitched into an indigenous clothing design of your choice. Our […]
How to Make a Wool Felt Flower
Making a flower out of felted wool fiber is a simple art process that I learned during a workshop with Jessica de Haas, Canadian clothing designer, at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. No one else wanted to cut into their handmade felt cloth, but I took scissors in hand and cut away. Here was my reward! Felted […]
How to Felt Wool: For Beginners
Ten women gathered together at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca for a felting workshop with Jessica de Haas from Vancouver, Canada. All but one of us were raw beginners. I had knitted and then agitated my wool in a washing machine, but Jessica was quick to say this is NOT felting. Rather it is called […]
Lost Textile Tradition of Making Needle Lace Revived in Oaxaca
The town of Tlacolula de Matamoros, Oaxaca, is widely known for its Sunday market or tianguis. Tourists and villagers from throughout the region flock there to shop, eat or stock up on whatever is needed for home or workshop. Visitors know little about the textile traditions of Tlacolula, where up until the 1960’s cotton and […]
Curandero Sergio Castro Preserves Chiapas Textile Traditions
Behind a tall wooden gate about six blocks from the Zocalo at #38 Guadalupe Victoria is the Museo de Trajes Regionales. The private collection of traditional indigenous dress is an inspiration of Sergio Castro Martinez, a former Chiapas state senator (2000-2003), engineer and lay healer. Señor Castro gives personal guided visits in French, English, Spanish […]
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 […]
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 […]
International Surface Design Association Conference Features Oaxaca Weaver Tito Mendoza
Tito Mendoza Ruiz uses a traditional Saltillo-style tapestry weaving technique that employs 22 threads per inch to create his very intricate and detailed work. He is one of the weavers, along with Federico Chavez Sosa, featured in Carolyn Kallenborn’s documentary film, “Woven Lives.” Tito’s work and Carolyn’s film are showing at the 2011 International Surface Design […]