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 […]
Felting Wool at Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Textiles and fiber arts are the primary reason I landed in Oaxaca. It started years ago when I learned to weave in San Francisco, California. Now that I am here in Mexico almost full-time, I get to take advantage of the great workshops at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca organized by education director Eric Chavez […]
Book Review: Weaving, Culture and Economic Development in Miramar, Oaxaca, Mexico
Book: Weaving Yarn, Weaving Culture, Weaving Lives: A Circle of Women in Miramar, Oaxaca, Mexico; published by Almadia, 2010; photography by Tom Feher, text by Judith Lockhart-Radtke; ISBN: 978-607-411-059-3 Book Review by Norma Hawthorne Stunning photographs and intimate personal interviews of indigenous Mixtec women weavers accentuate what it means to keep culture, community, and weaving […]
Oaxaca and Family Travel
A reader just wrote to me with the following questions: Is Oaxaca safe for families? and What do we do once we get there? I think you will find Oaxaca a very welcoming place for families. A friend, her husband and two pre-teens lived in Oaxaca for a year “on sabbatical” to have a different […]
It’s a Rainy Day in Oaxaca
The canvas roof that covers the courtyard of La Provincia hotel (Calle Porfirio Diaz #108) is a symphony of raindrops. It is pouring, and the forecast is rain for the next two days. This means that our plans to go to Monte Alban and Atzompa today may not materialize. We shall see. First, a moment […]
Guatemala Textiles at Museo Textil de Oaxaca
The latest exhibition at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca features traditional textiles from the Chichicastenango region of Guatemala, where weaving has been an artform since before the Spanish conquest. This Ki-che Maya region has produced some of the most spectacular handwork of anywhere in the world. Despite centuries of oppression, poverty, and near extermination (having […]
Wefts of Sea and Wind: The Textiles of Francisca Palafox — Textile Museum of Oaxaca Opening
TRAMAS DE MAR Y VIENTO: LOS TEXTILES DE FRANCISCA PALAFOX What: Opening Host: Museo Textil de Oaxaca Start Time: Saturday, August 22 at 7:00pm End Time: Saturday, August 22 at 9:00pm Where: Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Corner Hidalgo & Fiallo, Centro Historico WEFTS OF SEA AND WIND: THE TEXTILES OF FRANCISCA PALAFOX Ikoot women from […]
They Speak Huave Here: A Day in San Mateo del Mar
It is difficult to hear Francisca Palafox Herran speak over the sound of the wind. She is the weaver, one of the last of the great Huave backstrap loom artisans, who we have come here to interview in her home village of San Mateo del Mar, on the southern coast of Oaxaca beyond Salina Cruz. […]
Backstrap Loom Weaving of Oaxaca
Nicolasa Pascual is a weaver from San Bartolo Yautepec, Oaxaca. Her work is considered to be the best and finest example of Oaxaca weaving. She uses the backstrap loom, with cotton- warp and weft, synthetic dyes, 1 heddle rod, about 35 ends/threads per inch, plain weave + supplementary weft weave technique. You can see Nicolasa […]
Patchwork Quilt Workshop Photos: Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Expo & Sale of Natural Dyed Silk Textiles @ Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Wednesday-Sunday, June 17-21, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free admission. The silk weavers of San Pedro and San Miguel Cajonos demonstrate traditional methods of dyeing handspun silk using natural plant materials and cochineal. Come watch this ancient and magical process. They will offer beautiful silk rebozos for sale, too.
This Week: Workshops & Events at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Here is a note to me from Eric Chavez Santiago, director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca describing all the exciting programs coming up at the museum in the next week. June 8, 2009, Oaxaca, Mexico Hola, Norma, This week we have many things going on at the museum. I will be teaching […]
Museo Textil de Oaxaca June 2009 Events Calendar
Patchwork Quilt Workshop, June 17-20, 2009 at Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Sam Robbins is the featured visiting artist at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca this June when she will be teaching a patchwork quiltmaking workshop from June 17-20, from 4-7:30 p.m. each day. The cost is $350 pesos or approximately $32 USD per person. The cost includes all materials. Sam teaches art and photography at New […]
To Weave a Rainbow: Natural Dyes of the World
New exhibition at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, May 23 to October 5, 2009: Exhibition Notes In 1856, an 18 year-old English chemistry student by the name of William Henry Perkin worked away in the laboratory during the Easter holidays trying to find a way to produce quinine from coal. That plant-derived compound was the […]
Tenidos de Reserva Taller — Bound Resist Natural Dye Workshop
Carolyn Kallenborn worked with Eric Chavez Santiago, director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca to offer a natural dye workshop in the technique of bound resist or “tenido de reserva.” Attendees included indigenous weavers, artists and expatriates from the U.S. and Canada who live in Oaxaca. Carolyn is assistant professor at the […]
December 2009 Happenings! Oaxaca Textile Museum.
Reciban un cordial Saludo. Estas son las actividades en el MTO para el mes de Diciembre, espero nos puedan acompañar. Información, comentarios y/o inscripciones favor de comunicarse a [email protected] , [email protected] o Tel. 501 1104- ext. 104. Greetings! Here are December 2009 Museo Textil de Oaxaca (MTO) activities for your information. If you have comments […]
Weavers from Oaxaca exhibit in North Carolina
Pittsboro, NC – Textile artists, brother and sister Eric and Janet Chavez Santiago, from the village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, will present weaving and natural dyeing lectures, demonstrations, exhibitions and workshops in Siler City and Pittsboro during a 3-week artists residency starting Oct. 1, 2008. Over nine programs are scheduled, made possible through […]
Pita: The Silk of the Pineapple Leaf
The pita (pee-tah) I am referring to is NOT the middle eastern flat bread that most of us are familiar with. It is the fiber produced from the pineapple leaf after it is pounded, smashed, torn into long strips, soaked and washed, dried, then used for weaving, crocheting and embroidery. It has the look, texture, […]
Museo Textil de Oaxaca: July 2008
“From Mitla to Sumatra” is on exhibit at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca through early August. It is an extraordinary display of weaving from Oaxaca and her surrounding villages, plus similar designs that are prevalent in Indonesia, Africa, and China. Alejandro de Avila, the exhibition curator, has subtitled the grouping, “the art of the fret.” […]
From Mitla to Sumatra: The Art of the Woven Fret
THIS is Oaxaca! The colors and graphics alone of this brochure singularly depict the vibrancy and energy of Oaxaca life and art. The opening exhibit at the new Museo Textil de Oaxaca explores the pattern of the fret or greca as a universal textile design used around the globe, from southern Mexico to Indonesia. There […]
Weaving With Feathers!
I can’t wait to get back to Oaxaca! Just a few more weeks until we arrive on June 25. I want to see our casita construction progress AND I want to see the new textile museum. Eric reports that this Saturday there will be a “by invitation only” workshop about weaving fibers with feathers for […]
Letter From Eric, May 31, 2008
I have been at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca for only for 2 weeks and I am still trying to understand and learn the complexities of the job. I had a group of 9 year old kids today to test the workshop I proposed. Mexican kids are very different from those in America. They were […]
Eric’s New Job: Museo Textil de Oaxaca
We’re really excited! Today Eric Chavez Santiago started a new job — coordinator of educational services — at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, the new Oaxaca City museum funded by Alfredo Harp Elu, the Banamex philanthropist and relative of chanteuse Susanna Harp. Un milagro, one might say. But talent, perseverance, intelligence and understanding of textiles […]