Tag Archives: shawl

San Juan del Rio, Oaxaca: Mezcal on the Mountain

We didn’t start out planning a trip to San Juan del Rio, Oaxaca. It just happened as we moved into the day. Friend Sheri Brautigam, textile designer, collector and Living Textiles of Mexico blogger, is visiting me. After a roundabout through the Teotitlan del Valle morning market, we headed out to San Pablo Villa de Mitla to visit master flying shuttle loom weaver Arturo Hernandez.

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Don Arturo creates fine ikat wool shawls and scarves colored with natural dyes, including cochineal, indigo, wild marigold and zapote negro (wild black persimmon).  Sheri knew him from the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market where he exhibited in summer 2014.  I’ve known him for years through my friend Eric Chavez Santiago, education director at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. So, of course, we couldn’t help ourselves and new rebozos made it into our collections.

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It was only eleven in the morning. I asked Don Arturo if he knew the village of San Juan del Rio, where some of Oaxaca’s finest mezcal is produced and sold under private label. He said, Yes, it’s only about forty-five minutes from here.

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I looked at Sheri, she looked at me. We said, Let’s go. I invited Don Arturo to come with us and he said Yes, once more. A native Zapotec speaker, we were lucky to have him with us. He helped find our way!

About Mezcal: The agave piña or pineapple is dug up out of the ground at maturity (seven to twelves years of field growth) and taken to the distillery, where it is roasted over a wood fired, rock-lined pit.  That’s what gives it a smokey flavor. It’s then crushed to yield the liquid that becomes mezcal. Good mezcal goes through two distillations.

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Years ago, Sheri  worked with a seamstress embroiderer Alma Teresa who lives in San Juan del Rio. Sheri designs gorgeous quechquemitls and Teresa crochets the pieces together. To reconnect with her was another reason to go.  Notice Teresa’s blouse and jacket, with the elaborate crochet trim. Seems like some of the most fun days in Oaxaca start with no particular plan.

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We headed out toward Hierve del Agua but made a left turn onto a winding road that soon became unpaved dirt, rough from recent rains. It took a good hour plus to get there from Mitla.  The road ends at the picturesque village, tucked away in a river valley. Houses are built on hillsides.  Other hillsides are terraced with mezcal palenques and maize crops. The stills are at river level.  They use the water to cool the distillation process. This is not yet a tourist destination.

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This village is known for small production, artesenal mezcal. I was on a hunt for reposado. What I found was an extraordinary reposado at a third the price of what I usually pay in Oaxaca city, plus a wild agave (silvestre) mezcal called Tepeztate from a mezcalero who is akin to a winemaker. He produces mezcal that he sells to some of the top hand-crafted brands.

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Sheri got a taste of just distilled mezcal, warm and just out of the still. At eighty-percent alcohol her engine was roaring after just a sip.  I inhaled and almost fell over. Don Arturo joined us. Being the designated driver, I had to be more careful. The whole thing reminded me of North Carolina moonshine, but the resulting product here is so much more refined it’s not even comparable.

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There are now so many varieties of mezcal, depending on the type of agave used and whether the mezcal is aged and for how long. Añejo can be aged as long as twelve years in oak which takes on characteristics of the wood. Wild agave has a distinctive herbal flavor and aroma. You need to taste to see which you prefer.

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This is a full day trip. We could have stayed longer and visited more mezcaleros. But I think we came home with some of the best produced in the village at a fraction of the retail price. If you go, bring your own liter size glass bottles with tight lids. Some bring gallon jugs to fill up. Plan to leave Oaxaca by nine in the morning. You’ll return around seven at night. Don’t go in the rainy season! You will slide all over the road!

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Who to visit?

  1. Redondo de San Juan del Rio, Rodolfo Juan Juarez, mezcalero. Tel. (951) 546 5260. Reposado and Tepeztate
  2. Perla del Rio Mezcal, Ignacio Juan Antonio, mezcalero, Tel. (951) 546 5056. Espadin joven.
  3. Alma Teresa’s clothing cooperative, a block from the church. She is sending two daughters to university in Oaxaca. Her husband went to the U.S. to work years ago and never came back.

 

 

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You can buy a road map of Oaxaca state at the Proveedora, corner Reforma and Independencia, in the Centro Historico. Comes in handy for exploring and having an aventura, like we did.

Coming Up: Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop, Starts Jan. 30, 2015

Shop Mexico: The Artisan Sisters Week 8–Red Ikat Rebozo (Scarf)

Today we offer for sale a beautiful handwoven cotton scarf/shawl from Tenancingo, Mexico, measuring 72″ long and 30″ wide.  It is a warm tomato red. This is a traditional ikat rebozo that women wear all over Mexico.  For them, it has many useful purposes — as a cover-up to stay warm, as a folded head covering to shield the face from the sun, as a carrier for babies and toddlers, and as a carrier for market items.   Ikat is a technique where both the warp and weft threads are intermittently dyed and when woven.  The fabric has a shimmering pattern that runs through it.  The punta or fringe is hand-tied after the piece is woven.  For us, this rebozo can serve as a scarf or beautiful shawl to drape around the neck or shoulders, or use it as a table runner or accent on a piece of furniture.  Item #7162012.1, $85 plus $5 shipping to anywhere in the U.S.  Speak up fast if you want it!

 

Come to Oaxaca in February for a felting workshop with clothing designer Jessica de Haas.  We will make handmade wool felted rebozos and quechquemitls.

 

Mixteca Women Who Weave: Oaxaca Show and Sale, February 25

Cochineal dyed rebozo from the Mixteca

Judith Radtke and Jo Ann Feher just told me about this great show and sale coming up on Saturday, February 25 in Oaxaca City.  If you are in town, they invite you to stop by.  You will also have an opportunity to meet the women who weave these wonderful pieces in cotton, wool and natural dyes.

Weavings, Weavers and Wine

Saturday, February 25, 2012 — 5 pm – 7pm
Jose Vasconcelos 104 (runs off Tinoco Y Palacios), Figueroa, Oaxaca, Tel. 516 – 71 43

Enjoy Wine and Cheese.
View exquisite hand weavings by Mixteca Weavers.
Meet the weavers: Edith, Marcellina and Edith Inez.

The book, Weaving Yarn, Weaving Cultures, Weaving Lives: A Circle of Women in Oaxaca, Mexico will also be available for sale.

All proceeds go to the weavers.

Learn tapestry weaving in a workshop with Federico Chavez Sosa, March 14-17, 2012 in Teotitlan del Valle.

 


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 Chiapas this week, I’d be there in a heartbeat.   I suspect there will be huipiles woven on blackstrap looms with the designs  integrated into the weft.  Some will be embellished with needlepoint. There will likely be shawls, scartable perhaps table linens.  Enjoy.

Quechequemitl Pattern: Sew Your Own Pull-over Shoulder Cover

Say KECH-KEH-MEE. Here’s a textile museum definition of quechquemitl?

  

Some people call it a shawl.  It isn’t.  Others say it’s a poncho.  It isn’t.  It’s not a scarf … exactly.  It’s two pieces of rectangular cloth sewn together at a counterintuitive place for the likes of me, finished with a bound hem or some fancy crotched edging or fringes to become an elegant summer drape over a sleeveless dress.  A wool one does just fine in winter to keep necks and shoulders snuggy warm.

  

Women from Mexico handy with needle and thread embellished their quechquemitls with incredible embroidery and fringes.  Some patterns were woven into the cloth as it was formed on the loom.

Today, I finally got to the piece of Tenancingo ikat handwoven cloth I bought a few weeks ago in the Tlacolula market.  I don’t crochet, but I do sew (when there’s time).  I find it very relaxing and creative!

First, I started with two pre-washed and dried pieces of cloth, 14-1/2″ wide x 27″ long.  Here’s the pattern I took a photo of at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca where their show featuring quechquemitls is a knock-out.  Images above are from the show.

Two pieces of equal size.

Sew together at the dotted line.  I used a sewing machine.

Here’s the tricky part — where to connect the remaining seam.  Do you see it? The short edge connects to the long side.  The dotted line in Diagram 4 below shows you where the stitching line is located.

  

Wearing the finished product and trying to take a photo of it!  I don’t have a suitable model or mannequin. On the right, I pieced it together with pins before sewing.  Here’s the prototype sample (below left) at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.

 

 

 

Then, I discovered, there’s an entirely different way to sew the pieces together, so there’s a flap at the neck opening.  See if you can figure this one out (below).

  

There wasn’t a diagram.

This handy little cover-up is great for the beach, pool, or to keep your shoulders protected from the sun.  When I wear it in a V, it doubles for a nicely draping scarf.  Some indigenous women even wear theirs on their heads.

Let me know if you make one and send me photos of how yours turned out.