2026 Bucket List Tour: Monarch Butterflies + Michoacan Folk Art
Come with us to Mexico, 9-nights, 10-days, February 11-20, 2026 Back by popular demand! I never knew that visiting the Monarch butterflies in Mexico should have been on my bucket list until I got there. Tucked into the mountainous forests of Michoacan and Estado de Mexico is the terminus of the butterfly migration from North […]
Textile ExpoVenta in Albuquerque, NM: April 3-5, 2025
SPECIAL EVENT! EXPO-VENTA SALE!April 3-5, 2025 — Albuquerque, New Mexico Oaxaca Cultural Navigator Textiles-Folk Art-Jewelry AND Hoon Arts Uzbek Silk Ikat + Baskets of Africa Norma is Participating One Day ONLY — Thursday, April 3, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. @ Fiber Arts on 4thhttps://FiberArtsOn4th.com 6463 4th Street, Los Ranchos, New MexicoOpen to Public — Thursday, 10am […]
Guatemala 2026: Study Tour in Textile Cloth + Culture
Registration is now open: January 22-February 2, 2026, 11 nights and 12 days. A $750 non-refundable deposit will reserve your space. We begin first in Guatemala City, with an overnight stay at one of the best Zona 10 luxury hotels. The next morning, we will visit the Museo Ixchel, which features a comprehensive collection of […]
Chiapas Textile Study Tour 2026: Deep Into Textiles
Dates are set and registration is now open — March 3-11, 2026 At Oaxaca Cultural Navigator, we aim to give you an unparalleled and in-depth travel experience to participate and delve deeply into indigenous culture, folk art, and celebrations. The Maya World of Chiapas, Mexico, spans centuries and borders. Maya people weave their complex universe […]
Pop-Up Sale: Norma’s Collection + Rugs, Teotitlan del Valle
When: Saturday, February 22, 2025 Time: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Where: Norma’s Casita, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca RSVP: WhatsApp or text +1 919-274-6194. Send an RSVP and I’ll send directions. Payments: We accept pesos, dollars, Zelle transfers. With PayPal, Venmo, and credit cards we add a 4% transaction fee. Spend $100-299 and we will […]
In Antigua, Guatemala with Lidia López López
It’s a short 30 minute drive from Posada de Don Rodrigo in the historic center of Antigua to San Antonio Aguas Calientes to visit famous weaver Lidia López López. I met her several years ago at the Santa Fe Folk Art Market and again last year at the WARP conference in Denver. Her work is […]
Guatemala City, Museo Ixchel Indigenous Clothing and Popol Vuh
Guatemala City is a big surprise! It is clean, filled with great restaurants, excellent hotels, and glass buildings. It is definitely an international enclave. In the elevator of the Hyatt Centric where we are staying downtown, I met a young man from Japan and a local who both work for Honda motorcycles. Down the street […]
Oaxaca Textiles, Craft + Culture Tour with Taos Wools January 2026
This January 8-15, 2026 program is more than a tour. It includes weaving and natural dyeing for workshops, a visit to artisan markets, and studio visits to meet makers. Immerse yourself in all that Oaxaca has to offer with travel and hands-on experiences. We are partnering with Joseph Barry and Taos Wools, located in Arroyo […]
Celebrating the Giver of Miracles: The Virgin of Guadalupe
December 12 is recognized throughout Mexico as a Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when she appeared as an apparition and miraculously changed the course of history in Latin America. In Oaxaca today, there will be parades and masses and people lighting votive candles to honor the woman who symbolically brought indigenous peoples under […]
Day 2: Shop Wool from Norma’s Oaxaca Closet: Deep Discounts
Ends Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 3 PM! Perfect for winter warmth. For years, I’ve stored beautiful wool hand wovens from Oaxaca and Chiapas in a cedar chest that Teotitlan del Valle carpenter Elias made for me. This cedar chest is called a baule, which traditionally is gifted at Zapotec weddings to store valuables and […]
Norma’s Shop Oaxaca Closet Sale: 4 Wearing + Gifting
Ends Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 3 PM! I’m at my casita in Teotitlan del Valle and will return to the USA at the end of the coming week. I’m looking at the handwoven blusas and huipilesin my closet here! A collection of naturally dyed and artisan made textiles that I have treasured because I […]
Norma’s Oaxaca Closet Sale: 4 Wearing + Gifting
Ends Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 3 PM! I’m at my casita in Teotitlan del Valle and will return to the USA at the end of the coming week. I’m looking at the handwoven blusas and huipilesin my closet here! A collection of naturally dyed and artisan made textiles that I have treasured because I […]
Sashiko in Takayama
I spent the morning with Keiko-San at her home gallery twenty steps away from the Red Bridge. There is a green bridge, white bridge, and red bridge here. Landmarks to navigate location. Japanese are very organized and clean. Hisa, a local translator, met me at the red bridge along with Keiko-San to take me to […]
Oaxaca + Comings and Goings
Summer is winding down. It will be Labor Day weekend in ten days. I’m recovering well from spinal fusion surgery, though I’m far from perfect, and need to walk with two REI hiking poles to keep my balance, but I’m managing between 5,000 and 7,000 steps at least four times a week. Yesterday, I almost […]
LAST DAY TODAY! 20% OFF the Shop Sale
Don’t miss out! Sale ends TODAY, Tuesday, August 20 at 9 p.m. Mountain Time. Use Code AUG20 on Shop Oaxaca Culture our online store for all things Oaxaca and Mexico — through Tuesday, August 20. It’s still summer and we have some beautiful, lightweight clothing for sale in the Shop that will carry you through […]
Last Two Days! 20% OFF the Shop Sale
Don’t miss out! Sale ends TODAY, Tuesday, August 20 at 9 p.m. Mountain Time. Use Code AUG20 on Shop Oaxaca Culture our online store for all things Oaxaca and Mexico — through Tuesday, August 20. It’s still summer and we have some beautiful, lightweight clothing for sale in the Shop that will carry you through […]
Don’t Forget: 20% OFF the Shop Sale
Use Code AUG20 on Shop Oaxaca Culture our online store for all things Oaxaca and Mexico — through Tuesday, August 20. It’s still summer and we have some beautiful, lightweight clothing for sale in the Shop that will carry you through the dog days of August and into September. And, as we transition into autumn […]
Zinacantan + San Juan Chamula, Chiapas: Magic Towns
My friend Chris Clark writes a blog called Color in the Streets. It is her musings about living on Lake Chapala, Jalisco, and visiting many regions around Mexico during the last six years since she moved there from North Carolina, where I first met her. Chris’ partner Ben died almost two years ago and she […]
Textile Tour in Oaxaca, Mexico, December 2024
Join us in Oaxaca from December 6 to 14, 2024, for a spectacular insider’s view of the textile culture and history of this World Heritage colonial city. We have created this experience in collaboration with Fiber Circle Studio in Petaluma, California, and owner founder Alisha Bright. Lots of touring plus hands-on workshops to keep you […]
Traveling in Chiapas: Charmed, I’m Sure
My friend Chris Clark writes a blog called Color in the Streets, and just reported on her recent trip to Chiapas with us in February 2024. Chris lives in Ajijic, on Lake Chapala, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. She talks about how this was a dream come true trip that she had wanted to […]
Pilgrimage to San Pablo Tijaltepec, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca
The map says it’s just under five hours from Oaxaca City to the remote Mixtec village of San Pablo Tijaltepec. For those of us who traveled there last Sunday on our Mixteca Alta textile study tour, it seemed more like many more hours and a world far, far away. We were based in Tlaxiaco (Tla-hee-ah-koh), […]
In the Triqui Village of Chicahuaxtla, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca
Our friend Shuko Clouse captures the essential emotion and experience of being in the Triqui village of San Andres Chicahuaxtla in the Mixteca Alta as she traveled with us this past weekend on a textile exploration seven hours beyond the city of Oaxaca. She writes a blog called Our Universe that is part of her […]
Threads of Connection in Oaxaca + Chiapas: Norma Presents at OLL, Tuesday, March 5
This Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. I will be making a presentation at the Oaxaca Lending Library titled Threads of Connection in Oaxaca and Chiapas: Meeting Artisans Where They Live and Work. If you live here or are visiting, I invite you to join us. Contact the OLL website to register. During the […]
Looking for Frida Kahlo + Diego Rivera in Mexico City: Art History with a Textile Twist
Arrive Thursday, February 27 and depart Thursday, March 6, 2025, 7 nights, 8 days Come to Mexico City to explore the lives of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera through their art, and meet contemporary Mexican fashion designers who are making an impact on international style. This is an in-depth art history and textile education at its best! […]
First Mexico City on Our Way to the Monarch Butterflies
We spent our first full day in Mexico City with an art history immersion, exploring the murals of the three greats of Mexican Muralism — José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. First, we meandered through the Abelardo Rodriguez Market to find the murals painted by Rivera’s acolytes, including the Greenwood sisters and Pablo […]
2025 Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour
Arrive on Saturday, January 11 and depart on Sunday, January 19, 2025 — 8 nights, 9 days in textile heaven! This tour will not be offered in 2026! We go deep, and not wide. We give you an intimate, connecting experience. We spend time to know the culture. You will meet artisans in their homes […]
Textil Zacoalpan, Native Mexican Cotton Becomes Glorious Cloth
On our first tour day, we make our way to Ometepec, Guerrero, where we spend the first night on the road after traveling north on MEX 200, the coastal highway to Acapulco and beyond. Early the next morning, after breakfast, we travel about a hour northeast to the tiny village of Zacoalpan where we meet […]
Pinotepa de Don Luis Weaver Dazzles Us on the Oaxaca Coast
Our first stop in Pinotepa de Don Luis is at the small home and workshop of weaver Sebastiana Guzman. Her work is always very fine — she uses the finest cotton from the best mill in Puebla state, as well as hand-spun coyuchi brown, white and green cotton. The village is known for its work […]
Las Sanjuaneras Cooperative, on the Oaxaca Coast, San Juan Colorado
At the end of a winding road about an hour-and-a-half up the mountain from MEX 200, the coastal highway leading north to Acapulco and beyond, is the Mixtec village of San Juan Colorado. Here, almost all the women weave and there are over thirty registered cooperatives. One of our favorites is Las Sanjuaneras. Why? They […]
Tixinda. Purple Snail Dye. Caracol Púrpura. On the Oaxaca Coast.
Tixinda is the Mixtec word for the purple snail, also known as caracol púrpura in Spanish. It produces a rich purple dye used for ceremonial clothing in the Oaxaca coast village of Pinotepa de Don Luis. The weavers here make beautiful garments on the back strap loom using touches of this rare dye in the […]