Mayan Backstrap Weaving And Natural Dye Workshop. . .
March 21 - 29, 2009

Based in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, one of Mexico’s most beautiful and enjoyable colonial towns, there could not be a more lovely or culturally rich place to spend a peaceful week learning these textile arts and exploring the Mayan highlands

A fabulous new nine-day workshop and journey into the world of the highland Mayan weavers! We’ll spend five days blissfully hard at work learning how to backstrap weave and natural dye with an occasional break for field trips to visit some of the nearby traditional Mayan villages and markets. Based in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, one of Mexico’s most beautiful and enjoyable colonial towns, there could not be a more lovely or culturally rich place to spend a peaceful week learning these textile arts and exploring the Mayan highlands.

The Mayan highlands of Chiapas are one of the most intact traditional areas of Mexico. Many of the current traditions in dress and ritual can be traced back to the Classic Era of the ancient Maya, more than 1,500 years ago. This is one of the few places left in Mexico where most of the clothing worn by the indigenous women, and even men, is woven the old way; at home on a backstrap loom. There are dozens of weaving villages spread throughout the highlands, each with its own style and identity in weaving. The weaving traditions are solid, rich and deep and as one travels through the highland villages it is not at all uncommon to see women spinning wool with a drop spindle while herding sheep, weaving in the patio, fulling cloth and, always, wearing their traditional dress.

This is an intensive, hands-on workshop focused on backstrap weaving with brocade and natural dyeing. We will spend a total of five days/20 hours working with Mayan weaver, Lucia Giron Mendez, who will teach us the Tenejapan style of wool brocade. We will learn everything from the setting up of looms to terminology (why do we need a “machete” to weave?) and details of the Tenejapan diamond design. We will also be joined daily by Mayan textile expert, Chip Morris, who will tell us the stories behind the weaving traditions in Tenejapa and other villages as well as interpret the different symbols woven into the women’s blouses.

Our dyeing lessons will be equally comprehensive with five days/ 10 hours of hands-on learning. We will work with the “strong dyes”: Mexico’s legendary red, cochineal, the fabulous blues of indigo, yellow-oranges of pericon (a relative of marigold) and the earth-toned tannins. These solid, colorfast, fade resistant dyes will provide us with our palette to create other tones as we learn the principles of working with these colors on wool. We’ll also experiment with silk, cotton and other fibers such as henequen and linen. Our teacher is Maddalena Forcella, a native of Italy who has lived in Mexico for almost two decades. Holding a degree in textile design with a focus on indigenous Mexico, Maddalena has worked extensively with the highland Mayan women and other indigenous groups in their process of relearning many of the ancient dyeing methods that were lost with the advent of synthetic dyes. She creates a perfect bridge for us between a traditional world and a contemporary vocabulary of understanding for these dyeing methods.

Door in San Cristobal

In addition to our focused time at the looms and dye vats, we’ll head out with anthropologist, author and superb guide, Chip Morris, to visit weavers in surrounding villages. To travel in the highlands with Chip is like having everything ever written or said about the Mayan culture at your fingertips (except not nearly so dry as text), for Chip’s well of knowledge is just about bottomless. He will introduce us to weavers, take us into the Mayan churches and explain what we are seeing there and introduce us to highland culture like no one else could.

This is truly an ideal place to immerse oneself into traditional textile arts. The setting couldn’t be better, for the Chiapan highlands, with their clear air, bright white clouds and green, pine clad hills are gorgeous. San Cristobal, filled with red tiled roofs, narrow streets, colonial churches, parks, markets, tasty restaurants, cafes and shops is a place that one could get very used to spending time in. And that we will do given that a lovely hotel in San Cristobal will be our base for the extent of this workshop.

Guides for this adventure will be Chip Morris and Joshua Sage. They will be assisted by Presenters Lucia Giron Mendez and Maddalena Forcella.