Josefina displays skeins of wool in Teotitlan del Valle

Murex, Cochineal, and Indigo! Oaxaca Natural Dye Workshop . . .
February 14 - 23, 2009
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A stained-hand workshop focused on Oaxaca's superstar dyes

Get your hand in the dye pot working with master dyers to learn their methods of working on wool with cochineal, indigo and other dyes in the Oaxaca highlands and travel to the Pacific coast to see murex dyeing with one of the last ancestral murex dyers on earth.

Our base camp will be the Mega-weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle where there are 5,000 weavers hard at work as well as a small handful of top-notch natural dyers. This is the mother-land of Cochineal, and we’ll delve into its secrets, seeing how it is cultivated and harvested and working with master dyer, Demetrio Bautista Lazo, to learn methods for direct cochineal dyeing with variable ph. as well as how to combine this little bug-dye with plants dyes to get even more tones. Oaxaca was also once a large producer of indigo and we’ll also dabble in the blues, learning how it is used by the weavers of Teotitlan.

Chichipan wool

Then we climb into a bush plane and take an excursion over the southern Sierra Madre and down to the rocky shoreline of the Pacific coast with its entrancing blue bays and warm waters to meet with one of the last ancestral murex dyers on the planet. Climbing in a fisherman’s launch we bounce to a remote location that is the lair of Purpura Panza, the source of murex purple in the Americas. We’ll see how the dyeing is done, learn why it is still being done as well as see samples of what the Mixtec weavers make with this purple-dyed cotton thread.

Returning to the highlands a couple of days later we take a breather in the colonial city of Oaxaca, admiring shops that carry some of the finest indigenous textiles in Mexico (all from Oaxaca!), before heading home with hands tinged red, blue and purple.

For more about shell dying, please see our article, Purpua! and our slide show, Dying Murex on the Oaxacan Coast

Woman with cochineal-dyed silk shawl

Itinerary
(B, L, D) = breakfast, lunch, dinner included)

Day 1, Saturday (D).  Our first group meeting will be at 6 pm today at our hotel, where we will introduce ourselves, talk about the upcoming trip and then head out to dinner. Oaxaca (OAX) international airport  is your port of entry.

Day 2, Sunday (B,L,D).  We dive in! First stop is the swirling Sunday market of Tlacolula where we begin our journey, a perfect place to get a quick infusion of the smells, tastes and sights of Zapotec Oaxaca. Then we head into the backcountry, traveling to a small village where most of the women spin wool on support spindles as a sideline occupation. We will visit with one of these women to see her amazing proficiency with the spindle and so you will have the opportunity to buy handspun wool to dye if you choose.  Then we travel to the mega weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle and to the home and hostel of our host and dye teacher, Demetrio Bautista Lazo (http://www.teotitlan.com/). We will settle into our simple and clean rooms with shared bath, built around the patio of this Zapotec weaver’s home and begin to get to know our bilingual, charismatic and extremely skilled dye master, and then we go to work.

The Pacific Coast Lair of the purple Murex

Day 3, Monday (BLD). This morning we travel into the Sierra Madre which rises directly behind Teotitlan and spend the morning learning about and collecting different kinds of dye plants such as wild chamomile, moses, etc. We’ll have lunch in a mountain village eatery before returning the valley and preparing our wool for dyeing.

Days 4-6, Tuesday-Thursday (Tue-Wed:B,L,D. Thur:B,L).  These three days will be spent working with cochineal, indigo and additional dyes. Demetrio will lead us through and explain processes for the different dyes and variants. We will dye small batches, working with a variety of ingredients and combinations with the goal of giving you a solid foundation in the basics of dyeing, or expanding on your existing knowledge with these ingredients that you can then take home and build upon. We will visit a wool spinner/supplier here where we encourage you to by some yarn, but also recommend bringing yarn from home if you like to see how different yarns take the dye. Time and energy allowing, we may spend a couple of afternoons visiting nearby archaeological sites and meeting other weavers in Teotitlan.  We will be eating good Zapotec home cooking prepared by Demetrio’s wife and meet other members of his family as we enjoy the special opportunity of being part of a Zapotec household.. Thursday afternoon we will finish our work with Demetrio and head to Oaxaca city where we will take the afternoon off and spend the night in the city.

Cochineal insects are ground on a metate to release the red dye

Day 7, Friday (B,L,).  We bid farewell to Oaxaca city this morning and climb aboard a 9am flight in a 14 passenger prop jet to the small Oaxacan coast resort town of Huatulco. We will take it easy today, heading to one of the lovely and quiet beaches and dip ourselves in the warm Pacific. We will be careful to not let the sun dye our skin the wrong tone. Evening in Huatulco

Day 8, Saturday  (B, L). This morning we climb aboard a small boat and, with the Mixtec shell dyer, head up the coast to the remote beach where purpura panza lives in the rocky tidal zone. You will want to be sure to bring shoes with good grip that you don’t mind getting wet for the scramble over the rocks to watch the shell dyeing. Teva or Keen style shoes work well. We’ll talk about how this shell fish is used and cared for by the Mixtec dyers and the problems facing the future of this rare, ancestral craft. We will also have a picnic on this beautiful beach and swim in the clear water before returning to Huatulco.

Day 9, Sunday (B, L,D).  Once again we climb aboard our little plane and pop back over the 10,000 foot southern sierra and into the Oaxaca valley, leaving behind the tropical coast for the wintry (in a Mexican way) highlands. Having just visited the lair of the purple shellfish, we will now visit the home of the little bug that makes the big red at a cochineal research center. In the afternoon we arrive in Oaxaca city, settle into our hotel and then, after a brief walking tour of old town, the afternoon is wide open for you to explore this colonial gem.

A skein of wool dyed with cochineal emerges from the dye pot