| Mar 15, 2006 - Weaving, weaving, and more weaving
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 | | show all 5 | | Example of backstrap loom in use. | | Many variations of huipils (indigenous blouses). | | Curtains in our hotel at Panajachel. | | |
| John's been a weaving fool. Taking pictures of curtains, bedspreads, tablecloths, everything. There are very few home textiles that are actually manufactured! Such a great variety of color and patterns!
John's taking a class in weaving in the afternoons, and is having a great time with the ladies. Actually, they are having a great time with him since they never see guys in there. The men weave on the floor looms (foot looms here), but not the backstrap looms, so he is definetely an oddity, but you all knew that anyway.
Warning - Weave speak follows.
Everything is woven in plain weave. Bands tend to be weft faced, and the other textiles are more warp faced. The backstrap loom is used for almost all of the textiles. The bedspreads are panels woven and sewed or crocheted together.
The yarn is also tie dyed in great patterns. This process is called jaspe and looks just like Ikat dying, but there are no schools teaching the technique. Almost everything here is cotton. In fact, all of the weavings are done with the same size yarn called weaving yarn. Very fine, almost like thick sewing thread.
The indigenous women here still wear very traditional clothes, and the skirts and blouses are all hand made. The skirts are tie dyed, and woven on floor looms, while the blouses called huipils are woven with very intricate patterns on the backstrap loom. Sometimes they are also elaborately embroidered. Each town has a unique pattern structure and unique colors. |
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