Guatemala - Embroidery workshop with Casa Flor in Antigua

The perfect ending to the trip - an evening of crafts and cocktails courtesy of Casa Flor designs.

I came home with a bag full of their scrap fabrics that I later stitched together into a little jacket for myself.

Guatemala - backstrap weaving in San Antonio Palopo

The main reason for my trip to Guatemala in May was to learn about Mayan backstrap weaving techniques. (The trip was organized by Thread Caravan, and I can't say enough good things about them. If you are interested in learning about the Guatemalan Mayan culture and textiles, I would wholeheartly recommend a Thread Caravan trip. They also offer trips to Oaxaca, Mexico and Panama).  We spent two days weaving in San Antonio Palopo with Zenieda and her lovely family.

choosing yarn colours

preparing the warp

setting up the backstrap loom

my warp - lots going on here, I wanted to learn everything

me weaving

Zeneida admiring my (her) work)

Guatemala - natural dyeing in San Juan La Laguna

In May, I took a week off from my weaving classes, and snuck away for a quick trip to Guatemala. The trip was organized by Thread Caravan, and I can't say enough good things about them. If you are interested in learning about the Guatemalan Mayan culture and textiles, I would wholeheartly recommend a Thread Caravan trip. They also offer trips to Oaxaca, Mexico and Panama. It really was a wonderful get away - the places we stayed at in Antigua and at Lake Atitlan were both outstanding, but I wasn't just there for fun and relaxation, I wanted to learn about the Mayan textile traditions, and I got LOTS of that too. 

chilka dye pot

We spent a day with the Lema Association in San Juan La Laguna learning about dyieng with local plants. We used "chilka" to get yellow - those would be the leaves in the first photo; they smelled a lot like chamomile but they are from a large leafy shrub like plant). We used"achiote" also known as annatto for orange - this was a paste made from the seeds of a fruit; it is also used as a spice to flavour and colour food. The blue is not indigo, it is called "sacatinta" and is from the wood of a tree. It dyed the cotton yarn that they had a beautiful blue colour, but my scarf came out purple.

taking the yarn out of the dye pot

preparing the chilka leaves

achiote dye

sacatinta is supposed to be a blue dye. No idea why this scarf came out purple