Loved this graffito in Oaxaca (I want to write something but I don’t know what). I want to post it everywhere as it captures a feeling I regularly get.
Today we might finally sit down with a calendar and work out how this summer is going to happen. There’s a lot to sort out, and I keep getting asked for dates for everything. Hopefully we’ll sort it out today so I can give more useful answers.
Read More “Quiero escribir algo pero no sé qué”
There was an art collective in Oaxaca stencilling (Banksy-style) creations all over the town. We managed to get to the official opening of a gallery exhibit- Disociales. I’m fairly sure this is by the same folks- it was in a little boutique with “no photography allowed” signs. Made to be broken, etc…
In other news, I’ve made a few tweaks to this site, a prize if you can spot them… nothing major but you might like to try out the Random Image Slideshow (beta)
Incoming storm clouds provided perfect lightbox conditions for this one. And to the left there was a mezcal factory so this was a full-on sensory overload.
From an unseasonal cloudburst in the town of Oaxaca.
Part of the guided tour on Day 2 took us to a little cooperative centre close to Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca to see how Zapotec rugs/mats/carpets are made using methods that haven’t changed over the centuries. I still remember doing something similar when I was about 7 in Kingston school. I made an acorn placemat. Actually that should be Acorn, because I was into BBC computers at the time… There used to be a weaver in our village too using not dissimilar methods.
The Oaxacan valley’s climate isn’t ideally suited to rearing sheep so the wool is brought in from Los Altos, the first step is carding it to get all the wool fibres going in the right direction.
After a few minutes of carding the resulting rolag is spun into wool using a hand-turned spinning machine. It rotates a spindle which twists the wool and winds it onto the bobbin.
Next up is the dying process. Cheaper rugs use synthetic dyes, but here they’re still using a range of natural dyes using local ingredients. There’s a whole range of colours. Cochineal is used for the reds (the word comes from the Spanish ‘cochinilla’, woodlouse or more literally ‘little piggy’). Cochineal is harvested from the ‘leaves’ of a local cactus. The female insect is first removed from its husk (I’m making up terminology here…) then ground up with a metate (volcanic pestle and mortar type thing) and activated with lime juice to produce a deep crimson.
Blues come from cobalt from the coast. It’s bought in crystal form and is again activated with lime juice. Here’s the guide mixing it on his hand:
Yellow is from Cempasuchil (Marigolds)
and several varieties of moss are used for green colours:
Once the dye’s mixed up to the colour they want, the wool steeps in it for 24 hours or so. Though they didn’t mention it, some kind of mordant is probably used to fix the colours at the end of the process.
When they have enough wools with the colours needed for the rug, it’s time for the loom.
I still can’t work out how they get the complex patterns into the rugs and I was off taking pictures when they talked about the finer points of the process. It involves pedalling to swap the weft and warp and passing a shuttle between shifts is about all I know. Wikipedia on weaving will fill you in better than I ever could so I’ll just give you a few photos of the bits and pieces used in this part of the process instead:
The resulting rugs are gorgeous with rich natural colours and using traditional geometric designs that can also be found decorating the Zapotec ruins down the road at Mitla. They’ll set you back a few hundred dollars but considering the huge amount of work that goes into each of them are a veritable bargain.
Next up… the difference between Mezcal and Tequila and how to make it 🙂
I MISS MEXICO… (you’d be surprised how many people Google ‘Miss Mexico’ and end up here… can’t imagine why)
One of the few things I regret, other than not still living south of the border, is that I didn’t take a tripod with me on our trip to Oaxaca. That said thanks to me 1:1.4 50mm lens I managed a good few hand-held night time shots like this one in the courtyard of Santo Domingo’s church which, though they don’t hold up to close scrutiny, give a good feel for the atmosphere.