Oaxacan Wool Shawl Scarf Natural Tones Indigenous Textile

ABOUT THIS WOOL SHAWL

This rebozo or shawl is an indigenous Textile crafted in Mitla, Oaxaca. It was crafted on a pedal loom. It can be used as a bed spread, table runner or wrap for babies and newborns. You will find this Mexican Shawl for sale and many indigenous textiles at our folk art gallery.

This shawl was hand crafted with love and talent by the Hernandez family, from the ancient Zapotec town of Mitla, Oaxaca.They have achieved their technique by recovering ancient indigenous knowledge and combining it with creativity, love, team work and discipline. They work only with organic fabrics and pigments such as the cochineal insect (grana cochinilla in spanish) which is a bug that feeds from the nopal cactus and provides a unique purple/red tint. They also use plants and flowers to prepare their own pigments, like the avocado leaf which gives a light yellow tone, the nut shell for a unique brown-beige tone, cempazuchitl  flower for a green-yellow tone, añil or indigo from the indigofera suffruticosa plant (scientific name) for blue, black zapote (Diospiros Nygra) for black and many others. They use only water they gather from the rain, since it has no chemicals nor minerals that may affect the dying. Once the pigment is ready, they dye the wool for two days, dry it for another day and then, once ready; they prepare the yarn on a spinning wheel and then load the pedal loom.   Pedal looms are the most used in Oaxaca, they were brought by the Spaniards during the conquest of Meso América and have been used ever since. The loom is operated entirely by human force and requires a lot of strength and skill since with the feet they make the patterns while with the hands operate the rest of the device. After several hours or even days, Once the piece is finished, they wash it with hot water and aloe to fix the colours and achieve a soft texture. Then, the piece is hanged out to dry with a heavy stone on the bottom to create tension and prevent the fabric from shrinking nor changing it´s shape. Once the piece is dried, they weave the tassels by hand.  When buying a piece like this one, you help to keep this marvellous tradition alive.