Celebration Table Runners and Placemats

We are pleased to debut our latest products from the backstrap loom. We call them “Celebration Placemats and Table Runner” because their vibrant stripes and dramatic embroidery make them shout “let’s celebrate!” The idea for these came from our customers. First, we made “Celebration Basket Liners” which were designed to line bread baskets. But our customers bought them 8 or 10 at a time to use as placemats. So, we started weaving them in sets of 4. We weave them 4 at a time on one warping, so the stripes are the same, but we change the embroidery for each one. And then one of our customers wanted a table runner to go with her placemats, so we created this set of 1 table runner and 4 placemats. Of course we still can make a custom set in the colors that our customers may want.

Let’s celebrate!

Chatting with the Seamstresses & Atol de Elote

As you may remember, our group of seamstresses began with learning how to sew on a pedal machine. It isn’t as crazy an idea as it may sound because we lose electricity FREQUENTLY and they don’t have to stop working. However, in time they have learned how to sew on the serger and have started using the electric machines once in a while.

We were chatting the other day about how far they had come since they first began their sewing lessons.

“In the beginning it was very hard because we didn’t know how to run the machines, but now we can make many different kinds of products and we have learned different skills.”
“Now we can work to earn money to get out of our poverty and provide for our children.”
“We feel very good when our products turn out well.”

As for Atol de Elote
Last week’s blog brought a request for our recipe for the sweet corn drink “atol de elote”.
Here is our “gringa” recipe (because it uses a blender):
You need about 3 cups of fresh (cooked and taken off the cob) or frozen corn. If you wish, save about ¼ cup of the kernels for garnish. Place the corn with 2½ cups of water in the blender and blend on high speed until it is smooth – except for the hulls. Strain out the hulls and discard them. Then, put the corn mixture in a saucepan over medium heat with a stick of cinnamon. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Bring 1½ cups of milk to a boil and stir it into the corn liquid. Continue cooking on low heat about another 20 minutes. Taste the mixture. Depending on your corn, it might already be sweet enough. If not, add ¼ cup of sugar. Add a pinch of salt. Garnish with the reserved corn and serve in mugs. If you do not have a blender, you may make it the traditional way, grinding the corn with mortar and pestle. (Recipe adapted from Favorite Recipes from Guatemala, by Laura Lynn Woodward, Editorial Laura Lee, Antigua Guatemala).

Buen provecho.

Our Cajola

In case you would like to know a little bit about where we live, our
Cajola is a mostly Maya Mam town in the western highlands of
Guatemala. It is beautiful here. We live among lots of mountains, and
you can see how beautiful it is when our corn is so high that it
nearly hides our houses. As you may know, corn is sacred for us Maya,
and the planting and growing and harvesting of corn is an important
part of our lives. Right now we are harvesting the corn and can eat it
fresh. We make a delicious drink called “atol de elote,” we eat the
corn right on the cob, we prepare it with a special squash named
“ayote” or we make special tamales called “tamals de elote.” Of
course, we eat corn all year long, but dried, in our tortillas,
tamales, and sauces. (You can ask us for a recipe if you are
interested!)

Unfortunately, there is a lot of poverty in our town -- half of our
children never have enough to eat. Some people don’t even have land to
grow their own corn. In our photos you can see the corn ready for
harvest, our market, and a traditional but old adobe house. (Many of
our family members have left for the U.S. to work to send money back
to build houses of concrete block.)

You can see why it is so important for us to be working, to make a
better world for our children.

Our Cosmovision or Our World View

First, sorry for not publishing yesterday, but we didn’t have any access to the Internet (not so unusual here in Cajola).

So, today we would like to share with you a small overview of our cosmovision, our view of the world that underlies our culture and our weaving.

“We are part of the earth, there is only one unity. That makes us be, live, share, communicate, and commune with her, as living beings, creators, and re-creators of life.”

“In Maya thinking, water, the sun, the earth, fire, air, and all the elements of nature are diverse manifestations that are the daily confirmation that the cosmos is a living and sacred being.”

“We believe that no species is superior to another. We are complementary elements, although different from each other; we are all linked in a network, like a spider’s web interwoven with relationships and interactions that are interdependent and complementary.”

“I am you and you are me.”

The photo below is a painting by Ely Lopez, a Maya spiritual guide who is a member of Grupo Cajola and who works with us from time to time to understand the meanings behind some of our symbols. We weave the symbols but sadly, don’t always remember what they mean.

At Last, Our Brown & Cream Diamond Table Runners

We are so happy to finally launch our brown and cream diamond table runners. When we learned to weave originally it was on a two-pedal foot loom. After we were weaving well on that loom, we wanted to try something more difficult. So, a master weaver came and showed us how to work with four pedals. That was a lot more difficult, and we had some painful experiences weaving entire bolts of fabric without noticing we had missed some threads in the warp, or had mixed up the order of the pedals. We had especially painful experiences with our brown and cream diamond fabric. But now, we are proud to say, we have mastered the diamond weave using the four pedals. With the collaboration of our sewing team and all the embroiderers, we proudly present our table runners and placemats (that match our emerald green diamond pattern) in brown and cream.

We have embroidered the same motifs you can find on our emerald green diamond runners, placemats, and napkins. We have embroidered "b'e" on the table runners and placemats, which stands for path, or our destiny. Destiny is an important Maya value, we think each human is born with special gifts and a plan how to use those gifts. If we don't find and follow our destiny, we will be unhappy and even ill.

We have embroidered "n'oj" on the napkins, which stands for wisdom. We believe wisdom comes with experience and reflection, especially in our spiritual ceremonies which are centered on our relationship with the universe and nature.

Please have a look at our brown and cream diamond table runners and placemats on our Etsy shop (www.mayamamweavers.etsy.com)

Saludos!