MayaMam helps the Pulsera Project Color The World

Something great happened to us at the Philadelphia Gift Show last January…we met Chris and Colin of the Pulsera Project. They are part of a wonderful project that “educates, empowers, and connects Nicaraguan youth with students in more than 200 US schools through the sale of colorful, hand-woven bracelets, or “pulseras" in Spanish.” They were looking for bracelets, and although we hadn’t planned to present any of ours the show, luckily we had brought some along with us. So we were able to show them our style of weaving and embroidery that we do on the backstrap loom. They really liked them, and we have started working with them on a regular basis. This is, of course, very nice from a business point of view. But because they share our passion for a world that is more just, we feel it is more than just business -- we have found new compañeros. Below we would like to share some examples of their style of pulseras and some of ours in the lower photo.

We love this photo!

Take a look at their project! www.pulseraproject.org

A New Spring Shawl in Violet and Butter Yellow

We are always weaving new colors into our shawls. It is such fun to weave with different colors and it is especially fun to see how two colors interact. This shawl is woven in a design we call “B’e”. B’e means “road” in Mam and is a symbol for our destiny or path in life. But it looks like the traditional herringbone pattern, so we have translated road into herringbone!

Here we experimented with violet and a soft butter yellow. We are pleased with the results, which include a nice shimmer. We are posting it on Etsy, too, if you want to take a better look.

MayaMam Weavers & TAFA

We have talked about our membership in TAFA -- The Textile and Fiber Arts List -- before, now we invite you to take a look at TAFA’s new web site, it is really gorgeous. We are members of this “community of entrepreneurs rooted in textile and fiber art products and traditions”. Besides being honored to be among such talented people (as well as receiving sales leads), we have been learning a lot about online marketing. We have just completed loading our own profile, and we have connected it to our etsy store.

If you have a bit of time, check it out, it is visually DELICIOUS.

www.tafalist.com for the site; and
http://www.tafalist.com/members/mayamam-weavers for our page.

And while we are on the topic of the internet (and visually delicious), we have also bravely started a board on Pinterest. To start with we have a tiny board called “Colors”. It is lots of fun but also a great way to keep in touch visually with what is happening in fashion, home décor, and design. (Please know there is quite a controversy around Pinterest and copyrighting if you are an artist. However, as an electronic bulletin board it is very useful for avid “clippers”.)

See you online!

A New Spring Shawl in Rose & Champagne

We really enjoy choosing the colors for our shawls! We love this combination of rose pink with champagne, especially for the way the weave blends the two colors into a completely different hue. And if you know our shawls in our “Delfina weave”, you know that the colors change a lot in the lighting.

Here are a couple of photos of the shawls…and we will be putting the shawl up on Etsy today, too!