Our Symbol for Duality

You can find this symbol in much of our work, interpreted in many different ways. (The symbols below are from photos of our embroidered belts.)

Duality and complementarity are an important underpinning of our worldview. We believe the universe is made up of reciprocal movements, always dual and complementary: darkness-light, formation-disintegration, heat-cold, birth-death, humidity-dryness, day-night. Duality expresses sets of two with different but complementary qualities. Our lives should also express this harmony with the cyclical cosmic movements. Through Mother Earth we construct our lives within this movement. We nourish ourselves with the strength and energy of Father Sun and recuperate our vitality each night in the presence of Grandmother Moon.

Of course, our reality isn't always this peaceful, but it is something we can reflect on to keep ourselves centered.

Learning the meaning of our Maya symbols

We invited Eli, a Maya spiritual guide, to explain to us the meaning of the symbols that we weave into our work. Of course, that is a subject for more than one talk, but he began by explaining that our ancestors wove the symbols into their cloth as a way of communicating. They were communicating their understanding about mathematics, the physical world, time, space, colors, different designs, and cosmic messages. They had a written language, too, but it was very difficult and only very learned people could read and write. But in those days, everyone could understand the meanings of the symbols woven into the cloth.

Besides everyday clothing, our ancestors wove ceremonial clothing and many other different cloths for many different purposes. (Maybe you would like to know more about that one day?) Many, though not all, of these cloths are still being woven today. We are pleased to learn about the meanings of these symbols, it is a way of reclaiming some of our identity that has been lost over the past 500 years.

Holiday Selling

We didn´t have any extra minutes last week to update our blog, we were busy participating in different local holiday selling events.

We were very pleased – our new red aprons and all of our shawls were very popular.

The photo below was taken before the beginning of the annual Alternative Gift Fair organized by Morristown’s Unitarian Fellowship. It is always a great event for us, we are grateful for their support. This was our fourth year participating, and it really is gratifying when repeat customers return and tell us how happy they are with their towels or aprons or whatever, and want to know what is new this year…and then make their purchase!

PS That is Caryn modeling our new red aprons.

Fair Trade Holiday Shopping

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States! We hope you enjoy a wonderful day surrounded by your friends, family, and neighbors.

We have heard about Black Friday, and want to remind you as you begin your holiday shopping to think about shopping “fairly”, to think about the people that make the gifts that you are buying, and whether they are being paid a fair wage for their work. Our little business has made a huge difference in our lives. Some of us have been able to go to school, some of us have been able to give our children more nutritious food, and we have been able to afford the medical care our families sometimes need.

For those of you who ask about how much of the profit from our sales in the U.S. reach us, well the answer is all of them…we are the owners of the business, and the goal of our selling organization in the US is to cover their costs. To tell you the truth, we are not making any profit now, we are still developing our market, but that is the idea!

So, after you have your delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and start to think about shopping, please think about us! Click on our Etsy store just to the right and see many of our products.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our shawl hand woven in cobalt & magenta

We have just started to sell our shawls hand loomed in cobalt blue and magenta. They are the same weaving design that Delfina created earlier this year, but in new colors. And they look great paired with our cobalt striped tote bags that feature an embroidered sun.

Our friends at Ramapo College in NJ like this design a lot, and they have asked us to weave it as a scarf, about half the width of the shawls. Stay tuned!

Gift bags for Doña Pancha’s Chocolate

We have been making custom gift bags for Quetzaltenango’s luxury chocolatier, Doña Pancha. The embroidery on the front of the bags represents the typical clothing of the K’iché people of Quetzaltenango. Quetzaltenango has both K’iché and Mam people (there are 22 different ethnic Maya groups in Guatemala, each with our own language!)

One bag shows the men’s ceremonial “traje” and the other shows the women’s ceremonial “traje”.

Of course when we were talking with “Doña Pancha” about making gift bags for her chocolate, we had to try it! It was really delicious. She makes lots of different flavors. We bought some of her chocolate that is flavored with cardamom and made hot chocolate with it. Delicioso.
.
If you want to learn more about Doña Pancha’s chocolate, her web site is www.
chocolatededonñapancha.com

Our Day Named Q’anil

We have embroidered this symbol for Q’anil in some of our backstrap loom woven belts.

Our ancestors carefully watched the movement of the planets and the stars and developed several calendars that are still important to us today. One of these calendars is a ceremonial, or spiritual, calendar. This calendar is made of 20 energies, each with a special name and character, paired with 13 different numbers. So, combining the different energies in order with the days’ numbers makes a calendar of 260 different days. Q’anil is the name of one of the 20 energies.

Q’anil represents seeds, life, and the creation of the universe, especially life and Mother Nature. The four points represent the four colors of corn -- red, white, yellow, and black -- which also represent the four great races of humanity. Q’anil represents birth and rebirth. It is a good day to start or restart a project, understanding that like seeds, it will take time to develop.