Dyeing techniques

Maya Traditions’ cooperatives in San Juan Los Angeles Laguna integrate natural dyes and Ikat connections for their backstrap woven fabrics, generating unique and intricate styles. All these methods is standard to Maya tradition, additionally the region, and adds complexity and beauty for their fabrics.

Naturally Dyeing Threads

This method permits artisans to utilize locally found flowers and pests to create radiant colors of thread to be utilized in textiles. In addition it safeguards our artisans, their particular community and our all-natural environment by decreasing the number of artificial chemical compounds involved in the dyeing process. These are the basic measures active in the natural dyeing procedure:

• Preparing the Thread—Artisans use banana leaf as a natural mordent that can help the dye to set. To organize the thread artisans first boil banana actually leaves for 2-3 hours and drench the bond inside fluid to prepare them for dyeing.
• Generating the Dye—Plants or pests are slashed into tiny pieces and boiled for 1 / 2 and hour. Once the dye has already reached the required shade artisans strain from plants and insects plus the dye is ready to be used.
• Dyeing the thread—The prepared threads are put into the dye and allowed to drench for anywhere to half an hour to 4 hours with regards to the desired shade.
• Drying out the thread—Once the bond has now reached its desired shade it is removed from the dye and allowed to dry. When dry its prepared to be used in development of stunning backstrap woven textiles.

Ikat Tying and Design

Ikat—or “Jaspe” as it is known to Maya weavers—originates from Indonesian term “Menigikat” indicating “to tie.” This old-fashioned method happens to be created individually in a lot of countries, including: Africa, Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Peru, and Guatemala. The Ikat strategy includes old-fashioned and elaborate design elements to backstrap woven textiles. Guatemalan artisans developed “warp” Ikat, a method where only the vertical threads from the loom are dyed and have the style.

Ikat utilizes some dye resistant knots generate designs. Initially, the base bond is stretched-out between two posts and split into particular sized teams. After that, artisans connect knots at pre-determined intervals generate different designs including diamonds, women, baskets, corn and dolls. After the tying is complete the thread is dyed, frequently with a normal dye, and then hung to dried out. When the bond features dried out, the knots tend to be undone and bond is positioned on backstrap loom to produce unique and intricately designed fabrics.