NEPAL
Sari Silk and Banana Silk yarns
GUATEMALA
We are trying to get some organic cotton colorgrown yarns and
naturally dyed weaving yarns, as well as products they weave.
Sharing the Dream Guatemala -
A land of Hope - Esperanza
The “Women’s
Botanic colors Association” of San Juan la Laguna, Sololá Guatemala is promoting
hand or machine spun and fairly traded cotton thread and woven products,
against all odds. Using natural dyes for a wide range of delicate colors from
tree bark, vegetables and fruit is a tradition in San Juan which many people
practice and is a dying art in Guatemala. The group used to grow their own
cotton though. In October 2005 hurricane “Stan” hit the lake Atitlán area
causing landslides that damaged cotton crops in the mountain slopes around the
lake, including this women’s cooperatives investment in the plant and its hoped
harvest. Some seed was recovered and the group has planted on rented land, but
the women fear that their own land is now unsafe to work as rocks from higher up
the mountains were loosened by the mudslide, making the land almost useless for
this purpose.
A cotton plant
needs an area one yard square to be able to grow properly, but when we went up
the mountain to see the land, we couldn’t find a yard square that was free of
rocks to plant a cotton plant in. A local agronomy association recommended that
the women plant their land again with the trees that they need for the bark
which is used for many of the dyes, and that they look for another piece of land
lower down the mountains which has not been damaged and could be planted with
their cotton again. There is something very special about the cotton which
these women grow. There are usually two types of cotton, one natural colored
and one dark brown. Unusually though these women grow and harvest a sage green
color and a soft pink color, which are much more unusual. The seed for the
green and pink cotton was lost in the storm, but the women continue to plant the
natural and brown colors. They are looking for someone who still has the other
seeds to re plant the other colors.
In the meantime
they are able to buy the fiber or ready made thread from local merchants which
they use to hand dye using recipes that have been used for generations. The
fiber can be hand spun into thread by one of three women elders who still have
the skill of hand spinning, otherwise manufactured thread is hand dyed and made
into an array of products such as shawls, table cloths, placemats and other
household weavings using the backstrap loom, traditional to the region.
Sharing the Dream
in Guatemala works with fifteen producer groups and small businesses providing a
fair Trade market for their hand made products in the U.S. the organization
supports the producers with a deposit when orders are placed for group
coordinators to be able to buy the raw materials they need to start production
without having to use up group funds. A network of “Sharing the dream”
volunteer sales people take products to events at schools universities and
churches to sell the products at Fair Trade activities. Apart from the purchase
of the products, producer groups receive benefits of different types of projects
in their communities, including scholarships for their children, appropriate
technology projects to facilitate crop growth, training, and the construction of
a training centre, a sales showroom amongst other things. For further
information write to:
diane@Sharingthedream.org
http://www.sharingthedream.org
I came back from a fiber tour in
Guatemala....a fiber addicts heaven. My mind is so full of color! suitcase full
of textiles and scenes from the country continue to occupy my mind. I am so
excited. I did find a little colorgrown cotton still in use and a small project
I'm hoping to be able to contact and support. I can't believe there is so
little cotton grown there now...this is were the original seeds came from!
Nearly all my purchases came from the people recovering from the genocide of the
80's, the projects that give the women a fair price for their weaving. And some
products either produced by young men or as in one group the women wove the
cloth and the men made the products using the sewing machine.
The items were sent back to Sharing the Dream in
Guatemala. I will be getting new items.
Spinning natural brown cotton in Antigua
Maria,
one
of the founders of Flor
de Campo - Flower of the Country Teaching the children -
tying haspe or
ikat threads
Maya Traditions in Panajachel and
backstrap weaving
