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Take a stroll down the Zocalo in Oaxaca, or visit one of the open air markets in Tenancingo or Santa Maria del Rio, and you are certain to encounter women wearing a fine woven shawl called a “Rebozo”. The Rebozo is a functional garment that in addition to providing warmth, serves as a carrying device for bundles and frequently small children. While the Rebozo is predominantly worn in more urban settings, you will find women as well wearing the Rebozo in major cities such as Guadalajara and Mexico City on special events and during festival days as a proud statement of their cultural roots and a national heritage steeped in artisan handicraft.
Luis Rodriguez is a 3rd generation Warp Ikat Weaver living in Tenancingo, a village about 3 hours from Mexico City. He learned the art of warp ikat weaving from his father, as well as inventor of many time-saving tools used in the process.
The traditional Ikat Rebozo is made entirely by hand in a process known as Warp Ikat. A pattern is conceived into a design, which is transferred to long strands of starched fibers using fugitive ink. A tight knot is placed by hand on or between marks. The knotted strands are soaked in water to remove the starch, and then dyed, revealing un-dyed areas on the yarns.
For traditional Mexican designs Luis uses a series of wheels which were created by his father. Made from copper, these wheels are marked with a fugitive (non-permanent) ink and then carefully rolled across long groups of threads. Knots are placed at the hashmarks either by hand or again by a clever knotting tool created by Luis’ father which greatly speeds up the process.
Luis uses a large carving knife to remove the knots after dyeing. Working gently in a kind of ‘guitar-strumming’ motion, he removes blocks of knots at a time, greatly accelerating the knot-removal process.
Woven garments have fibers running vertically and horizontally. The vertical (warp) fibers in this case carry the pattern, while the horizontal (weft) fibers provide both structural integrity to the cloth as well as additional (or the same) color patterning in the final textile. For the loom he is working on in the video, Luis has added a "drift" pattern to the warp fibers by placing them next t each other in a way that looks like clouds in the pattern. He incorporates these sections with vertical stripe patterns and a common white thread color in the weft fiber.
This process in Mexico is known as "Single Ikat" or "Warp Ikat". For our demonstration video on double Ikat (both Warp and Weft fibers contain knotting and patterning) see our selection
"The Making of Balinese Double Ikat" on RU-vid as well. • The Making of Balinese...
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Thanks to Ricardo Hoseguera - our guide, translator and still photographer for the journey to the town of Tenancingo, Mexico. Thanks as well to Alex Khaskin, the composer of the song, “Mexican Guitar”, which provided the fluidic background music for this short film and travel log.
25 июл 2024
