Handmade Maya clutch bag.

Name: Handmade Maya clutch bag.
Brand: Tea Tribes
SKU: POCHETTEMAYA
Price: 25.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

ADD IT TO YOUR BASKET: it will be FREE to you if you buy 1 Mother’s Day gift box + 1 Box of your choice for yourself

25 €

25,00 €

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It was in San Juan La Laguna, a Guatemalan village on the shores of Lake Atitlán, that a friend of TEA TRIBES & Co - Anne ALLOIN - met Mayan women from the Tz'utujil ethnic group, practicing traditional weaving.

She fell in love with them and set up an association to promote and defend this ancestral tradition. Anne travels regularly to Guatemala, returning with arms full of hand-woven pouches that she buys and pays directly to the women who designed them.

We offer them to your loved ones, to complement your gifts of teas and infusions from the Mayan world...

Legend has it that "telar de cintura" loom weaving originated with Ixchel, a Mayan goddess representing fertility and procreation. Ixchel taught the first woman to weave, and since then the practice has been handed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation.

This ancestral technique is still used today by Mayan women.

The weavers use locally produced cotton thread. Guatemala is not well known for its cotton exports. Yet cotton cultivation is one of the oldest in the country.

Spinning cotton requires more than 16 hours of work to obtain a

ball of yarn. The threads must then be dyed. For this, the weavers in this community use only the resources provided by their natural environment: turmeric, dried coconut shell, indigo, bougainvillea flowers, avocado pits and coffee leaves.

To fix the color, the craftswomen cut pieces of banana tree trunks

which they macerate. The plants are brought to the boil and the yarns are soaked in the preparation until the desired color is achieved. The dyed skeins of yarn are then air-dried.

Before weaving, the women then proceed to warping: weavers use wooden pegs around which they wind the thread to form interweavings according to width, length and desired pattern. The weaver then uses all her creativity to create patterns and match colors.

Once warping is complete, it's time to weave.

The interlacing threads are ready to be mounted on the loom.

One end of the loom is attached to a tree, creating a direct link with nature. The other end is wrapped around the back with a belt. The weaver adjusts the tension by moving her back forward or backward. The belt loom has been used for over two millennia by Mayan women. They do not use the straight treadle loom imported by the Spanish (generally reserved for men), as women are the guarantors of the transmission of Mayan traditions.

TEA TRIBES and Anne ALLOIN offer you woven by these women with their golden fingers.

These creations are aimed at those who want to consume "differently", with respect for nature and the person who designed the object.

In this way, you'll be offering Guatemalan weavers the chance to make a dignified living from their know-how, while respecting their textile traditions.

Characteristics of the pouches selected by TEA TRIBES :

Dimensions: 21 x 15 cm

100% cotton fabric; hand-woven; exclusively vegetable dyed.

Lined inside.

Zipper closure with matching pompom.

Color: surprise, surprise, they're all different. It's impossible to choose, but trust us, they're all beautiful!

Use:

Our pouches are ideal as make-up bags, small toiletry bags or large wallets.

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