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Pine Needle Baskets
BA-CPnd
This very special Small Zipper Pouch is created by weavers in San Juan la Laguna who have preserved the art of natural dyeing. Traditional jaspe (ikat) designs depicting elements of the natural world are created with dyes sourced from only natural materials, especially native wild and cultivated plants.
To create their designs, weavers first prepare the warp threads by carefully tying off select threads, which prevents the dye from penetrating the threads under these knots. They submerge the threads into baths of plant materials such as sacatinta, pericon, cafe, palo de pito, or from cochineal, a dye sourced from insects. The threads emerge from the dye bath in lovely subtle tones of green, grey, beige, yellow, blue, brown and pink, then are then placed in a hot bath of banana bark to stabilize the colors.
After the threads are dyed and dried, the weavers untie the knots on the warp, which reveals the patterns they had created earlier. They carefully arrange the warp on their backstrap looms and only then begin to weave.
Lined with unbleached cotton, zipper top closure. Pattern placement will vary, as will color. Threads are dyed in small batches and dye lot variation is an expected result in the natural dye process.