The women in Guatemala often use raw cotton when weaving textiles. They must first prepare the cotton by picking out the seeds, cleaning it, and then beating it with forked sticks. Then they can spin it into yarn and dye the threads with natural dyes: indigo to produce blue colors, cochineal for red, etc.
Lidia Lopez teaching the art and techniques of backstrap loom weaving.
Lidia Lopez describing the meanings of the patterns on a huipil from Patzicia, Guatemala.
The Guatemalan women make thread out of raw cotton and wrap it around a yarn winder. This keeps the string from getting tangled as they weave it in and out of the pegs on a warping board.
Guatemala is known for fine sweet breads and other baked goods.
This woman is wearing a traditional style huipil and showing off her freshly baked pineapple upside down cake.
Women in Guatemala begin weaving by creating a ‘warp’ out of yarn. They wind the yarn around pegs on a warping board, crossing the strings in the middle to create a striped pattern. The warp is then attached to the bars of the loom and they are ready to begin the weaving process.