On a narrow road near the village of Gualaceo deep in the mountains of Southern Ecuador we found the weaving workshop of Jose Jimenez, Casa Del Makana. Jose and his family keep the tradition of weaving macanas, the traditional knotted shawl that has been essential clothing in this part of the world for centuries.
The Ikat design of the macana uses a tie and dye resist process of highly complicated hand weaving and knotting. Cotton is hand dyed using natural colors available nearby. Browns come from walnut. Lichens for greens. Cochineal for reds and oranges. Grays from minerals found in local rocks. While indigo is imported to create the many shades of blue.
The pattern for the design is lightly drawn onto the cotton threads. Then the sections of cotton are bound using fiber from a local plant known here as penca. The wrapping blocks the dye from penetrating the wrapped area leaving only the original color of the dyed cotton.
Wrapping the skeins of cotton may take days or months for each shawl depending on the fineness of the weave and complexity of the pattern.
The weaving is, comparatively, the easiest step. But the weaver must take care that the warp-dyed pattern doesn’t shift on the loom, thereby throwing the pattern out of sequence. The weaving is done on a backstrap loom pulling the warp taut on the frame with the body weight of the weaver. Then the weaving can begin.
The final step is creating the shawl fringe. Carefully separated cotton threads are gathered and expertly knotted with perfect symmetry finishing the intricate work with intense color.
The weaving of ikat shawls in Ecuador is increasingly hard to sustain. Shawls may take months to create and without an accessible and expanding market it is hard for this family of artisans to continue their work. We told Jose about the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe and their support of artists cooperatives all over the world. Our hope is that these weavers in Gualaceo will be able to connect to this international market for their extraordinary art.
MedFlies 