Mexican Dreamweavers

This wearable masterpiece is made by artisans in Oaxaca using the traditional back-strap loom woven with cotton dyed with Mexico´s sacred colors: Indigo, cochinilla and snail dye or Caracol Púrpura Pansa.
Caracol Púrpura Pansa, the distinctive purple, one of Mexico´s sacred colors, comes from ancient origins in the coast of Oaxaca, one of the last places on earth where mollusks are milked to create a dye. For thousands of years, the Mixtec have extracted this unique color from snails called Tixinda or Purpura Pansa, a sea mollusk related to murex whose dye is extracted following the cycles of the moon and with no harm to the animals. The precious white liquid is extracted when the snail´s belly is rubbed with the resulting urine and dye applied to cotton threads of yarn that they bring to this risky adventure. In contact with the air and sunlight, the magic pink starts to surface. After the dye is extracted, the snails peacefully return to the rocks and the waves to get ready for another cycle the following month during the harvesting season October to March.Mixtec tintoreros (dyers) carrry with them a very old cultural tradition that they mix with agriculture and commerce. This is part of cultural tradition where women still use the back-strap loom to weave the pozahuanco (wrapped skirt) and the traditional huipiles and rebozos. Armed with skeins and a pointing wooden stick, tintoreros wait paitiently for the tides to lower and the snails to show up stuck to the stones. Carefully, the snails are squeezed until they release the substance to be applied to the yarns that will turn first yellowish green and then purple as the oxygen and sun embrace them. Then the snail is returned to the stones to recover. Currently, the caracol purpura is at risk of becoming extinct

Previous listed price: $1,400