Jenny's labor of love

One thing I've been wanting to do since we arrived is take back-strap weaving classes. The Maya have hand-woven their textiles for centuries using this method. It's historical, it's beautiful, it's a form of art, and it's really difficult. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I spent the entire first class (all 3 hours) rolling 2 balls of yarn. I don't really know how else to explain it. I was handed a Gatorade bottle cap and started rolling the yarn around it.

Before one can get to this step, however, you have to pick the cotton and string it out and then dye it. San Juan (the town where I had my lessons) is known for beautiful, all natural dyes. They use all types of things (beets, carrots, coffee, red beans, lilac, asparagus) and soak the cotton until it takes on the color. They're very soft, beautiful colors and being completely natural they don't bleed.

So my teacher, Elena, did those steps first, and then I came in and took the dyed cotton and wrapped it around a Gatorade bottle cap. For 3 hours. It may sound silly, but my hands would cramp up trying to hold something so small and do the same quick movements over and over. I would take a break and Elena would take over for a bit, and she went like a million times faster than me. It was laughable how bad I was at this simple task.

And after 3 hours, I made a ball of yarn:

My second class I was able to "sort"  the yarn using this Mayan wooden contraption:

It turns out this is a very important step in the process, because the way you wrap the yarn around the wooden pegs determines the design and width of stripes of the colored yarn. I was okay at this step, but Elena was definitely much faster than me. I'd say we did this step for about 2 hours.

Finally...finally...I was ready to begin weaving. I should preface that Elena's dominant language is Tzutujil (a Mayan language). So we were both attmepting to communicate using second languages. If the intricacy of the weaving was not difficult enough, the language barriers only complicated things.
I was so excited to sit on the tiny stool, wrap the back-strap around me, and use the smooth wooden sticks to begin weaving.

But any anticipation soon faded upon putting on the back-strap. Elena wrapped it so tightly around me that I felt like I was being tied into a corset. My lower back and butt soon went completely numb. Then, to my dismay, we had to take a piece of white yarn and separate every single strand of yarn so that every other strand was linked with the white yarn. It was so tedious, my eyesight would fail me after trying to count so many strands of yarn, and don't even get me started on the pain shooting up and down my back.

Separating every single strand

All this and I hadn't even actually started weaving yet. It's such an incredible process! But after separating the strands with the white yarn, placing smooth wooden sticks in precise places, and lasso-ing the yarn to the ceiling, I was ready to begin. Finally!

I was, of course, terrible at it in the beginning. About every step of the process I had to re-do because I would miss a strand or skip a step. Elena had trouble explaining it in Spanish, so she would show me a few times and then expect me to be able to follow perfectly. Not possible for me. I do things much better when I understand how it works, how each step separates the yarn, how each stick pulls down on the strands, etc. But Elena was unable to explain any of these steps, so I tried to shadow her every move, but I was a very slow learner. God bless Elena for her patience!

I could attempt to explain every step here, but if you're really interested let's get together for a cup of coffee and I'll try to explain how the entire process works. It basically turns out to be about 7 steps over and over again.

One step involved pulling up on a wooden stick, which separated the strands with force. I found this step really difficult as I was using my left arm and pulling up at an awkward angle. I soon learned that my 70 year old teacher had more arm strength than me. I had my classes on Saturdays and would still be sore Monday morning at work.

The final touch: tying knots

I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I couldn't be more proud of the entire experience. I loved going into Elena's home and getting to know her family (please pray for her husband as he had to be hospitalized recently). I loved learning a skill, an art, that dates back hundreds of years. I love having full appreciation of the time and work that goes into Mayan textiles. I have such respect for the women who labor for hours, often sitting on the floor, and weave day in and day out. I think each scarf should cost $100 given the amount of work that goes into one. I honestly have no idea how women in their 70's have the eyesight, the nimbleness, and the flexibility to back-strap weave. It's truly marvelous.

But after 12 hours of classes and several sore muscles, the end product is very special to me.

My scarf colors are made from carrot, coffee, and some flower I don't know in English.

It was a beautiful process and I'm so happy to have done it, but I'm not signing up for another class anytime soon. The Mayan women have my full respect, because I honestly don't think I could do it everyday. I tell David that we should seriously consider starting up a chiropractic/massage ministry here for the women who back-strap weave and the men who work in the fields. The lifestyle here is so hard on the human body, I don't think we fully appreciate it.

I'll get off my soapbox, but seriously, if you ever see these hand-woven textiles, please appreciate the time, work, and pain that goes into them. And please, please, please buy them at a fair price. Don't take advantage of one's poverty by purchasing something so cheap that it's a great deal for you but leaves the laborer with barely enough to cover production costs. You'd be surprised at how many women here sell things for less than they cost, because they think better to make a sale than nothing, but it leaves the women with no profit. We can do better than that. Sorry, I really will get off my soapbox now. ( :

If anyone is ever interested in purchasing some of these beautiful scarves (or table-runners, wall hangings, guipiles - all made by back-strap weaving), email me and I'd be so happy to bring one back for you!

*The video below is a backstrap weaving demonstration, filmed by David, that will be used for our future business...which more details will be announced about soon (the website is not yet launched).