DETAILS:

The Miraflores II accent pillow is made from a vintage huipil, the traditional dress worn by indigenous women in Guatemala. I named this pillow after a flower market I frequented often near my home in the Colonia of Miraflores in Guatemala City. The rich, artful, multicolored flowers are created using a brocade weaving technique woven on a back strap loom. The center piece features hand embroidery from India. On the outer edges is handwoven jaspe also from Guatemala. With its subtle colors and intricate designs, this decorative pillow is sure to be a conversation starter for any room in your home.

• 20” x 20”

• Front – cotton

• Back – linen, in beige

• Zipper closure

• Down feather insert

• Fabric origins: Guatamala, India

THE STORY:

The floral center panel is from a vintage handwoven “huipil,” the traditional dress worn by indigenous women in Guatemala. The rich, artful, multicolored flowers are created using a brocade weaving technique that is woven on a back strap loom using silk floss thread. This style of huipil is traditionally worn by women from Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

The side panels are handwoven with varying widths of earth tone stripes highlighted with turquoise, indigo, and gold “jaspe” designs. Jaspe is a technique of binding sections of the warp as a resist before doing the dyeing process. During the seven years that I lived in Guatemala, I developed a great appreciation for jaspe (also known as “ikat” in other parts of the world). It is the traditional technique for creating patterns in Guatemalan fabrics. This fabric is from the area of Totonicipan, located in the Highlands of Guatemala. While driving through the Highlands, it was common to see men laying out yards of warp stretched on poles along the roadside and binding threads in a resist-dye technique to create the pattern.

In the center of the pillow is a geometric embroidery in colors of taupe and gray form a decorative pattern on hand woven dark teal fabric with a thin warp and weft grid work weave. The group who produced this fabric is a fair trade women’s development organization known as Sasha. It is based in Kolkata, India. I have had the opportunity to visit Sasha several times. Their work is beautifully done and preserving the traditional hand embroidery is of great importance to Sasha.