This winter Seattle has been dark and wet. At times it has felt like the world is in black and white. In January I went to Oaxaca, Mexico. In Oaxaca the world is in color. (These photos haven’t been altered or filtered.)
The state of Oaxaca is a center of textiles. There are farms of cochineal. There are embroiderers and weavers. There are beautiful woven plastic totes in the markets and stalls of embroidery. There are markets in the surrounding towns and there is a textile museum in the city of Oaxaca. Here is a small and somewhat random sampling of the textiles that I saw.
A felt pillow by Franciso Toledo:
A woman at the market in Tlacolula wearing a Ukrainian scarf.
The front of my new (old) huipil:
At the Textile Museum there was an exhibit of shibori, and there was an exhibit of weavings made with feathers. There were little bags of colored feathers and weavings made with the plumage.
Next door to the Textile Museum was an ex-convent with an exhibit of ikoots woven by Justina Oviedo Rangel of San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca.
This is just a taste of the textiles of Oaxaca. I hope you have enjoyed them and savored a bit of blue sky and Mexican joy with me.
Mooshka 
Just spectacular! So glad you got to experience this!! Did you go on a group or on your own? Did you see the carved wooden animals? Thanks for sharing–Cathy
I went with my husband, Joe. It was the third time that we have been there. Not the last time I hope! Yes, we saw wild, wooden alebrijes. Oaxaca is so rich in so many crafts.
Wonderful!
Thanks. I hope you had/have a chance to go there someday, Tina.
Such wonderful colors….I can’t wait to see what you design with all this fresh inspiration.
glorious ! just what I need
Thanks Julie – this is so beautiful to see through your eyes.
Thanks!
Exquisite! Joyful colors. Pure unencumbered delight. Thank you. I’m visiting the textile museum in Lyon, France next month. Have you been?
No – I have not. I hope you will write something about it when you get back!
So beautiful. The colors are like vitamin D for the eyes.
Vitamin O
Every year we read Becoming Naomi Leonby Pam Munoz Ryan in my fifth grade classes. I have learned so much about Oaxaca and the alebrijes. I have two of them. One more elaborate than the other. It is such a beautiful place. I only know it from photos that my daughter took and some of our Spanish teachers at school. Lucky you to have visited several times.
I will look for that book!
I just looked at this post again & just lived all the colors –I knew I saved it for that reason. Even though AZ is always sunny the bright sun of summer is often lacking color. This post really cheered me this morning! Thanks again!
So glad to have found this marvelous Blog. Through Brain Picking’s mail, I discovered the art of Julie Paschkis. FB, brought me here. Lived many years in Yucatan. Never got to Oaxaca, but I am familiar with their crafts. Very close to Guatemala. Recommending highly their crafts, Very elaborated. Both, Magic places.
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