Chenille Scarf - Recycled Brights
These beautiful and luxurious scarves are recycled threads then woven on Backstrap looms in the traditional Mayan weaving technique.
Due to the nature of production, each item is one-of-a-kind.
The story: As a teenager, Juana and her mother were so poor they couldn't afford to buy the threads needed to make traditional woven scarves. Buying old chenille sweaters in the "Paca," clothing sold for pennies from donations in the US, Juana would sit and unravel the sweaters to obtain a ball of chenille thread. "I always picked colors I liked and the softest material. The sweaters were inexpensive and my time was essentially free, so I would sit and carefully unravel the sweaters. My mother taught me the traditional methods of back strap weaving. It was fun mixing and matching the threads and the end product was so beautiful and soft."
Having worked with Juana on the natural dye fabrics, I asked her if she worked with chenille as well. I had bought years ago a beautiful chenille shawl that to this day is my favorite. She told me her story and sent me photos of her process. I sent her a photo of my coveted shawl and to my surprise, she said, "Thats my work! I remember making that 15 years ago!!!"
The shawl today is a beautiful as when I bought it and I love it even more knowing the story behind it.