Natural Dyeing in Oaxaca

In Teotitlán del Valle, a small village set at the foothills of the Sierra Juárez mountains, you can visit several collectives known for their traditional Zapotec floor loom weaving and textiles. At Vida Nueva, this collective is known for the natural dyeing of the wool and yarn used for floor loom weaving.

We set off to La Cuevita and into the hillside to forage for plant materials used for medicinal purposes and dyes. It’s a dusty, arid hike but the views are breathtaking. People in the community gather here to deliver prayers and offerings at the Cave of the Virgin.

Pastora Gutiérrez Reyes, the co-founder of Vida Nueva shared with us their story. They founded Vida Nueva or ‘a new life’ in 1994 for women seeking financial self-sufficiency to meet their obligations of the tithe system in which the head of each family makes contributions to the community. Since these women were single or widowed, they still wanted to be recognized as members of society—even if they were outcasted in their society. Women in the Zapotec community were not allowed to form organizations (let alone gather for more than 30 minutes), and were not allowed to join assembly to debate politics and policies. They begun to meet secretly and with time managed to gain guidance from an NGO in the city and a grant that gave them some seed money to get the organization going. They would commercialize their generational skills of weaving to sell directly to buyers vs dealers and markets, which would also allow them to maintain their tradition, creativity and their story. They continued to persist despite all of the roadblocks and the negative comments from the community. However with time, they actualized their power and were invited to join the town assembly as leaders within the community. These women helped bring commerce into the town and have highlighted the influence of indigenous skills.

We gathered multiple dye materials and played with the different combinations of colors. Some of the materials we gathered included:
Cochineal, Pericon, Chamiso, Marigold flowers, Turmeric, Pomegranates, Indigo, Tree Bark, and Nuez.

Cochineal is a bug infestation that is managed on Nopal paddles. They are removed and dried for storage. When you squash a cochineal bug, it produces this vibrant shade of berry red.

Natural dyeing has always been one of my favorites crafts. It’s a beautiful, intuitive and alchemic process that reveals so much beauty and color through everyday materials from the natural world. With one plant material or mineral, you can add mordants to alter the shade or create a range of colors. Here we experiment with altering the base color of Cochineal (starting from a dark berry red) and adding different mordants to create multiple colors. For example, we we added limes it altered the color to a bright pink.