Toltecayotl: the flowered path

Size: 80x300cm; 2.6x10ft

Weaver: Azucena M. Contreras Gonzales 

Materials ans methods: criollo sheep wool hand dyed with colorfast aniline dyes using an exhaustive method. Handwoven on a Zapotec style loom of the 16th century adapted from European styles. Woven using a 7 threads per inch reed. 
Weaver: Azucena Contreras Gonzales

Price: 600 USD 
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Patterns and symbols.
This rug starts with smiles to remind us that laughing and smiling are the source of all healing, a medicine that we carry within. Then we have a cycle of life that curls inwards to represent that inner journey and internal struggle to find our true face and true heart; each step (rectangle) represents 13 years of life. The eye of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent as we call it, is woven to bring love and wisdom to our life by balancing the four types of awareness in the human experience: earthly, spiritual, logic/language and intuition/dreams.

Causes.

Purchasing these rugs helps pay for Azucena's University tuition fees. She is studying her bachelors degree in business administration at Universidad Nacionalista México, a school system that serves people what work and study part time. Her family has a rug stand near the Tule tree but since tourism influx dropped down in Oaxaca due to the pandemic sales have been very low in so they were reaching out to other families in the village to help sell their rugs.