Gaarliín: spirit

Size: 40x200cm; 16"x6.5ft

Weaver: Zenaida, San Miguel del Valle

Price: $280 USD. 

Materials and methods: Beé (Dactylopius coccus costa, cochineal) for the red, dark red, pink and magenta. Xiuhquilitl (indigofera sufforticosa) for blue. Yauhtli (tagetes lucida) for yellow and mustard green.  Handwoven on a Zapotec style loom of the 16th century adapted from European styles. Woven using a 7 threads per inch reed and wool rayon blend for warp. 

Design, patterns and symbols.

This rug is inpired in a Bealguie'æ (feather snake) stone carving done at a 45° angle that was preserved by our ancestors and put on one of the walls inside the catholic church, the figure is exquisitely carved as if to show us the path to the flourishing of the spirit towards the sky. The path might be always an upward struggle, just like life has to constantly defy gravity and many other forces to keep going, so the spirit has to constantly evolve and grow to find true balance and harmony. But whatever our spiritual journey might feel like we should know that we are being constantly uplifted and guided by the great spirit and following the path of our ancestors, like that stair case to heave that was built step by step by each life cycle that walked on earth before us, shedding always a little more light into the unknown. Our only true tools in our spiritual journey are flowers (beauty, sacred plants, a life of balance) and the primordial sound of the universe (vibration, sacred music, harmony, chants, mantras, sacred geometry). This rug depicts butterflies of wisdom coming to polinice the eye of the feather snake (the diamond) guided by the distant light of stars (little diamonds). The rug was sketched by Samuel Bautista Lazo based on traditional zapotec patterns and symbols. The wool was dyed at the dixza workshop lead by Leonor Lazo Gonzalez.