Size: 80x150cm; 2.6x5ft
Master Weaver: Mario Bautista Martinez, Teotitlan del Valle.
Materials and methods: merino sheep wool spun in the mills of the Vara family in Tianguistengo. Hand dyed yarns by Leonor Lazo using natural dyes: Xiuhquilitl (indigofera suffruticos) and Béé (Dactylopius Coccus). 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. Fringes tucked in by Rusio Gutierrez and family.
Design, patterns and symbols.
This rug has the Nahual (a person that creates knowledge) symbol. This symbol represents the balance of the awareness between the left side of our awareness that connects us to our feelings and our intuition; we call this Rubeæs in Dixzaa language, the side of the Jaguar. On the right side of our awareness (líi, the key, the linear awareness) we have the side of logic and language that we use to create a structural understanding of life and the cosmsos. The Nahual is able to use these two types of awarenes in a balanced way and thus is able to switch from the awake to the spirt work back and forth effortlessly. The Nahual symbol is created by uniting the hands into fists joined at the thumbs, this pattern has the proportions of the golden ratio in the spiral pattern that us formed by our hands and is found all over nature, from the smallest being all the way up to the spirals of galaxy formations. The blue and the red color mingle in a spiraled pattern to represent the double helix of our DNA, the sacred geometry that encodes part of who we are as units of information that is expressed in physical and intangible ways (emotions, thoughts, perception). Like the Ying and Yang pattern, no one side is completely red or completely blue, but an intermingle of both a potential to understand and carry the seeds of both sides of the universal duality and express it in many different ways. In this day and age of division and war, we call for more balance in our view of life and lets strive to maintian the balance that will keep sustaining life on this planet for all living beings. Blessings from the Spring equinox, when day and night are balanced.