The colors of the nigth: biguiidy (moth)

Size: 80x160cm: 2..6ft x 5.2ft

Weaver: Adrian Vicente

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. 

Design patterns and symbols

This rug depicts the moth pattern in many variations and colors. Moth represents the knowñedge that comes with night. The Zapotec deity Bigiidy (2J) is the representation of Itzapapalotl of the Meshica mythology; she is the goddess Queen of Tlamoanchan where people who dye of water related deaths and during child birth go to. Itzpapalotl was prayed to during childbirth; she is the Godess of Midwives and parturient woman. In fact the Zapotec word Bigiidy comes from Bii (air) gui (fire) di(song) and is cognate with Bigiídi, which means to be sewn. 

Itzapapalotl means Obsidian butterfly (obsidian arrows have the shape of a moth). She is associated with the moth Rothschildia Orizaba, an insect that is the messenger of death and the spirit of the deseased ones in todays indigenous tales. She is one of two divine two headed doe deers who temporarily transform themselves into women in order to seduce men and eat their hearts--quite a twist on the fact that obsidian arrows pierce the hearts of deer during hunting. Itzapapalotl is sometimes depicted with flowing hair and a femur, the bones represent the time resisting wisdom and knowledge that woman keep with rituals of fertility and transformation. The moth represents that knowledge that comes with night, with darkeness and wounds of transformation.