February, 2016
TLAMACAZAPA, GUERRERO
The palm is a cherished material as it allows the craftswoman to handcraft lasting and attractive products.
A tribute to Palm
Tlamacazapa, Guerrero, a small town where a variety of woven palm products are handcrafted. All the woman from this village know how to use this material. Thanks to the Secretary of Culture for sponsoring this story and let us work with twenty craftswomen from this remote place in the middle of the mountains.
This story begins with Alicia, who gathered other women at her place and gave us the facilities to start a dialogue between us and this project. During several sessions we understood the importance of the material, the techniques for weaving it, the products they make and the process for selling them. We understood also the problematics of the area, including the lack of water, their need for bringing palm from other regions, among others.
I like the idea of using the palm as natural as I can, even if they are used to use a lot of color (which implies the use of water, that is limited in this place). For the first exercise we thought about t using palm with a complementary material which would add value and have an interesting dialogue with this natural material. Copper was chosen because of the rigidity it may give to this new objects and also because of the beautiful contrast generated by this shinny material which exalts the woven palm. After analyzing the products they normally produce, we decide to rethink a daily bag that is comfortable to carry.
We also decided to explore the way of doing a tribute to the palm, because for people in this region it is a cherished material as it allows the craftswoman to handcraft lasting and attractive products. We added a metalized material, making a reference to gold. This way the beauty and value of the palm is exalted in a contemporary way. This material also avoids the use of water to dye the palm, which as we mentioned before, is a strong issue in the region.
Thanks to the Palm Women: Teofila, Santa, Margarita, Rosa, Alicia, Vicenta, Ermitaña, Gabriela, Aleida, Angélica, Aleja, Mariana, Silvia, Plutarca, Valentina and Salome for your time and effort.
