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Mayan Hands Guatemalan Crafts
Maya myth reveals that, at the beginning of time, the Moon, Our Grandmother, taught the first woman to weave on a back-strap loom. For more than two thousand years, Maya women have used this humble loom to weave beautiful cloth, rich with symbols that form their culture. Maya women love to weave; to inscribe in their cloth their peoples unique view of the universe and their passion for nature. Though valued among the world's finest textile artists, Maya weavers live in conditions of extreme poverty, sometimes making as little as $5 or $8 per month.
Mayan Hands, a fair trade enterprise founded in 1989, strives to improve the lives of these talented artisans. It works with ten different groups of weavers (about 225 women) who live in small villages in the highlands of Guatemala, and market their products through fair trade. These weavers now count on a modest but regular income that enables them to raise themselves from relentless poverty. They eat better, send their children to school, improve their situation and keep hope alive.
Mayan Hands weavers work tirelessly to produce exquisite, high quality products that we proudly present to you. Please remember that the back-strap loom is an intricate and painstaking art form, whereby even experts weave only one inch of brocaded cloth per hour of work. Considering this, you can see that our products are very reasonably priced. Maya weavers are artists and as such they are always creating; coming up with varying color combinations and new designs and products. For this reason, no two products are ever exactly alike.
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