The Women of Ajkem'a Loya and their breathtaking creations

Additional view of Mayda's sizable beach tote

Mayda showcasing her accomplished beach bag.

Catharina modeling Ruths bag

Additional view of Sandra's bag

Sandra's intricate Bag with leather accents and inserts

Closer view of Catharina's bag

Catharina's fun and colorful handbag

Close view of Hilda's gorgeous bag

Hilda with her creative textured pouch.

Telma's neutral toned handbag

Romelia's beautifully handcrafted bag w/leather strap and bottom

Back view of Gloria's bag

Gloria and her beautiful bag

sewing the bags

The women of Ajkem'a Loy'a finishing the bags they designed. 

Mayda takes charge concerning the patterns and the sewing

Rebecca sewing Romelia's bag

Hilda and Gloria finishing their bags, 

the women made three sizes of the same kind of bag, 

Hilda and Gloria are both finishing the smallest version

Sandra assembling the bag she designed

Mayda cutting the pattern for the bag of Catherina

Hilda finishing her bag

Catherina 

Romelia showing the fist bag that is finished,

Gloria Raxtun's bag

Muestras Finales de tejidos

Barco

La evolución de los productos esta llendo muy bien en el segundo grupo, Barco. Ahora que tenemos terminadas las muestras de los cubrecojines pasamos a formalizar los tamaños. Hemos escogido dos tamaños de los más vendidos en el mercado americano 18”x18” y 12”x18”. Es una fortaleza que este grupo este trabajando con teñidos naturales porque los colores son muy combinables.

Tenemos aprox 15 muestras que queremos combinar en cuatro cojines, dos del tamanio grande y dos del pequeño. Junto con las mujeres hemos escojido y nombrado las siguientes combinaciones:

1. Flor Cafe : pequeño (combinacion de Rosa con Virginia)

1. 
2. 
3. Paz : grande (Combinacion de Eufemia con Mirta)
4. 
5. Chilca : Pequeño (Combinacion de Eufemia con Teresa)

1. Luisa : grande (Combinacion de Teresa con Mirta)

Una vez terminadas las muestras en los tamaños reales hemos trabajado con ellas las costuras que se van a utilizar para unir ambas partes del cubrecojin. La parte de adelante es distinta a la parte de atras es por eso que la costura es muy importante para que el producto sea armonico. Las sugerencias de las mujeres nos han servido mucho para unir las dos partes exitosamente . Otro punto importante son los costados del cubre cojin, hemos trabajado 2 acados distintos (maya y red). El ultimo paso para terminar el producto es desarrollar un cierre apropiado que posiblemente sea un lazo hecho de hilo negro.

Al mismo tiempo de ir desarrollando los productos estamos trabajando con los costos. El primer reto es que las mujeres registren los tiempo que invierten en terminar una paño del cojin. Para lograrlo se ha descompuesto el tiempo total invertido en los siguientes: Enrrollado, tramado, subida y tejido. Esto ha ayudado a sacar apropiadamente los costos y ha que ellas tomen en cuenta el hilo invertido y el tiempo que tienen que tener para terminar el producto.

Ajkem´a Loy´a

Después de casi 3 semanas de trabajo con la asociación Ajkem´a Loy´a finalmente tenemos las muestras de los tejidos y diseños que formaran parte de las carteras. Existen 3 tamanios de carteras distintas: Playa, Mediano y pequenio. Estas carteras consta de varias paños que se coserán a mano para conseguir los acabados requeridos.

Tejido de Mayda para la cartera tamaño Playa

Tejido hecho por Sandra, con aplicación de cuero

Tejido hecho por Caterina

Tejido hecho por Gloria

Tambien se desarrollo un modelo distinto de cartera de forma rectangular, hecho de solo dos paños y unidos por cuero.

Tejido hecho por Romelia

Parte de atrás de la cartera, también hecho por Romelia

Giving Indigenous Girls in Guatemala the Chance to Reach Their Full Potential by Supporting Their Education

Mayan girls and young women in Guatemala are triply disenfranchised by their youth, their gender and their ethnicity.

At the age of 12 they are taken out of school to work because their families cannot afford their education.

Given the opportunity of an education, girls hold the key to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

$100 a year can be the decisive factor on whether an adolescent girl flourishes with opportunities or languishes in poverty.

Help us support the education of girls in the communities we collaborate with by donating to our scholarship fund or purchasing a photograph. If you are interested in donating to the fund or purchasing a photograph, please contact me at fberdiel@gmail.com.

Sonia would like to sell her photographs in order to pay for her education. Each photograph is $50 (minimum donation). The sale of two photographs will cover the cost of 1 year of school for Sonia.

Social Entrepreneurs of San Antonio Aguas Calientes

Although most of our time in Guatemala has been spent on working with the women in Santiago Zamora, we have also dedicated time to a few social entrepreneurs in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. These entrepreneurs each informed us about their separate interests and we have come together as collaborating consultants on each of the following projects:

Poli-Deportivo

Enmanuel, a native of Guatemala, lives in San Antonio Aguas Calientes with his mother. After opening a paper store for the students in the area, Enmanuel has plans to develop a multi-sports field and playground on land he already owns. His vision is to provide a free and safe space for the children in the community to play. Alongside the volleyball/soccer/basketball field, he would like to build a playground and concession stand. In the spirit of his father, Enmanuel hopes to become an active leader in the community by supporting the healthy development of the children of San Antonio Aguas Calientes.

Escuela de Katchiquel

Olga, a true entrepreneur at heart and in practice, owns and operates her own bakery, is helping her son to open a laundry mat, and, on occasion, hosts Peace Corp volunteers in her home. Professionally, she works as a Spanish teacher at a school in Antigua. Olga has hopes to transfer her skills as a teacher into opening her own school in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Her mission: to teach Katchiquel (a Mayan language) to preserve and share her Mayan heritage. Olga's school will be the first of its kind in San Antonio, and she is working to attract not only tourists interested in learning Katchiquel, but also the youth in the community, as knowledge and use of the language is diminishing.

Branding and Marketing Initiative

Irla, a driven and uniquely talented weaver, supports her family’s artisan business through her San Antonio market stall. As a highly zealous and bright mother of two, she sought to develop a brand and marketing initiative promoting her family’s exceptional crafts, as well as offer an array of distinct Mayan activities to the culture-hungry traveler. Recently, Irla had the memorable experience of hosting a foreign student in her home, and looks forward to the opportunity to share her family’s traditions with more interested travelers. Natural herbal medicines derived from the family’s garden, the language of Katchiquel taught by Irma’s father, and lessons in the preparation of naturally pigmented thread made from their cotton tree are just some of the many unique Mayan activities Irma and her family offer. After naming her business IXEL K’IEM (a nod to the Katchiquel god of weaving), and with the support of business cards, a comprehensive brochure in both Spanish and English, and an email address, Irma and her family hope to gain the publicity their remarkable business warrants.

They Have a Name!

We are excited to announce that the women in Santiago Zamora have come to an agreement on a name for their association: Ixoki A'J ru xel Quiem or "Señoras Tejedoras Nativas." We have been working with the official group of 11 women to create a set of rules and regulations, to assign roles and responsibilities and to design a logo. We are looking forward to getting as much accomplished before we head back to the United States to make sure that when we leave, the women feel organized, empowered and informed to make any decisions and to take on any opportunity or challenge that may come their way.

Time has proven to be a highly treasured element on this trip. In the past two weeks, we have experienced incredible progress with both Ajkem'a Loy'a and BARCO. It has been both a privilege and learning experience working with each group; and equally exciting to see what they have been creating. There is so much to be said about what we have experienced since first here, so I will try and sum everything up as best as possible.

We have been working with the women of Ajkem'a Loy'a on two different groups of bags: the first of which is a circular-shaped drawstring bag in three different sizes and the second, a handheld clutch ("wristlet" I believe is the proper term) and shoulder bag, both in the same size.

We began our work with Ajkem'a Loy'a by introducing a series of "inspiration" images for them to look at. Each of the women selected a few of their favorites, explained to us why they chose them, and began experimenting with their weaving, using the images as "reference." The outcome was very pleasing: each of the women explained what elements they used from the images in their weaving (most of whom were initially attracted to the colors). Mayda, drawing inspiration from a picture of the ocean, not only incorporated colors from it, but also created a dotted pattern in her weave that represented the rocks underneath the water. Those of which were closer to the surface and thus received more sunlight were translated into brighter yellow dots in her weave, while the other rocks further from the ocean's surface were more subdued in her design.

As this exercise proved to be a success, we decided to continue the experiments with each of the women over the next few days. Sandra's experiment was also very impressive...in my opinion, hers was the most daring. You could tell that she was really trying to push herself beyond her limits, which was very exciting to see. From her experiment, we (the students and Pascale) were curious to see what she could do with incorporating leather into her weaving. So, we took a visit to the leather man, Santiago, up the street and brought back strips of leather for Sandra to experiment with. Once again, we were blown away by the progress that was made. Sandra began weaving them in very simple ways, but as time progressed, she began to very intuitively incorporate them as if they were like the rest of the threads.

We were incredibly pleased with the combination of woven and leather, and decided it would also be a nice detail in the two smaller bags (clutch and shoulder). This could very well be the beginning of something really amazing for Ajkem'a Loy'a...

We began our work with the other group of women in the afternoon. We began our workshop by having them show us what they had been making, so that we could have an idea of what kind of products would best sell. We as a group were very, very excited to see what they had been creating, and were especially amazed at how completely different their work was from Ajkem'a Loy'a. After carefully looking over everything and discussing with the women what they would like to make, we all came to the conclusion that pillow covers and scarves would be the best solution. The women were very excited that we were working with them...all of us felt their determination so much that it really felt like a true collaboration.

We were then invited over to Teresa's home, where the women showed us the threads they used in their weaving. All of us were completely in awe at the beautiful array of colors the women showed us. As amazing as the colors were, what was even more incredible was the story behind them and how they came to be. The women explained to us that all of the threads were naturally dyed. Most of the colors they produced came from a single plant (I am forgetting the name as of now...) they find in the mountains. Depending on the cycle of the moon very much determines what colors are extracted from the plant. The women showed us two different bundles of thread, both of which came from the same plant but at different cycles so that one of them was much brighter in color than the other. Another beautiful color, a brilliant orange, was extracted from "zanahorias" or carrots. All of us were so amazed to hear this...not only were the colors beautiful, but the process in which the women collected them was beyond anything any of us had ever seen or heard.

As we continue developing products with these women (who have decided to call their company BARCO: "bar" and "co" are recurring letters in their surnames), our hopes are very high that we can produce a few different pillow covers to be sold in the states. Also, we are planning on taking back a few of their scarves that are already set for production...

So, very exciting things are happening and it's going by very, very quickly. We have yet to see what more will come from our time here, but I am positive it will be amazing.

Until then...