Last week we had a special presentation of FEEDBACK FRIDAY, this time with Sari Monroy Solis. Sari is a Mayan Kaqchikel backstrap weaver,natural dyer, and fiber enthusiast. Sari will be zooming in live from Guatemala and will be doing natural dyeing with local coffee fruits and other foraged tannins. She has been practicing tannin dyeing with foraged materials in Coastal California and is excited to share a little about the work she does with her elders in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Guatemala.
Watch the recording below.
Sari’s Instagram @theblueweaver
What is she excited about right now? “One, sharing my weaving knowledge with other people like me who are children of parents who migrated from Latin America and also educating others about the Indigenous roots of our backstrap loom. Two, I am also excited about my natural dye work with my Indigenous community in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Sacatepequez, Guatemala. My goal is to help my community return to naturally dyeing their cotton threads. My teachers are my elders and my community and they want to know how cotton was dyed before because much of the knowledge was interrupted by colonization and now the current knowledge is heavily influenced by Western and Eastern techniques that are not as applicable to the materials my community has on hand. I have successfully fundraised for small grants to go toward buying equipment for my elders for naturally dyeing and I am excited to share the beginnings of this project.”
About Sari Monroy Solis:
Sari lives in California and teaches Mayan backstrap weaving and natural dyeing. Her roots are in Guatemala and Mexico and so she spends a part of her year learning more advanced weaving techniques with her elders and sharing her natural dye knowledge with her communities. She is also Workshop Coordinator at Northern California Fibershed and a textile teacher at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Communications Director and co-presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori.