So nice to receive a thanks from the speaker of the program on Mayan textiles Tuesday evening.  What fun we all had admiring the details of cloth woven on a back-strap loom.

“Joan, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to hang out with so many textile enthusiasts and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to get them excited about Mayan weaving.

Here is the information about the books I had with me, in case you think some in the group will be interested. There are lots more, of course, but these all coincide with the period in which I did most of my own collecting.

Guatemalan Textiles Today by Marilyn Anderson, 1978 (Watson-Guptill). Very detailed and heavily illustrated account of all aspects of Mayan weaving, including fibers used, dying, spinning, techniques such as looping (crocheting) and netting, and both back-strap and floor loom equipment and techniques.

Living Maya by Walter F. Morris, Jr., 1987 (Abrams). Beautifully illustrated account of life among the traditional Maya communities of Chiapas, Mexico, with special attention to weaving from ancient times to the present.

The Textiles of Guatemala by Regis Bertrand (photographer) and Danielle Magne (writer), 1991 (Studio Editions Ltd.). Valuable for its many close-up photographs of textiles designs and techniques. (Unfortunately uses the term “tribe” to describe Maya communities!)

Threads of Identity: Maya Costume of the 1960s in Highland Guatemala by Patricia B. Altman and Caroline D. West, 1992 (Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA). Town-by-town descriptions of individual components of men’s and women’s traditional dress, linking textiles to geography, history, society, and language.”