One of the most interesting textile art forms I have ever scene is the art of mola making traditionally done by the Cuna indians of San Blas Islands, Panama. My mother brought one home after visiting Panama and I just knew I had to try to make one some day. I was amazed to realize that the designs on her 'picture' were done by reverse applique but with many layers of different colored cloth and in pencil thin lines. It was a beautiful piece of stitching and art.
Click on the following link to see a wonderful web page on
Molas and the beautiful Indian women who make them. It is a great page for kids! It has intriguing native music playing in the background as well.
http://charlottepatera.com/html/MAKE%20A%20MOLA/makeamola.html
In America, we do a very simple form of reverse applique using only two pieces of cloth. We cut away the shapes we want to reveal from the top layer of cloth to show a color below and then stitch the raw edges of the top layer down to the bottom layer. This technique is used for flowers, leaves, or even animal shapes. But never do we attempt such intricate lines or so many layers of cloth.
There is very little information available on how to do this, but as you can see from this picture, I am attempting a practice piece. I also bought a book from Dover publishing that has many authentic
Mola indian designs that I may try to use for a piece for next year's art festival. It is much harder to do than it looks but it is really fun to try!
This is my second attempt. The cloth on my first
mola was too thick allow me to do a good job on the applique stitches. In this mola, my lines are still wide. The pieces of cloth layered beneath the top layer of black cloth were not even, which is why the blue shows through the fish at the bottom. In the photo, you can see at the top that I have just cut slits to reveal blue for radiating lines. I used a white chalk marking pencil to draw the main designs and to plan out where I was going to cut. I'm mostly designing as I go. I also spent the last year doing a project which uses similar techniques on a project I called "Moonstones".
Andrew Reith, who painted the picture, had similar lines in his painting to what the Kuna Indians do. So I asked if I could sew his painting. I got lots of practice sewing those cigar lines! The project won our 3-dimensional division of the art show this year. I did exactly what the Kuna ladies did on their molas to get misc. colors. I just cut out pieces of the different colors I wanted and slipped it under the space I wanted to cut away. Their techniques were central to my being able to reproduce Andrew's painting in fabric. Notice the similarities in his design to the Mola art work.
Molas were made by the Kona indian women of Panama to replace body painting. A woman sews two identical pieces, one for the front of her blouse or dress and one for the back. She wears the dress with the mola until the dress is worn and/or faded and then rips the mola off and sews it onto another dress until she is tired of it. Then she rips it off again and sells it to local tradesmen who sell it to tourists. The average cost you will pay to buy one is around $75 to upwards of $200.00. If the mola doesn't have torn threads on the edges, or isn't a little worn or faded, it probably isn't authentic. The tourist versions are often made by machine and are not very well done. The artwork is also not usually traditional.
The most authentic
mola designs are geometric. More contemporary ones incorporate more modern imagery. You will often see flowers, fish, birds, and other jungle animals. You will sometimes see Christian imagery from missionary influence. Some
molas have
indian spirit symbolism in them, if they are for religious purposes.
To learn more about this art see the rest of the links below.
- Kuna Indian women and their art - http://www.panart.com/molainfo.htm
- Mola Art Gallery - http://thorup.com/mola.html
- How Molas are made - http://thorup.com/makeamola.html
- Detailed instructions on how to make a simple Bug Mola. (Very Good!) http://charlottepatera.com/html/MAKE%20A%20MOLA/makeamola.html
- Kid's Construction Paper Mola project- http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/08/how-to-make-mola.html
- Link to a great book -Molas!: Patterns, Techniques & Projects for Colorful Applique (Paperback-Buy used for less than $5.00)http://www.amazon.com/Molas-Patterns-Techniques-Projects-Colorful/dp/1579902235/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227384982&sr=1-3
He was probably at least a couple of months old in this picture.
This must be a winter picture considering they are in California right now. Colin looks like he is having a fun time. Amanda takes great pictures doesn't she?
This is probably a picture from this summer. They look so sweet together!
In America, we do a very simple form of reverse applique using only two pieces of cloth. We cut away the shapes we want to reveal from the top layer of cloth to show a color below and then stitch the raw edges of the top layer down to the bottom layer. This technique is used for flowers, leaves, or even animal shapes. But never do we attempt such intricate lines or so many layers of cloth.
The most authentic mola designs are geometric. More contemporary ones incorporate more modern imagery. You will often see flowers, fish, birds, and other jungle animals. You will sometimes see Christian imagery from missionary influence. Some molas have indian spirit symbolism in them, if they are for religious purposes.
In America, we do a very simple form of reverse applique using only two pieces of cloth. We cut away the shapes we want to reveal from the top layer of cloth to show a color below and then stitch the raw edges of the top layer down to the bottom layer. This technique is used for flowers, leaves, or even animal shapes. But never do we attempt such intricate lines or so many layers of cloth.
And of course they still need to be sewn with pink or green sashing strips and cornerstones to make into a quilt top. I plan to take these to Germany to hand stitch and embellish. By January, I should have plenty of time to sew the sashing strips and cornerstones into the top and be ready to quilt the baby blanket. A baby shower will be coming up soon!
Here are the pictures of this baby blanket "in progress'. Planning which scraps and colors should be used for each dress is half the fun and really the most important part. But I can't wait to add all the pretty things to the little girls' dresses.
Up close view of appliqued piano keys.
It took me six months to sew this dress! It includes french puff sleeves, cartridge pleats, six rows of hand sewn bias trim eight rose corsages and six rows of ruffles plus a very complicated bertha coller. She was one of the runner's up in the Most Beautiful Victorian Lady contest at Dicken's On the Strand in Galveston last year. Doesn't she look beautiful?
This is the first quilt I ever finished. It is queen size and hand-quilted.
An up close view of handquilting 8 continuous tulips on my Ohio Star quilt.
This was the first banner "sample" of 12 names of God banners that I made for Grace Community Church. Shannon Mucha is the artist who drew the pictures that I had in mind for each name. Hopefully, I will get pictures of the actual finished banners on here soon. (Check out Shannon's website at the link on my blog page.)
I sewed this picture of Jesus comforting a praying man for Donna Dickey's husband. Mike Orr drew an outline line drawing and I sort of 'soft-sculptured' this picture. Their original idea was just a flat applique, using her husband's clothes, but I got to playing around with the clothes and realized I could do an actual soft sculpture. The result was so powerful! It made me cry every time I looked at it. I call it "Forgiven".
Here are some pictures from the bridal luncheon I organized for Elisabeth. In this one, my daughter Rebekah is holding little Elisabeth Robison, and Elisabeth Weber, Andrew's fiancee is holding Rebekah Robison, her flower girl. So you are seeing Big Rebekah with Little Elisabeth and Big Elisabeth holding Little Rebekah...if you follow me~
Thanks to my dear friend, Shannon Robison, now I have some pictures to share on my blog! Enjoy! Isn't she a great photographer? I think she captured the spirit and joy of this day perfectly! The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Tim and I took Elisabeth and Andrew to the airport at 4am Monday morning along with her brother, Johannnes, who is off to Vancouver. They were so excited...and so cute with all their backpacks and bags. Johannes took a picture of them for me, but he will have to send it to us later. We had a little time before they needed to go to the gate, so we had coffee together and had a nice little visit. They are off to Cancun and tropical paradise! We will get to see them open presents when they get home on Sunday evening. I haven't had a minute to post anything on my blog, but now that the wedding is over I should be able to do so.
