Our goal is for our women participants to enrich their artisanal ability and develop new products in order to access the local and global marketplace, obtain work opportunities, and acquire better income.

We welcome artists and designers from around the world to share their experiences and teach a new craft to the Mayan women artisans.

Devoted teacher, artist, and business woman extraordinaire Mary Anne Wise, founder of Cultural Cloth, and her long-time friend and business partner Jody Slocum have returned to Guatemala several times over the past 2 years to teach rug-hooking using recycled materials to Maya women artisans. The 14 dedicated students from four different groups have produced some fantastic new designs incorporating geometric figures, and motifs from typical Guatemalan textiles.

This past March, two lucky OB group members were selected to attend an international exhibition in the U.S. to represent the Guatemalan students’ work, entitled “Mary Anne Wise: The Art of the Hooked Rug” opening at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN September 23rd 2011.

Ms. Wise has been a great supporter of Oxlajuj B’atz’, dedicating countless hours to the women, teaching them the craft of rug-hooking. Oxlajuj B’atz’ sees promise in this partnership for a long time to come. Subsequent workshops are currently taking place in the communities so that other interested members of the four groups can learn this exciting new skill. back to top

Product Quality

Product quality is one of the most challenging areas for Oxlajuj B’atz’ and the women’s cooperatives, as defining “quality” as it pertains to the western markets, can be a difficult task for the groups. Since we began our new monitoring and evaluation system in 2009, Oxlajuj B’atz’ has developed a set of standards for each of the different products created by the women’s cooperatives. To assure success of our Fair Trade store, we have been providing the women with small business and promotion workshops that emphasize these quality standards so they can confidently sell products at a fair price. OB provides several workshops on product quality, we conduct monitoring of products on a regular basis, and we’ve compiled a check list for the groups to review the products before they are delivered. In our Democracy and Team Building program area, we teach group administration skills including division of responsibilities, in which each member is responsible for a specific task (such as revision of product quality), so that each member is cooperatively participating in the development of a quality product. back to top

Natural Dyeing of Threads

I remember when I was young and just learning to weave. It was so exciting to learn the skill. The natural dying is like going back and starting from the beginning, from before I was weaving. I feel so proud to now have learned this skill that my people before me had, in the beginning.
- Antonia Panjoj (elder community leader) commenting during OB’s natural dye follow-ups in her community, Chuacruz.

Oxlajuj B’atz’ coordinated two sets of natural dyeing workshops in January and September 2009 with two or three representatives from four groups, taught by natural dyeing expert Olga Reiche in Antigua, Guatemala. Olga has been teaching natural dyeing to artisan groups in all of Guatemala for over 20 years, including bringing it to the town of San Juan on Lake Atitlan (an area now famous for this technique). OB Community Facilitators have also received the workshops in Antigua and shortly thereafter provided follow-up sessions in the communities, teaching the skill alongside the groups’ representatives.

The first natural dye workshop in January 2009 was completely paid for by the groups through a loan program with the organization Build a NEST. NEST has a unique micro bartering loan program where the loans are paid back in products instead of cash so that the loans do not become a burden for the women. In addition, when it’s payment time, NEST orders more than the amount due so that the women always have a little extra income. back to top

Pine Needle Basket Making

Michele Hament from the San Francisco area has been making pine needle baskets for over 35 years. She visited Guatemala on three separate occasions since OB was founded, to share her techniques and learn new ones from four of our groups. Two groups are currently exporting these baskets through Mayan Hands. The baskets have generated consistent income for these groups. Since refining their basket making skills, these groups are continuously motivated to come up with beautiful new designs never seen before! back to top

Sewing and Machine Embroidery Project

In 2005 and 2006, OB hosted basic level sewing courses and machine embroidery courses for 22 women from different communities interested in learning to sew. Sewing and machine embroidery are requests that continuously show up in our yearly evaluations as skills that the women want to acquire. However, if one doesn’t own a sewing machine, it’s likely the skill won’t be put to use. At the end of 2006, we received a small grant to start a revolving fund for loans to purchase sewing machines. Using our own in-house funds for the remaining costs, we decided to initiate a pilot project for women who wished to advance their sewing skills and own a sewing machine. 15 women took part in the pilot project and paid the loans on time.

“It had always been a dream to have a sewing machine of my own but I could never afford it.  Thanks to Oxlajuj B’atz’, this great opportunity is now a reality.”
~ Rosa F. Garcia, Patanatik

In 2008, we expanded the project to 58 indigenous women artisans from the Guatemalan highlands and Rabinal area in Baja Verapaz, who received sewing classes in their community using their own machines purchased through our new micro-credit loan program.

In 2009, the same groups took intermediate and advanced level classes and a new group of 15 women who had previously learned basic sewing decided to take the advanced classes and buy machines through our loan program. These 73 women are continuing to practice their skill and sew their own goods for their families and locally. Two of the communities took the initiative to take machine embroidery classes that they paid for through our loan program. Three of the communities have informed us that they wish to formally offer services as a sewing group to export organizations. Currently OB has been working with the women on product quality in order to sell bags and other sewn products in our Fair Trade Store. back to top

Natural Products Workshops

Our natural products workshops are an off-spring of our Medicinal Plants Program. These workshops are intended for those women who wish to take medicinal plant workshops to the next level, from immediate home remedies to income generating products such as shampoo, soap, cough syrup, salves, and others that can be sold in local markets, and now in our Fair Trade store.

Don Fransisco Teleguario, an indigenous man who has extensive knowledge in medicinal plant uses and qualities, facilitated our initial workshops. Mr. Teleguario has several years experience with the Guatemalan organization, Intervida, which provides workshops in rural communities and elaborates natural products to sell in local stores and markets.

The medicinal shampoo has been the most successful product elaborated as two of the women’s cooperatives have generated income from this product. In addition, three of our participating women’s cooperatives are currently making natural jams and fruit preserves, a skill they learned from OB’s in-community workshops.

Many of the women’s groups wanted to make natural soaps and asked OB to supply them with such a workshop. Erica Harris, a collage artist and painter working and living in New York City has been a long-time friend of OB and often volunteered to share any number of her creative skills with the women. When we heard she could make soap, we knew we found a good match.

In our annual evaluations following the workshops, the women were excited and wanted to learn more. In 2010, OB initiated a new medicinal plants project that is all inclusive to learning the history of medicinal plants in the Maya tradition, plant qualities and remedies for common illnesses as well as planting garden plots for their own personal use, and/or to begin a supply of resources for creating natural products that will generate income. back to top