The Maker
Made slowly,
on purpose,
by hand.
One-person studio connecting conscious consumers with the living craft tradition of Zapotec weavers in Oaxaca, Mexico. Each rug in our collection is handmade from start to finish — sheep wool sourced locally, dyed using plants, minerals, and insects following centuries-old Zapotec methods, and woven on traditional looms by skilled artisans in their village. No synthetic dyes, no shortcuts, no mass production. By working directly with these artists and honoring their ancestral techniques, we offer something rare: a functional work of art rooted in place, story, and time.
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01
Natural Materials
Only wool from white, gray and black goats — sourced from small farms in Mexico, processed by the weaver. No synthetics, no shortcuts.
02
Colors from Nature
Only dyes found in nature are used, such as marigold flower for the orange, indigo for the blues or cochineal for the reds.
03
Same process for centuries
Each design is made in house from start to finish: wool processing, yarn dying and looming all by one artisan.
The
Process
Step 01
Preparing The Wool
TThe process begins with raw, unwashed sheep's wool. Artisans first clean the fleece by hand, meticulously removing dirt, twigs, and burrs. It is then washed using a natural soap made from amole, a native root that cleans and softens the fiber without stripping its integrity. Once dry, the clean wool is carded by hand using large wooden combs to align the fibers, preparing it to be spun into strong yarn using a traditional wooden spinning wheel.
Step 02
Dying The Wool
Zapotec weavers are masters of alchemy, using strictly nature-sourced ingredients to create a vibrant color palette. Artisans harvest local materials to create deep, lasting shades. Cochineal, a tiny insect found on nopal, is used to prduce brilliant reds, pinks, and purples. Indico yields deep, rich blues, Pomogranate husk and Peacan leaves are used to achieve earthy yellows, greens and browns. The yarn is boiled in massive pots with these ingredients, often fixed with natural mordants like lime or wood ash to ensure the colors never fade.
Step 03
Design
Before weaving begins, the artisan must set up a traditional wooden foot-treadle loom. This involves meticulously stringing the warp—the vertical cotton or wool threads that form the structural grid of the rug. Because Zapotec weavers rarely use written patterns, the intricate geometric designs (often representing sacred Zapotec symbols like the Grecas or the Diamond of Life) are mapped out entirely from memory or calculated using complex mental math as the weaving progresses.
Step 04
Weaving
Using their feet to operate the treadles and separate the warp threads, the weaver passes horizontal colored threads (the weft) back and forth by hand. After every single pass, they use a heavy wooden comb called a batan to firmly pack the threads together. This high-density packing is what makes Zapotec rugs incredibly durable, lasting for generations. Once the design is complete, the rug is cut from the loom and the remaining warp threads are knotted by hand to form the finished fringe.
"A rug you can feel was made by a person, not a machine."
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