Yuletide Shopping Guide – Fabric – Mesoamerica

I recently posted that because 2020 has been a challenging year I was putting together a Yuletide Shopping Guide with the intent to help artisan members of our community & to help spotlight items that support our religious devotions and practices. Starting with resources for our craters, makers and DIYers. So far I’ve spotlighted cookie cutters, and craft molds and now it’s time to tackle fabric.

I decided to ignore offerings from big box retailers, and instead focus on work from individual artisans by scouring the inventory of online storefront, Spoonflower–a print on demand fabric (and sometimes wallpaper) service where individual artists can upload their own fabric designs making them available on the platform. Since Spoonflower takes care of fulfillment they get a cut of each purchase, but the artists also get their share too. These are not mass manufactured fabrics where you get cost savings because you’re a big box retail store chain ordering thousands of bolts at a time. So prices are more expensive, but if you pay attention to the site you’ll find that they run periodic sales.

The service is set up so that you can choose the amount of fabric you want, and have an array of different types of fabric (cotton, fleece, chiffon, linen, jersey, canvas, poplin, etc.) so you can select the best type of fabric for the creation you intend to make. Similarly when wallpaper options are present there are usually a few different options. If you love the fabric, but just aren’t that crafty sometimes the items will also be available for purchase as finished goods in the form of table runners, placemats, napkins, tea towels, tablecloths, pillowcases, duvet covers, sheets, curtains and the most manufactured good in the world this year (or seemingly so) cloth face masks. So, for any pattern that catches your eye, be sure to check the listing carefully.  If you opt to pick up a finished good, please pay attention to fabric orientation.

There were so many design options available for a wide range of polytheistic traditions, that I’ve decided to split it up across multiple days. First up is pre-Columbian/Mesoamerica, which encompasses two of the most widely known cultural examples: the Aztecs and the Mayans.

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Muhlenkott

I was very pleasantly surprised to discover a pattern of interest for our Mesoamerican polytheists based off of the illustrations of the Aztec Gods Tonatiuh, Itztlacoliuhqui, Mictlantecuhtli from the Codex Cospi, and there’s more designs from the artist Muhlenkott celebrating the religious heritage of the region encompassing the cultural heritage of Aztec, Maya, Peruvian, Oaxaca and more. How often are you going to find fabric designs featuring the glyphs for the Mayan calendar, each month was named for an animal or item and many of them we know to be sacred and connected to one of the Gods. There are a range of color variants too for most of the patterns.

Shop Muhlenkott’s Mesoamerican Collection

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Miscellaneous Designers

While I have some passing familiarity with the region, this is beyond my usual scope of expertise. Yes it is true folks, I don’t know everything. LOL! I’m sure anyone working with these Gods as part of their religious tradition will be able to decipher the art style and resulting glyphs and symbols far better than I, but I wanted to at least spotlight these designs because it can be hard to find assets outside of the traditional lands of Mesoamerica.

• I believe this design by b0rwear features glyphs of some of the Mayan Gods, as well as some of the houses found in the underworld.
• I think I’m spotting a modern take by axeleon (in both color, and a black & white) on the symbols for the Aztec Calendar months (Ozomahtli, Cuauhtli, Miquiztli, etc.).
• Pond-ripple’s design of Mayan pitz ball players.
• I believe I recognize the glyph for the Sun God K’inich Ajaw in this pattern designed by APN201 with multiple other (probably deity) glyphs too.
• A colorful contemporary version of the archaeological Aztec sun stone by Raveneve (or it’s variant).
• Thinlinetextiles has a collection of line art renderings of the Aztec sunstone in various colors, and at various sizes.

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Coming soon: even MORE fabric resources for DIYers.If there’s something you think I should spotlight in the yuletide shopping guide, please contact me and let me know.