Backstrap Loom

Backstrap Loom

A backstrap loom which belonged to "Ana," an Ixil (Mayan descent) weaver who learned the craft in Chajul, Guatemala. Loom has a thick band woven of a seemingly natural fiber rope in order to allow the weaver to wear the loom. Loom has several slate like wooden pieces, as well as several reeds of some type associated with it and contained within the present burdgundy, orange, blue, purple, green, yellow and blue-green threads. Loom associated with two unfinished fiber projects which also have reeds and wooden slates in their threads. Loom also associated with three loose reeds.
  • Object: Backstrap Loom
  • Artist: Ana
  • Circa: Approx. 1980
  • Dimensions: -
  • Culture Area: Central America / Guatemala
  • Cultural Group: Ixil Peoples , San Gaspar Chajul
  • Cultural Context: Presumed to be either the loom in the associated video (3 Weaving Traditions_1) or a similar loom utilized in the crafting of precolombian garments traditional in some groups of Mayan descent living in what is now Guatemala and Mexico.
  • Donor: Jeanne Sloane
  • Catalog #: 2024.2.1