Los Pinos
of Patanatic, Sololá
Pine needle weaving is rooted in Guatemalan tradition, where pine needles have long been used to create ceremonial floor coverings for weddings, celebrations, and feast days honoring each village's patron saint. This cooperative has transformed that tradition into a refined craft, producing handwoven baskets of extraordinary texture and detail.
The pine needles are harvested seasonally, only from January through May, from a private plot near San Andrés Semetabaj. The cooperative selects needles at just the right stage of dryness: pliable enough to weave without breaking, but not so fresh that they warp as they dry. When the local harvest falls short, they source additional needles from a vendor in Chimaltenango.
Each basket is a testament to patience, skill, and the quiet ingenuity of women who saw a need in their community and answered it with their hands.
Shop Products By Los Pinos
Handwoven by artisans in the community of Patanatic, Guatemala, this plate charger is made entirely from collected pine needles, bound together in bundles and coiled outward in a continuous spiral using cotton thread. The technique is as meditative as it is precise, each rotation building slowly and intentionally into the final form.
The result is a charger of extraordinary natural beauty, warm in tone, rich in texture, and alive with the subtle, grounding scent of pine. It protects your table from heat while adding a layer of organic warmth to any place setting that no woven or ceramic charger can quite replicate.
Pine needles carry deep meaning in Mayan communities across Guatemala, where they are laid across floors during celebrations and ceremonies, a living, fragrant offering that marks moments of gathering and reverence. To bring this charger to your table is to carry something of that spirit into your own home.
PRODUCTION TIME: 40 Hours