Artisan Travels: Exploring Lake Atitlán's Depths
There are places in the world that stop you. Lake Atitlán is one of them.
A Lake Like No Other
Formed approximately 84,000 years ago after a massive volcanic eruption created the caldera that now holds its waters, Lake Atitlán is one of the most extraordinary bodies of water on earth. It sits at 5,128 feet above sea level, stretches 12 miles long, and reaches a maximum depth of 1,049 feet, making it the deepest lake in Central America. Its name comes from the Nahuatl and means, beautifully, "place of much water."
A World of Diversity in a Small Footprint
Guatemala is a small country with an astounding amount of textile diversity, and nowhere is that more vivid than along the shores of Lake Atitlán. The lake is surrounded by twelve indigenous villages, inhabited predominantly by Kaqchikel and Tz'utujil Maya, each maintaining their own distinct traditions, languages, and textile practices. To travel around the lake is to move through a textile map of the highland Maya world. Every village has its own colors, its own motifs, its own visual language, worn, woven, and lived every day.
We work with several of these communities directly. And for some of our most special pieces, we collaborate with multiple artisans around the lake to create a single product, transporting threads and panels of handwoven fabric across the water by boat. The result is a piece as layered and diverse as the land it came from.
Diving In
On a recent trip, I got to know the lake on an entirely new level. I swam across it in an open water race alongside local swimmers from all over Guatemala who share the same love for this extraordinary body of water. To be in the lake, surrounded by those volcanoes, moving through water that has held this community for thousands of years, was humbling in the most physical and personal way. There is something about experiencing a place with your whole body rather than just your eyes that changes how you understand it.
It reminded me of what it means to work with our weavers. To really know something, you have to give yourself to it fully. You have to be willing to be in it rather than simply observing it from the shore.
This month's mood board was shot on a dock on the edge of Lake Atitlán and features our Pez Lumbar Pillow, its design a celebration of the remarkable ability Guatemalan weavers have to depict animals in their textiles, a skill as intricate and expressive as any fine art. Alongside it, a bundle of threads from our Custom Color Program, a palm sun hat that is an absolute necessity for any trip to Atitlán, a rope from one of the many boats that cross the lake daily connecting village to village, and fresh flowers to celebrate Guatemala's nickname as the land of eternal spring.
