Flower Baskets Dressed In Their Best Stripes Panama Mola

Flower Baskets Dressed In Their Best Stripes Mola is a hand sewn textile by a Guna (Kuna) artisan in Panama. A matched pair of baskets wears domed lids worked in bold scrolls, and each one sits on a rounded foot filled with fat slits. It has the tidy pride of a market stall set up just right. At 15 inches wide and 10 inches high, it makes a good pillow front or a small framed piece for a narrow spot. Use it to cheer up a pantry door, a craft room or your kitchen.

Molas are built by stacking several layers of colored cotton, then cutting down through one layer at a time so the colors underneath show through, and turning every raw edge under and stitching it closed by hand. The technique is called reverse appliqué, and a good panel is judged by how fine the stitches are and how many layers deep the cutting goes. This one came from Guna Yala, the San Blas islands off Panama's Caribbean coast, where the designs draw on the birds, fish, plants and geometric patterns of the islands and rainforest. It is ready to frame, mount, or sew into a pillow or a quilt panel, and no two are ever alike.

Founded in 1991, TraderBrock celebrates the handcraft of Latin America's indigenous peoples. Every piece comes from Guna, Wounaan and Emberá artisans we know by name, and all profits are reinvested in their communities for education, tools and the teaching of ancestral techniques. Buying from TraderBrock helps keep their culture and their traditions alive.

Width: 15"
Height: 10"
SKU: PM3556T