Fair Trade Fashion and Design

Textiles at the Chol Chol Foundation

The weaving from the 38 Mapuche communities we work with is beautiful, with earthy tones and graphic symbolic patterns representing different visual elements of Mapuche spirituality. All wool is carded from sheep in the Aracaunía region, and shipped locally.

raw wool drying before being spun

The women spin the wool by hand into variety of different textures of yarn: thin, thick, smooth, textured, with single or double fibers twisted.

Mapuche mother spinning wool in her kitchen

The yarn is then dyed naturally with plant or mud brews from materials harvested sustainably in their communities. Colors of the wool change from season to season based on the acidity of the ground or the types of vegetables or flowers in bloom. Chile, garlic, herbs, mud and the like make common ingredients.

chile, herbs, corn, and garlic being dried for dyes

mother and daughter dying yarn

boiling plants, dying yarn

boiling plants, dying yarn

freshly died yarn, drying in back yard

bundled up