quiltersmuse.com Blog

I love Molas! No doubt about it. Each one is a unique piece of art made by a Kuna Indian. Recently, I shared other mola images on this blog. If you scroll back, you will be able to see them. The following images were sent to me by Betzy L. Smith de Leon and were photo-edited by me. I hope that you enjoy seeing the variety of mola crafts that she vends.

A purple parrot is the main theme of this mola. Birds are often depicted on this type of indigenous textile.

This photo shows two potholders. You can readily see that the Kuna Indians have adapted their traditional blouse making techniques to small craft items for “the trade.”

This mola potholder features the name “Panama” on it. Panama is the closest land area to the archipelagos where molas are made, and there is much trading with the “mainland,” as well as tourists who visit the Indians, by boat.

Interesting design features baskets. This mola panel is part of a blouse.

This is a charming cat mola!

Complex mola images features an iguana (?) and leaves

What a cheerful looking fish mola!

In keeping with Christian holidays, here is a mola that features a candy cane. The Kuna Indians often make molas with Christian crosses and other symbols of Christianity.

To learn more about molas and their history, please visit “A History of Molas” by Patricia L. Cummings.

Questions: Contact me at: pat@quiltersmuse.com

After reading my online file about Egyptian appliqué, a woman named “Margot” sent me 10 photos of her Egyptian textile collection, yesterday. She calls herself “an inadvertent collector of Egyptian appliqué” and found her pieces to collect, in Maine and online beginning in the 1980s.

Although she apologized for the “amateurish” look of her photos, I was able to work with them a bit, with a photo editing program, and I believe you will enjoy seeing the images. There is only one that is cropped off at the end, due to a streak of light. They are wonderful!

A lot of symbolic imagery appears in the following designs. At the end of this photo essay, I will list some books in my personal collection that are helpful in identifying the meaning of the symbols. Identification of the symbols would be a good project for home-schooled children and others who are interested in learning more about Egyptian art, always a fascinating subject!

In addition, Dover Publications sells a CD-ROM & Book called Egyptian Designs for MacIntosh and Windows. No affiliation.

I hope you have enjoyed this file. Many thanks to Margot for sharing her collection with us.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

I love it when I can find cultural expressions in various formats. To give you an example, when I was deep into studying Bluework Embroidery, I began to collect blue and white dishes, produced in various locations. I discovered that blue and white has been a Classic Color Combination for centuries. If you look around my website, you will see further examples of that, one primary one being distinctive Blue and White Embroidery from Deerfield, Massachusetts. Today, I want to show you one specific plate that I collected.

Tribute plate to “The Little Mermaid,” collection of Patricia Cummings

Having no idea what the plate represented, when I purchased it, I bought a small plate. My daughter-in-law, Rebecca, who was born in Denmark and lived there a good many years, recognized the image immediately. “The Little Mermaid” or “Den lille havfrue,” is a story for children written by Hans Christian Andersen of Denmark. The story was first published in 1837. The basic story line is that a mermaid wishes to have a human soul so that she can marry a human prince.

In 1913, a statue to the little mermaid was unveiled in a harbor at Copenhagen. Unfortunately, this statue has been vandalized greatly, over the years. However, it is such an important symbol, to the Danes, and a tribute to Andersen, a great Danish poet and writer, the statue has often been repaired.

If you would like to know more about the story, here is a link a Wikipedia entry: The Little Mermaid.

As we look around us, it is stunning to see how many songs are related to actual events, and to realize the many other connections that we take for granted. Many times, the meaning of objects go far beyond the obvious … and the one I’ve just shown you is one example.

Happy Weekend,

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

What exactly does the word “primitive” mean? Today, we have a relatively new embroidery style that folks are calling “primitive.” This embroidery genre is based on simple line drawings of angels, pumpkins, houses, fences, and other “folksy” designs, all drawn to give a purposely unschooled look. There is nothing fancy about the work. It is often worked on tea-dyed fabric and executed with straight lines or outline stitch. The idea of “primitive” motifs has led me to think about the term, as it applies to ancient people and their art.

First, the work of prehistoric, Paleolithic man comes to mind, as seen in the images that were painted, incised, or sculpted onto the walls of a cave in Altamira, Spain. The most famous of the figures, perhaps, is a wounded bison that has fallen to the ground.

Cave paintings are a reflection of the culture that created them. Nor is that cave in Spain the only one to feature “art.” One lesser known cave in Spain depicts the processes of procreation and reflects an early understanding of biological actions and results. A cave in Lascaux, France also feature painted animals. Some art historians have considered the hunting scenes of early cave paintings to have been used as a good luck omen to cast a magical spell on the good fortunes of the hunt.

Another group, North American Indian “artists,” has now, mysteriously, disappeared. Once a thriving population, the Anasazi Indians of the Four Corners region of the U.S., were an advanced, sophisticated, and savvy group. Their ruins are a place that still calls many visitors to the southwest, each year. On rocks, the Anasazi etched “petroglyphs,” still studied by artists and archaeologists.

A third group of “primitive” people were the Mayans. They also had a very advanced culture. Please read the entry under “Art Discoveries,” on this blog, that describes how a professor from the University of New Hampshire discovered some new “finds,” not too long ago.

People have always found art to be pleasing, hopeful, satisfying, expressive, a good luck omen, spiritual, magical, reflective, and many other words we could use to describe what we generally just call “art.” The lesson to be learned, in this discussion, is that there really is “nothing new under the sun,” as is stated in the Bible. As long as there are people, I predict that many of those individuals will continue to want to create “art,” for its own sake. Primitive Art, in general, gives us a window into the creative processes of the human mind and its expression in art from times passed.
Patricia Cummings

I have just written a new file about the topic of “Chalk Talks.” These appear to have been most popular in the early twentieth century. I have been intrigued with the name. If anyone hears of some other person who is known for this kind of illustrated instruction, I’d love to hear more!

Pat Cummings