What is a mola in art?
Molas are simple yoke-type blouses richly decorated by intricate needlework. Mola can mean the blouse that is daily wear for Kuna (sometimes spelled Cuna) women but most often refers to its front or back panel. They have been made for about a century.
What is a mola in Panama?
Molas are a brightly colored textile art created by the Kuna tribe from the San Blas Blas region of Panama. Mola means cloth or clothing in the Kuna language. These panels of stacked cloth are used to make women’s blouses. Girls learn to make these at an early age and can spend up to 100 hours making one Mola!
What is the main concept of a mola?
Meaning of Mola Symbols Mola motives have their origin in body painting like they are still used by many indigenous groups of Latin America. A main concept in Molas is to leave as little unworked space as possible as the Kunas believe that evil spirits can settle in the free spaces.
What is a mola Kuna?
Mola, a Kuna word, has several meanings: fabric or cloth, shirt or upper garment for men or women, brightly decorated women’s blouses, or colorful layers of fabric, cut and hand-sewn into designs for fronts and backs of Kuna women´s blouses.
What do molas look like?
Typical Molas consist of patterned cotton pieces of clothing. A Mola can be a skirt, scarf or t-shirt, but also a piece of arm or leg covering. The quality of a Mola is detriment on the number of layers of cotton that is used and the fineness of the stitching.
What were molas used for?
Molas were originally used as part of the women’s blouses. Molas are traditionally made and worn by the Kuna women and girls in pairs to serve as front and back panels of the blouses they wear everyday. Nowadays they are also sold to collectors and framed and exhibited.
What kind of colors are used in molas?
Each mola consists of two to seven layers of cotton cloth in the dominant colors of red, black, and orange.
How do you do mola art?
Molas are hand-made using a reverse appliqué technique. Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-colored cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting away parts of each layer. The edges of the layers are then turned under and sewn down.
What materials are molas made of?
Molas are hand-made using a reverse appliqué technique. Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-colored cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting away parts of each layer.
Who created molas?
Kuna tribe
Molas, a traditional textile craft, are made from layers of colored fabric that are stitched and cut using applique techniques to create patterns and pictures. They originated in Panama, with the women of the Kuna tribe in the San Blas islands.
What animals are used in Molas?
Molas use the clavus to steer as they swim. Molas enjoy sunning themselves at the surface of the ocean. This is why they are also called sunfish. They live in tropical and temperate oceans around the world.
Where did the idea of Mola art come from?
Mola art developed when Kuna women had access to store bought yard goods. Mola designs are often inspired by modern graphics such as political posters, labels, pictures from books and TV cartoons, as well as traditional themes from Kuna legends and culture.
What kind of art is made in Panama?
One of Panama’s best-known handicrafts is the mola, intricate reverse-applique handwork made by the Kuna, and now an important symbol of their culture. The layers of brightly-colored fabric form animals or geometric shapes, and are used to decorate the blouses of Kuna women.
Who are the makers of the molas fabric panels?
The Molas are top quality, authentic, beautiful reverse applique or applique fabric panels, quilters and crafters all over the world incorporate these beautiful panels in their sewing and craft projects . All molas are handmade by the Kunas of San Blas.
Where do the molas of Panama live now?
They first moved into the Darien Rainforest, then towards the coastal Mainland of Panama, and by the 19th century they had begun to move out to the islands where they now live in the semi-autonomous region called Yala Guna. What is a Mola?