Woven doily / wool from Ayacucho, Peru ca. 41 cm x31 cm

Woven doily / wool from Ayacucho, Peru

100% fair traded

Material: 100% sheep's wool

These woven doilies (which can also be used very well as place mats) are handcrafted from sheep's wool in the Ayacucho area. Ayacucho is located in the south of Peru on the eastern slope of the western Cordillera (2745 m above sea level) and has approximately 120,000 inhabitants. Between the 5th and 10th centuries, Ayacucho was the capital of the Wari Empire, the first higher culture in the Andean region to be a forerunner of the Inca Empire. In 1539 it was founded by Francisco Pizarro. The city got its name in 1825 in memory of the battle at the village of Ayacucho, in which the last Spanish troops were defeated, which led to the independence of most of the South American states.

Ayacucho has a colonial cityscape with numerous churches and is known as the city of 33 churches. As in all Andean regions, weaving was one of the most important branches of craftsmanship in Ayacucho, because the villages used to pay most of their tribute to their masters in the form of cloths. In Ayacuchu, very fine weavers were and still are made. Even though the Church had a strong influence on the weaving mills and thus the clothing of the population during the colonial period, the weaving pieces still carry the old codes that can be found in the patterns of the weaving. Similar to other branches of handicrafts, the weavers suffered greatly from the crowding out of their products by industrial mass products, not least because the customers were initially less interested in the importance of the patterns than in the practical value of the clothing and textiles.