It’s a crazy time for everyone in the world right now and we at Yabal like many others are figuring out each day as it comes and how best to continue supporting our artisans in this crisis. Guatemala seems to just be at the beginning of the outbreak so it’s been a rapid progression over… View more
Yabal has awarded scholarships to eight youth, children of our women weavers to use towards middle school and high school for 2020. Our youth are excited for this opportunity to continue their studies and look forward to achieving their dreams. Feliciana, above, is 13 years old and has just started 7th grade. She walks daily… View more
At the beginning of a recent needle-point workshop in the Pacutama community last month, we asked the women why the older members weren’t there.“They have bad eyesight so they figured they wouldn’t come to a workshop on needle point embroidery” to which we replied, “No, tell them to come! We have reading glasses for them!”… View more
To celebrate our work together in 2019 Yabal took our 41 backstrap loom weavers to the Xetulul amusement park, in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. The park is a major tourist destination about 2 hours from their community and is similar to Disney Land. Tourists from all over Central America travel to Guatemala just to visit this the… View more
Check out this awesome round-up from EcoCult of the best Ethical Home Decor brands, including yours truly… Yabal! Check out what they have to say: I won’t claim to know much about feng shui, but I do know that environment matters—to our overall wellbeing, our creativity, our relationships, and our work ethic. Our homes are… View more
Yabal’s women weavers in the rural Guatemalan communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama dream of giving their kids something that they never had- an education. Education is the hope they have for their children to escape poverty and have more options than they themselves had. But education, as all things in Guatemala, has a cost, which is… View more
We’re excited to share with you the lovely feature on Yabal’s Birds Wall-hanging and Birds Pillows in this week’s Sustainably Chic blog. Sustainably Chic is an online destination for sustainable fashion, green beauty & eco lifestyle. It’s a place where fashion can exist responsibly, so we can enjoy the art and love behind the things… View more
As part of this year’s oyster mushroom cultivation program with Yabal’s women weavers in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Yabal offered a cooking workshop to give the women new ideas of how to incorporate this nutritious and delicious food into their daily diet. Oyster mushrooms are high in protein, iron, zinc, potassium, folic acid, B vitamins, vitamin… View more
El dia de los santos (Nov. 1) and dia de los muertos (Nov. 2), All Saints Day and Day of the Dead, are one of our favorite holidays in Guatemala. In contrast to Halloween, celebrated during the same time in the US, Day of the Dead is one of the most important family holidays of… View more
By Isabel Coxaj Boj We invited our colleague, Isabel Coxaj Boj, to contribute to the blog today to share more about the deep spiritual symbolism in traditional Mayan textiles and clothes. Isabel is a backstrap-loom weaving teacher, textile-lover, and Yabal’s Store Coordinator in the Yabal shop in Xela, Guatemala. The Maya are recognized for their… View more
