ANGELA DAMMAN: CRAFTS OF YUCATAN
A simplified, naturalistic form repeats across the surface of a honey-toned pouch designed by Angela Damman. Chosen not just for its pleasing shape, this form is in fact a bee’s wing, a collaboration with artist Katherine Sackstetter on the fragility and beauty of these much-threatened pollinators. The wing design represents Damman’s commitment to the country she now calls home, and her desire to grow a business rooted in gentle, sustainable cultivation and traditional processes. When Damman and her husband moved from America to Mexico in 2011 they were hoping to build a life that was meaningfully connected to the land. By 2012, Damman, artist turned entrepreneur, had set up a business designing and making bags, cushions and rugs, with every process, from growing the plants, extracting their fibres, drying, dyeing, spinning and weaving, all within a 50-mile radius of her home in Yucatán.
Image: Hammock “Jacinto’s Castle of Dreams” by Angela Damman. Photo courtesy of Angela Damman. Image above: Plant Fiber Hammock “Jacinto’s Castle of Dreams” by Angela Damman © Pepe Molina.
For everything she designs and makes, Damman mainly uses four materials, three that they cultivate: sansevieria, henequen agave and sisalana agave (both endemic to Yucatan), and espadin agave. Espadin is a project started with Trine Elitsgaard and Hermanos Maguey in Oaxaca. Espadin is used for mezcal production.
Henequén, Mexico’s green gold, yields a fibre ideal for rope and twine. It was used by the Mayans to make string, hammocks, and rugs - all present in Angela Damman’s lexicon.
Image: Henequen. Photo courtesy of Angela Damman.
The nineteenth century boom in henequén production made Yucatán, which was producing almost all of the rope used in the world at that time, one of the richest states in Mexico. But the industry all but disappeared with the introduction of synthetic fibres. Sansevieria, the other plant Damman uses, has a reputation as an almost indestructible houseplant. Not native to Mexico, it was cultivated because of its strong and resilient fibres which are softer and finer than the native henequén, making it ideal for thread making. 
Image: Combed Sansevieria Fiber. Photo courtesy of Angela Damman.
Damman’s Bruja bucket bag, made with spun sansevieria fibre, nicely plays on this sense of fineness, and with unapologetic show is lavishly layered with 1500 fringes. A combination of skilled labour, imagination, and appreciation of Mexican style and contemporary design aesthetics are what gives Angela Damman’s tactile accessories their appeal. This cultural hybridity, found in Mexico’s cuisine, agriculture, architecture and visual culture, is central to her designs.
Image: Sansevieria. Photo courtesy of Angela Damman.
From hammocks made from handspun sansevieria thread, to pom-pom like fringed bags, her sense of luxury, style and personality, as well as a sense of the place she now calls home, is writ large across her pieces. As well designing bags and homewares, Damman continues her practice as an artist, producing textile sculptures and bespoke objects made using henequén and sansevieria fibres. Her conceptual work Ascension of 13 was inspired by the relationship between Mayan myth and culture and the henequén plant.
Image: Pink Beasts, in art installation for Design Miami curated by Fernando Laposse and in collaboration with Angela Damman. Photo taken at Angela Damman’s studio. Photo by Pepe Molina.
Damman has also created a large chandelier made of raw sun-whitened henequén, and another two-meter tall chandelier made of nearly 40,000 meters of hand spun organic sansevieria. This more experimental work shows the aesthetic and technical possibilities of the plant fibers, ensuring the place of these natural and sustainable materials in the contemporary design vocabulary.
Image: Angela Damman finely woven henequen handbag, part of the Selvedge issue 113 competitions.
Article featured in Selvedge issue 89: Latin.
Especially for Selvedge readers, Angela Damman is offering a luxury handbag, worth £365. To be in the chance of winning, enter our prize draw here.
Find out more:
angeladamman.com
@angeladammanyucatan