Introducing Silät: Wichí weavers from the Gran Chaco
In the forests of the Gran Chaco, where Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay blur into one another, a plant called chaguar grows wild. Its fibre has been harvested by Wichí women for generations, peeled and washed and spun by hand long before it ever becomes thread. This is where the story of Silät begins, and it's a story we're thrilled to bring into the Selvedge Artisan Goods shop.
Wichí weavers from the Gran Chaco
Founded in 2023 and led by the artist and activist Claudia Alarcón, Silät is a collective of nearly a hundred Wichí weavers based in Santa Victoria Este. The name means "announcement" in Wichí, and it's an apt one. Each piece the collective produces is a kind of statement: of presence, of continuity, of a community refusing to let its visual language fade.
Silät bags in production, from the harvesting of the chaguar, to the stitching of the bags structure.
What makes Silät's work so compelling is the layering of time within it. The yica stitch and ancient looping techniques used by these weavers have been passed down for generations, yet the patterns that emerge feel anything but fixed in the past. Geometric forms echo the rhythms of the forest itself, shaped by gestures so practised they've become instinct.
A selection of Silät bags available on the Selvedge Artisan Goods shop.
That sense of pattern and geometry has carried Silät's work far beyond the Gran Chaco. Their textiles have been shown in galleries and biennials worldwide, and have even entered into dialogue with one of the great names of European modernism, as Selvedge readers may recall from Issue 126. We'll return to that remarkable encounter shortly.
Silät, Tsinhay Lapakas (The Voices Of Women) Bag. Yica stitched with naturally dyed chaguar fibres.
For now, we're delighted to be stocking a small collection of Silät's hand woven bags, each one carrying the marks of the hands that made it: the particular tension of a stitch, the slight variation in dye, the trace of a technique that has survived against considerable odds.
Read on below for our feature from Issue 126, Deco, which explores Silät's story in full:
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Further Information:
Find a range of Silät bags in the Selvedge Artisan Good Shop
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Image Credits:
Lead: Silät, Inawop (Spring) Bag. Yica stitched with naturally dyed chaguar fibres.
All further images as credited in captions.