Molas: A Cloth Tradition

The mola featured in Davis Publications' Explorations in Art, fourth grade book.

Unique fabric traditions of the Kuna Indians of Panama.

Among the Kuna people in the San Blas Islands of Panama, there is a tradition of making brightly colored panels of cloth called molas. In the Kuna language, mola is the word for shirt or clothing. A mola is made from many layers of fabric. The artist cuts out shapes from the top layers to show the beautifully colored fabric below.

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. The international market for molas has provided an economic benefit for the Kuna Indians.

The same design is featured on the front and back. Each mola may take a month or more to make.

How Molas Are Made

Each mola consists of two to seven layers of cotton cloth in the dominant colors of red, black, and orange. Pieces of the top layers are cut out, folded back, and hand-stitched down to expose the underlying colors. The process of cutting away the fabric is sometimes described as “reverse appliqué,” since layers of cloth are removed rather than stitched to the surface. Embroidery stitches of colorful thread are sometimes added to the molas. An intricate mola may require 40 to 70 hours to complete.

A mola maker

Though traditional mola subjects include animals, birds, and other living creatures of the San Blas Islands environment, global culture has inspired designs based on movie posters, comic books, and other modern images. Many of the designs are symmetrical, perhaps because the fabric can be folded and two designs cut out at the same time.

The San Blas Islands are just north of Panama.

Share the background information about molas with your students and have them find the San Blas Islands of Panama on a world map. Ask students to choose local animals or birds to serve as their subject matter. Explain that using a creature with an identifiable shape will be helpful.

Share this video and discuss with your students.

The San Blas Islands.

Objectives

Students will:

· (1) understand that cultures create fabric traditions that have specific functions within the culture and draw upon local symbols and motifs; (2) identify and describe distinguishing features and organization of molas created by the Kuna Indians of Panama; and (3) create a cut paper mola with symmetrical balance, positive and negative shapes, and motifs with local significance.

The islanders also make and wear beaded arm and leg bands.

A bat?

Materials

· 9” x 12” assorted colors of construction paper, including black and red; pencils, scissors, and glue.

Procedures

Have students each lightly draw the shape of a native animal or other recognizeable reature on a folded 9" x 12" piece of colored construction paper. Encourage them to have the designs fill the space without touching the sides of the paper. Students next carefully cut out the folded paper to make two
separate symmetrical pieces.

Leave this image on screen as students work.

Have students place these in a symmetrical arrangement on a different color of paper. Students should carefully cut these out, leaving a thick border of the second color. This process should be repeated two or more times, using different colors of paper each time.

Molas can be found in other shapes and are usually symmetrical.

The completed shapes are finally glued to a 9” x 12” black or other color piece of paper, leaving some space between the shapes. Repeated shapes and details can be added inside the main shapes and in the background.