Seeking face masks for covid situations can lead to all sorts of interesting detours in life. I have decided that I might as well make the most of having to wear masks and have ones that are as interesting and attractive as possible, besides doing the protective job they are supposed to do.
This led me to buying some masks made in the traditional, wonderful linen/cotton llengües fabric woven in Mallorca. I had to pick them up in a lovely town, Pollença, on the opposite side of the island from Palma, so went with a friend. Teixits Vicens is a family enterprise, weaving these amazingly lovely “Cloth of Tongues” fabrics since 1854, with each generation elaborating and improving the variety and diversity of these artisan-loomed fabrics. Each cloth is started manually, the traditional way. The warp is prepared using white cotton thread, dyed in portions to match the required pattern. This means that this “Cloth of Tongues” (Roba de Llengües) fabric does not have a front or a back. Instead, both sides have an identical pattern.
There are so many ways one can use these fabrics. They are durable and harmonise wonderfully with this island life in the home or for shoes, belts and bags, and now masks.. My masks are fun and different, a bonus. But the real bonus for me was visual. The joyous clarity of the threads prepared for looming stopped me in my tracks.
Shelves of threads behind the front desk at Teixits Vicens (photograph J. Cook)
As I wandered around the large showroom, I was captured by the beauty of what was displayed: long shelves full of the different bolts of 1.50m. wide fabric created there in Pollença. As an artist, I was totally thrilled by the display. Alas, photographs do not translate well the brilliant, alive presence of these materials.
Bolts of llengües fabrics in the Teixits Vicens showroom (photograph J. Cook)
Another selection of llengües fabrics (photograph J. Cook)
Another spectrum of colours of these ikat fabrics (photograph J Cook)
Still another spectrum of colour in the ikat selection (photograph J. Cook)
I could have spent far more time glorying in these fabrics on display, but alas, it was almost closing time on a hot summer’s day. So it was time to go - until the next visit! I am so glad my quest for masks led me to Pollença.