Jarciería (store) “El Hormiguero” was a research project in Mexico City following the trace of hard textile fibers used by many artisans in Mexico and that it is possible to find more often at small villages and at some places in the cities.
Izote, Lechuguilla, Ixtle are fibers that are transformed in “mecapales”, “jaboneras” (soap sachets), ropes, brooms, and other objects for personal care and house cleaning. We can find them at small stores in process of extinction, the “Jarcierías”.
For this project, we counted, review names of the objects and research about materials and where do they come from with the support of Jarciería “El Hormiguero”, located in the old neighborhood of La Merced in Mexico City, a place where still it is possible to find and buy old objects that can communicate stories about a rural Mexico, the Mexico of the artisans working with hard fibers and textiles.
After making a research a new idea of catalogue was developed to create graphic traces of the objects.
The Jarcierías are doors to the city that many artisans use to distribute and sell their products having this as one of the few options to sell indirectly.
The Jarciería “El Hormiguero” is one of the places that still sells products made with natural materials without any other pretention than continue open in a moment when the area and the neighborhood faces a gentrification process.
The graphics created for this catalogue talks about mass production, repetition, products made of fibers and invite to discover this materials and their stories.
