Herta Puls
Herta Puls was born in Germany in 1915, and trained as a radiographer and medical technician before coming to England in 1935. In the 1960s she studied embroidery and textile design .
She started research into the Kuna Indians and their textiles in the late 1960s, studying molas at the British Museum and the Ethnographical Museum in Gothenburg, as well as making study trips to the San Blas Islands off Panama. Her research resulted in the publication of her book “The Art of Cutwork and Applique – Historic, Modern and Kuna Indian” published in 1978. Her book generated considerable interest in the beauty of molas, and the skill involved in their creation.
The word mola means cloth, but has come to mean both the blouse and the embroidered panels, one for the front, and one for the back, used to create the blouses, worn by the Kuna Indian women of the San Blas Islands. The panels are made of generally up to 5 layers of cotton fabric and the intricate patterns are created using reverse appliqué techniques.
The exact origin of these panels is not known for certain, but the patterns are thought to originate in body painting, before being transferred to cloth probably about 150 years ago. The body painting and the patterns on the older molas are animals and plants. In the Kuna religion every human, plant and animal had a soul, and could contain good or bad spirits. Portraying them ensured protection from evil spirits.
The oldest molas that remain usually have three layers – often black, red and yellow – and the designs were simple stylized geometric human, animal and plant forms. More modern molas have up to 5 layers, and often include extra small pieces tucked in to a particular area. This appears to have given rise to blocks of vertical lines being worked to reduce the bulk of the fabric which was making it less practical to wear and work in.
The two examples below both come from the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Neither are early examples, but the first is typical of the all-over geometric design often seen in early molas. The second example is thought to have been made in the 1960s and has a larger central motif and more colours than earlier molas. It also shows the blocks of vertical lines.
I think molas, particularly the earlier ones, are beautiful, both in terms of colour and design. The workmanship is superb, requiring not only considerable skill, but also patience.
Bibliography
The Art of Cutwork and Applique Herta Puls ISBN 0 7134 0476 0
Textiles of the Kuna Indians of Panama Herta Puls ISBN 0 85263 942 2
Twentieth Century Embroidery in Great Britain from 1978 Constance Howard ISBN 0 7134 4658 7
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