Discover the delicate art of Randa embroidery, an ancestral technique of the Amuzgo people traditionally used to join and embellish huipiles, the traditional garments worn by Indigenous women in Mexico.
In this four-hour workshop, Gabina Valentín López, an Amuzgo master artisan, will share a technique passed down through generations of women in her community. Participants will learn four of the principal Randa embroidery stitches: Randa de 3 Puntadas, Randa Diente de Iguana, Randa de 5 Puntadas, and Randa de Gusano, creating a sample of each while exploring the many creative possibilities of this remarkable textile tradition.
You will work with hand-spun cotton yarns and naturally dyed threads using Amuzgo handwoven fabric samples produced on a traditional backstrap loom and mounted on a wooden embroidery hoop. Throughout the workshop, you will discover how a traditional method of joining textiles can become a contemporary creative language, applicable to garments, home textiles, and textile art.
More than simply learning new embroidery stitches, this workshop offers an opportunity to engage with a living textile heritage and understand the importance of its preservation. At a time when industrial textiles increasingly replace handmade production, Randa embroidery remains a powerful expression of the creativity, identity, and knowledge of Amuzgo women.
The workshop will be taught in Spanish and English.
What You Will Learn
Materials Included
Amuzgo Mexican Embroidery workshop
Date: 9 October
Location: Weaving Worlds, NDSM plein 21 Amsterdam
Duration: 4 hours - 13.00 -17.00 hrs
Instructors: Gabina Valentín López (Master Artisan) & Inês Queirós (Founder, TuYo Foundation)
Price: €95 (including all materials)
Maximum participants: 10
Level: Open to all levels. No previous embroidery experience is required.
Founded in Amsterdam in 2021, TuYo Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving, revitalising and promoting ancestral textile traditions while supporting Indigenous and local communities through socially and environmentally responsible practices.
Its first long-term collaboration is based in Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero (Mexico), where TuYo works alongside members of the Amuzgo Indigenous community. Through close dialogue with local weavers, the foundation develops projects that respond to community-identified needs, strengthening opportunities for cultural continuity, knowledge transmission and sustainable livelihoods.
TuYo envisions a future in which textile communities can thrive with fair economic opportunities while preserving the cultural identities and ancestral knowledge that define their heritage.
About the Amuzgo Culture
The Amuzgo (Ñomndaa) people of Xochistlahuaca, in the state of Guerrero, are internationally recognised for one of Mexico's most remarkable living textile traditions. For generations, weaving has been practised primarily by women, with techniques, symbols and stories transmitted orally from mothers and grandmothers to younger generations.
Creating a single textile may take weeks, months or even a year, making every piece a unique expression of its maker. Woven motifs depict the natural world, ancestral beliefs, personal histories and the cultural memory of the community. Beyond their aesthetic beauty, these textiles embody a living system of knowledge that continues to play an essential role in the social, spiritual and economic life of the Amuzgo people.
About Gabina Valentín López & Inês Queirós
Gabina Valentín López is an Amuzgo master weaver from Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero, on Mexico's Costa Chica. She began weaving at the age of nine under the guidance of the women in her family, learning the traditional techniques and symbolic language of her community.
Following a period of migration to Mexico City, weaving became a way of maintaining her connection to her cultural roots. Today, she is dedicated to preserving and sharing Amuzgo textile traditions, working closely with women weavers from her community and presenting their work throughout Mexico. In 2024, she was awarded the Galardón Nacional de Textil, one of Mexico's highest honours for traditional textile artisans, recognising her outstanding contribution to the preservation of Indigenous textile heritage.
Inês Queirós is a Portuguese textile artist, researcher and founder of TuYo Foundation, based in Amsterdam. Her practice explores textiles as vehicles for cultural memory, storytelling and social exchange, with a particular focus on the preservation of endangered textile traditions and natural dyeing practices.
Through long-term collaborations with artisan communities, she develops projects that support the transmission of ancestral knowledge while creating new opportunities for cultural exchange. During the masterclass, Inês will serve as translator and facilitator, supporting the dialogue between participants and Gabina throughout the learning process.
