The hands behind every thread.

We work directly with two Wayuu women in La Guajira, at the very north of Colombia — the peninsula of sand, sun and wind where the Wayuu have lived for centuries. Wayuu society is matrilineal: name, place in the community and belongings pass through the mother. Within the twelve Wayuu clans, it is the women who make the mochilas. In their culture that counts as a sign of intelligence, creativity and wisdom — a privilege, not an obligation.

The patterns you see on a Wayuu mochila are called kaanás. They are not random motifs: they refer to daily life, the landscape and the symbolism of the clans — from crossing paths to the print of a horse in the sand. Every bag tells, literally, a piece of life on the Guajira.

Most Wayuu mochilas in our collection are made to order: we send the design to our makers, and they weave it by hand. One mochila takes seven to ten days of continuous work. That is why "ordered fast, delivered fast" does not apply here — and why we do not want it to.

Our second line of mochilas comes from the Arhuaco and Kankuamo communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — the highest coastal mountain range in the world, which they call the Heart of the World. Together with the Kogi and the Wiwa, they are one of the four indigenous peoples who see themselves as the guardians of this land.

For these communities, weaving a mochila is more than handwork: it is understood as re-creating the world itself. Among the Arhuaco only the women — the wati — weave, and girls learn the craft early by watching their mothers. The patterns are often tied to the family and refer to symbols from their cosmology.

With these mochilas we work differently than with the Wayuu bags: the makers weave, and we carefully choose a selection from their work to offer to you. That means every piece is unique and only a limited number is available — when it is gone, it is gone, until the next selection is ready.