Shipibo Healing Pillows

My sister Sarah has been making very special pillows from Shipibo textiles she and our friend Fay bought from our friend Helma Chavez Fernandez, who is an artist in Peru. Sarah backs these textiles with velvet or German corduroy. They feel like a magical hug, so warm and comforting.

The Shipibo have been particularly hard hit during the Covid crisis as much of their traditional sources of income have dried up. With much gratitude and respect, it is their mission to provide direct monetary support into these communities by sharing their potent and visually stunning art, thereby helping to protect their traditional way of life, their extraordinary arts and culture, and perhaps most importantly their vast and comprehensive relationship with the medicinal plants of the Amazon. Each textile is one of a kind; repeating a design would be incomprehensible, as each piece is inspired by the plant spirits themselves.

My daughters insist these textiles give them good dreams.

Contributed by: Suzanna Styles
Created by: Helma Chavez Fernandez (Peru) and Sarah Beck
Origin: etsy.com