Mexico · Marquetry / Plant-Fiber Craft / Material Design
Totomoxtle (corn husk)
A contemporary craft and material developed by the Mexican designer Fernando Laposse with Mixtec farmers in Tonahuixtla, in the Mixteca of Puebla. Husks of heirloom maize are peeled, ironed flat, bonded to a backing and cut into interlocking pieces that are assembled like marquetry for furniture and wall surfaces. The natural husk colors, from cream and gold to red and deep purple, come from the maize varieties themselves. The project was built to give farmers an income reason to grow native maize again: the community produces the husk sheets, Laposse designs and assembles the finished work, and the grain is eaten. This is a new design material of the 2010s, not an inherited regional technique; the husk itself (totomoxtle) is an everyday traditional material.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed
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