Vintage Cuna Indian Mola Reverse Applique Swan Panama

This is an outstanding detailed collectable piece, a unique vintage mola reverse applique panel created by a Cuna Indian from Panama. You are buying the Mola on the first photo collected in Ailigandi Island, San Blas, Panama.

Large: 16 1/2x 11 1/2". We ship internationally and we combine shipping. If you have any questions or if you are interested in different motifs (we have many molas available that we can list for you) please contact cheetahdmr@aol.com.

Sorry if I sometimes cut off some of the mola while taking the photo but it is complete with no rips.  

Additional photos placed here show a variety of photos from our trips such as my husband distributing goods to the Indian community, village scenes, a mola being started, a Kuna woman wearing one, as the molas are part of the Cuna Indian traditional blouse and there is a panel in front and back per blouse.

Panels can take months to create and are the pride of the maker and owner-wearer.

All our unusual handcrafted or rare items come with pages of research, photos, and authenticity information concerning them. In the case of the molas, we will send you 5 lengthy documents with photos referring to everything you need to know about them, from their history to their spiritual meanings or messages, the traditions still embraced thru them, and the difficult task of creating them.

We search for and buy only the best of everything we carry, straight from the people and artists who created such masterpieces of reverse applique or applique and embroideries, over a period of months, in the remote islands off the coast of Panama.

The Kuna live in very remote communities and their inspiration comes mostly from the wild life and nature around them.

This unique Textile Art piece was once the frontal decoration adorning a Cuna woman Blouse.

It is a wonderful museum quality authentic vintage collector mola with the intense traditional detail typical to the old ones.

We only collect the finest authentic vintage molas in perfect condition, I pick them one at a time in the villages, direct from the Cuna Indians in the San Blas islands. I only handpick molas (that have been on blouses) with the most perfect artistic designs and imagination and I remove the molas from the blouses myself afterwards. I select these works of intricate reverse applique art according to the most originality & beauty of design and pattern, with the best color combinations, the tightest and most minute even stitching, and perfection, & eveness of lines especially in the case of the detailed geometrical mazes of the traditional molas.

The Molas are world known for their minute hand sewn very close together stitches, so tiny on some that you can hardly see them. A Mola takes a long time to create because of its intricacy. Some molas also have additional embroideries on top of the intricate reverse applique work. One cannot but admire the intense detail of the motifs and the richness of colors and embroideries of this unique disappearing art.

Each mola I sell took at least a month to complete, they all have many layers of colored fabrics sewn with very tiny and close stitches that are practically invisible, the subjects chosen have a profusion of details. These are all collector molas in perfect condition and of the highest quality of workmanship that can be found.

We have many molas for sale with a great variety of motifs from geometric to jungle scenes, animals, birds, fish, insects, flowers, plants, political, national & religious themes, people, still life,  etc… traditional molas, vintage molas, newer molas. Colors are often more vibrant in real as the flash has a tendency of lightening up the tones.

You do not always see the complete mola on my photos as I try to concentrate on close ups so details of these remarkable works of art and their tiny hand stitches can be better seen and appreciated, but all my molas are complete with  a margin of cloth fabric all around. Our molas are in perfect shape, we pick them ourselves and one by one for their extreme detail, color combinations, subjects and beauty in the San Blas islands. We also have a few full blouses available.

If you want to see some of our framed molas, framed in unique signed hand painted frames matching each mola, or the fun pillows we make with them, each unique as well, we can send you pictures to give you ideas on how to display and use them in your home upon request, in the case of the ones that are not already for sale here.

About the Kunas:

The Kuna Indians are the native people who live on small coral islands in the San Blas Archipelago along the Atlantic coast of Panama and Colombia. Molas are collected as folk art and can be viewed at some of the finest museums in the world like the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Kuna women are known for their colorful customs which consists of a patterned blue cotton wrapped skirt, red and yellow head scarf, arm and leg beads, gold nose rings and earrings ant the intricately sewn mola panel blouse. The mola panels of the blouse are hand-woven in a reverse appliqué technique using several layers of differently colored cotton cloth. The mola may also be decorated with very fine embroidery. Mola is the Kuna Indian word for blouse, but the term mola has come to mean the elaborate minute embroidered panels that make up the front and back of a Kuna woman's blouse.

You can see examples of how we frame them in one of a kind unique hand painted frames in this link below. Each frame is hand painted and created specifically for the mola it will enhance. http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=16503&forum=6&4.