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Paper Molas




"Mola" which means cloth in Spanish, is a special hand sewn artwork made by the Kuna Indian women from the San Blas Islands in Panama. A Mola is a cloth panel that has many colorful layers of cloth with pieces cut away and colorful stitching . A Mola will usually be composed of bright colors and include a line design in the background. The subjects of Molas can range from animal and plants of their islands to images from stories or dreams. After showing students a real Mola, we talked about Panama and brainstormed different tropical plants and animals. The rough draft drawings had to include at least three layers drawn into their animal or plant and a background line design. The final drawings were transferred to colored construction paper and smaller layers were cut out and pasted on top. Extra details and the background design were added with oil pastels.


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