Used
mainly in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, it is still handmade
by craftsmen in rural communities, following traditional and non
standardized techniques. It is used as beds for the whole family
in thousand of Mexican households.
Its extraordinary softness
and amplitude makes of it in our opinion the best hammock in the
world.
Long time ago all hammock where made out of thread, not fabric. Still now in the Amazonas, lost tribe's hammocks are wooven using thread made out of coton or indigenous plant fibers, and traveller's book written during the "conquista" refer as "net" for hammocks. Even in Brasil where fabric hammock are mostly used, people call them "rede do dormir" wich mean "sleeping net".
The Mayan people are the only ones who kept improving the thread weaving technique
specific to the making of hammocks. This technique
produces, using relatively little of non elastic material, a large
extensible surface. It thus offers a ventilated bedding, obtained
from very thin thread, weaved and not tied to one other.
The
Mayas were originally using Sisal, Agave fiber, or Sansevieria fiber for the wealthy one, to weave their
hammocks. Their descendants have kept the same techniques but
using new material : Cotton, Nylon and Polypropylene.
The
Mexican hammock is declined is several sizes, from that of a child,
to one were Mum and Dad can sleep with their 3 children !
We buy
our hammocks directly from the villages of Yucatan, since the
eighties, where we ourselves select them. We deal directly with
weavers and rural cooperatives.
Our catalog offers the 4 most used sizes : the SIMPLE, the DOUBLE,
the MATRIMONIAL, and the FAMILY size.
You will also find a few
rare and of high quality models, collected where our wandering
took us, and with particularities to each, a different weaving
point, or a different material used for the manufacturing (for
example mercerized cotton for de luxe models). Finally, you will
find a range of Hanging Chair, or Sitting Hammock to furnish a
corner of the garden, a veranda, or to bring closer to a fireplace
in winter.
As
you can see, most of our Mexican hammocks are sold by weight.
The explanation is simple : when two hammocks have been made from
the same material, the heaviest will have required more thread
and more weaving time, and this has a repercussion on its price.
This system makes sure the price is right when all hammocks are
different.
Timo was only five days old when he met his first hammock !
