Dear Reader – last week when I posted the pic of the very fine Nanduti lace, that was the one thing in particular that I was looking forward to seeing in Paraguay, and learning more about the Jesuit ruins in that area. ( we visited San Ignacio Mini in Missiones province, Argentina, on our way back form Iguazu about 15 years ago) Including the lace and seeing it made, (and of which I found some lovely stuff) are subject of future posts, butI had no idea that we would see carved representations of textiles. Is fabricarving a word? It should be, as IMHO it is not just to call what we saw “carving”. And this was mostly on a day tour down to Encarnation SE of Ascuncion, where we were based, with the specific objective of visiting the Jesuit ruins there, and learning about the missions/reductions in the region, the history and the impact on the indigenous peoples. On the way we called in at a museum in which had been assembled many of the pieces originally in the mission and which, when the Jesuits were expelled were removed by local people and kept safe within local families for many generations until relatively recently.
With the general object of gathering souls the Jesuits taught and organised the native people, at the same time offering them protection fom the marmalukas/slave traders/raiders coming south from Brazil. They taught these sensitive people singing, of european religious music naturally – (for choir in the church) how to play violins and recorders (music for the church) how to raise a variety of crops (to feed those in the misssion including widows and orphans unable to fend for themselves) and husbanding of animals (clothing and feeding plus transportation – carts with oxen) They learned metal crafts including silver smithing (objects for the church) and metal smithing (tools and implements for the various jobs of work – and, ultimately, weapons of defense) The tools included those required for wood carving in which the local indian tribes were capable producers of objects needed for their lives in the forests, but rapidly learned finer skills under the Jesuits, and the museum we visited contained mostly saints and religious figures including very early examples from the early C15, to later C17 examples which showed a huge progressive range of skill. After carving, in most examples we saw in churches or museums, the wood was then painted using vegetable dyes, and a lot of what we saw was apparently original. The painting itself was skillful, producing finishes that looked like the satins, fine cottons, laces or heavy brocades they were emulating. So I have included some of this stuff since although it is wood, it is textile inspired, and really, really looked like actual textile to me. For comparison with something modern, visit this site: www.gofraser.com where can be seen the work of a north american artist who carves modern textiles and particurly enjoys carving traditional pattern quilts.
One simply lovely example of the soft sensuous fabric like qualities of this C16 wood carving – remembering this craft/art had been taught by the Jesuits from only since early in the 1500’s, to the indigenous peoples of the 
area now covered by S. Paraguay, NE Argentina and S. Brazil. The Indians were already carvers, of canoes, wooden bowls and implements, and rapidly developed finer skills under the Jesuit education and control with the objective of creating fine pieces of statuary, through which was taught the catechism and stories of the bible to these non-litereate peoples. For the main agenda of course, was to garner up souls for the Catholic church. The Indian tribes of these areas had been thought by europeans as little more than animals certainly not Men, but they nevertheless turned out to be extremely quick to learn and develop high skill levels. 