2025 
Unique Work
Materials: cotton, linen, organza, and natural dyes

estefaniaderos.com

Guatemalan designer Estefanía de Ros has collaborated with artisans in the country’s Lake Atitlán region to create Visions of the Lake, an intricate, large-scale woven work celebrating the local landscape, community, craft traditions, and lore. The handcrafted piece features motifs drawn from nature and Mayan cosmology. As de Ros explains: “Visions of the Lake is a quiet celebration of power—ancient, magical, and deeply rooted. It honors the cycles of growth, memory, and regeneration, and the sacred threads that connect people, animals, land, and spirit.

“This work is a tactile offering of continuity and care. Returning to Lake Atitlán, a magnetic landscape shaped by volcanic force, I found a portal of ancestral strength. At its core is the interwoven resilience of women’s hands that carry knowledge, threads that preserve stories, and materials charged with cultural and spiritual meaning.

“Subtly present are the nahuales, sacred beings from Maya cosmology who protect and guide. Woven into the background, they remind us of the invisible forces that sustain life and harmony.

“The piece speaks of blooming and withering, grief and dreaming, protection and imagination. It is a call to look back and root forward: to learn from the land, to honor what is sacred, and to shape a future through care, memory, and connection.” Visions of the Lake was crafted by hand in Lake Atitlán and in Guatemala City in collaboration with expert artisans. The work is presented by AGO Projects.