Mola Art is a traditional art form of the Kuna people from Panama. It involves sewing designs on fabric with motifs of animals or nature symbols. Every inch of the fabric is filled with non-overlapping patterns or textures. Kuna women would create matching pairs of Mola Art pieces to wear on the front and back of their blouses. The document then provides instructions for making a Mola Art project using cutouts of shapes glued onto a background and decorated with patterns and textures using oil pastels.

1. Mola Art

2. Mola Art is made of designs sewn on fabric. The word “Mola” means blouse.

3. Mola Art usually uses a motif (dominant feature) of an animal, or a symbol of nature. Every inch of space is filled with a pattern or texture.

4. Mola Art is created by women in the Kuna Tribe from Panama.

5. The Kuna women usually made a pair of Mola Art pieces, usually related or similar to each other, to put on the front and the back of their blouses.

9. 1. Choose a large colored paper for your background. 2. Write your name and class on the back. 3.Choose another piece of paper that is high contrast from your first piece of paper. 4. Draw a large animal or nature symbol on this paper, cut it out and glue to the center of the larger paper.

10. 5. Now cut 3 or 4 smaller shapes (nature or animal) from different high contrast colored paper, and glue them around the large shape. (Do Not overlap the shapes.)

11. 6. Look at pattern/texture examples to get ideas to decorate the background. 7. Use oil pastels to decorate your Mola Art with different patterns or textures. Be sure to use bright, bold colors. 8. - Entire surface should be filled with pattern. - lines of pattern should not touch or overlap.