About Lubecia Membache

Lubecia is an indigenous Panamanian of the Wounaan tribe. She is from the small remote village of Maje, Chiman, which is located in the dense Darien Rainforest. She learned to weave larger pieces as a young girl, starting with geometrics as all young learners do to understand how each overlapping coil creates a shape.

Throughout her weaving career, Lubecia has concentrated on perfecting the pawprint, creating almost exclusively this design for over 10 years. One of her signature designs is the pawprint with overlapping colorful ‘leaves’ at the base. She finishes the top with a row of diamonds in the same colors as the base. There is no other weaver who can execute this design with such small, straight stitches, and Lubecia is known by collectors for her rounded pawprint pieces with her signature hidden colorful design at the base.

Lubecia grew up in the countryside, and now spends half of her time in the city at an art stall, and the rest of her time in the village with her family. As one of the most industrious weavers we know she once rented an art stall in an artiseneria, an artist collective where tourists can wander and purchase directly from many different artisans and indigenous tribes, to sell small baskets made by her friends and family, while weaving larger pieces for us as she sat at the booth. With her basket income she has been able to help pay for her kids’ education as well as become a source of income for several other beginner weavers through her art stall.