Obra de palma: llata and garballó (palm weaving)

What it is and technique

Braiding the leaf of the garballó (Chamaerops humilis), the only native palm tree in the Balearic Islands. It is also called pauma, llatra or llata. The leaf is collected, dried and bleached; It is opened into strips and braided into a long ribbon (la llata). The ribbon is then sewn in a spiral to make signs, baskets, hats, rugs, fans and kitchen utensils.

Short story

Domestic occupation, especially feminine ("ses madones"). Data from the technical report of the BIC file (BOIB 101/2026):

• Prehistory: braided palm imprints in sites on the island. Oral tradition attributes Islamic origin to it; The technique resembles North African basket weaving.
• 14th-15th centuries: palm objects documented in the old town of Artà.
• 1787: José Vargas Ponce mentions baskets and "fine works" of palm in Pollença, and brooms exported to Marseille.
• 1789: Jerónimo de Berard: in Capdepera even children work with palm trees.
• 1866-1869: exports through customs: Palma 50,000 kg (1869), Alcúdia 41,800 kg and Andratx 28,900 kg (1866).
• 1867: Archduke Luis Salvador (Die Balearen) describes the trade: "in Capdepera almost everyone is dedicated to it." He puts together a collection for his museum in Son Moragues.

-c . 1875: the gabellí traginer Joan Moll (Gargori) places cofes and senallets in Barcelona. 1888: Capdepera sends work to the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona.

• 1899: La Protectora cooperative (Capdepera), then La Palmera, with its own cars and boats for export.
• 1950s: maximum development, driven by the first tourism (Magdalena Palmer). Afterwards, the women move on to other jobs and the transmission is cut off.
• 2026: initiation of the BIC Immaterial file (Insular Heritage Commission, 07/28/2026).

Process step by step

1. Arrabassar (July): only in July. The arrabassador agrees on the ferryboat (mountain area) with the master; It is paid in kind (often two out of every three caramulls) or in money. The still closed leaves are torn from the heart of the plant with the estenalles (tongs with a rope pulled behind the back).

2. Stendre: drying in the sun on a paved stand, 18-23 days, turning every 6-7 days. Everything collected before Sant Salvador (August 6-7) or, at the latest, Sant Roc (August 16), due to the August rains.

3. Feixar: manats and feixos tied with green càrritx vencills; They carry a bag on their foreheads.

4. Stuffing: wet leaves in the domestic stuffing pot, with burning sulfur, 8-10 days. Whitens and softens the fiber.

5. Embrinate (male task): separate the brins by opening the enconats and esquenuts folds with the thumb.

6. Fer brins (female task): select by whiteness and length; equalize the width with a knife. The remains (sporgins) are saved for brooms.

7. Fer llata: braid into a ribbon, with the brins covered with a damp cloth; They are added by didalades (in Capdepera, llatades). Stretching test: the good tire almost does not elongate.

8. Work and sew: the llata is stretched and sewn in a spiral with a long needle (brass preferred) and a brin. It widens or narrows by taking more or fewer points. Finishes: voretes (with a càrritx soul), sanefes, anses.

• Tools (few and simple): estenalles d'arrabassar (disputed origin: a blacksmith from Capdepera or arrivals from Almería through Pollença), falç (to turn the palm on the fork), barxa (large transport sign), esmolles (sulfur and dye), knife of about 20 cm, needle, tape measure (recent) and esporginador (double-pointed needle to equalize brins, now in disuse).
• Historical performance: mother and daughter or daughter-in-law, 18-20 senalletes per week (delivered on Saturday to the senallater). Guillem Cassellas (Artà) harvested about 20 kg of palm per day and knows 25 techniques (Mallorca Magazin, 2017).

Forms and objects

• Types of llata: senalla (7 or 9 brins; the most common, 9), teixida (lost in Capdepera), capell (5 brins, repointed by machine), calada (4 brins, with hole), amb puntes (3-5 brins; king's crown), cuquet (3 twisted ends), botons (square, star-shaped...).
• Gruixada or commune work (typical of Capdepera; less white palm, double brin): bressols, pleasure and buyer signs, cofes, senatxos, road and pueteres signs, barxes, stonecutter signs.
• Fine or white work (typical of Artà): buyer's signs, rodons bags, bernat bags, mesh bags, signs with lids, cases for knitting needles, suitcases, briefcases, cushions, estormies, capells.
• Self-consumption (almost disappeared): fire- vendors, cistes and cistelles, estorins, esportins, morrionets and clucales for the sinia animal.
• Others: graneres (brooms; formerly fina, gruixada and esteranyinador), graneretes d'emblanquinar, ropes (cordelli, corda de dos caps…; see corderia ).
• Decoration: dyed and embroidered brins sanefas (palm, wool, raffia). Figurative motifs (farmers, fish, flowers, fruits) since the 1950s, for tourism.

Vocabulary

• garballó / pauma / palma: Chamaerops humilis, the only native palm tree; pauma* is the Mallorcan oral form.
• llata / llatra: braided palm ribbon (llata in Capdepera, llatra in Artà).
• brin: pulls the palm leaf.
• barquera: mountain area given up to uproot palm trees.
• arrabassar: ​​tear off the leaves of the garballó.
• estenalles: tongs with rope to tear off the palm.
• estenedor: was paved where the palm dries.
• caramull / feix: heap / bundle of dry palm.
• ensofrador: domestic area where it is bleached with sulfur.
• embrinar: separate the brins from the leaf.
• esporgins: fine palm remains; They are used for brooms.
• didalada / llatada: handful of brins that is added to the braiding.
• voreta: cylindrical reinforcing edge with a carritx core.
• sanefa: decorative sewn tin border.
• ansa de sotet: rope handle with a ring that distributes the load.
• senallater: wholesale buyer of palm work.
• traginer: intermediary who collected the work house by house.
• senalla / senalleta: small carrycot / carrycot, the emblematic piece.

Geography

• Levante: Artà and Capdepera (levant peninsula). Speaker: Andratx, s'Arracó, Galilea. North: Pollença, Alcúdia.
• Why there: they are the natural garballonar areas (extremes of the Tramuntana and the mountains of Levante): abrupt relief, poor and stony soil, dry climate.
• The landscape of the llata includes barqueres, esteners, ensofradors and arrabassadors paths.

Xifres

• Export 1866-1869: up to 50,000 kg/year through Palma customs.
• Artà once had a dozen graneretes workshops.
• Domestic production: 18-20 signs/week per pair of artisans.
• 2017: six "madones de sa llata" in Capdepera and one teacher in Artà (Mallorca Magazin). Today many artisans buy palm from Almería, of poorer quality.
• Pest: Paysandisia archon detected in Mallorca in 2001 (Formentor).
• Assets: BIC Immaterial initiated on 07/28/2026 (BOIB 101, 08/13/2026). No verified prices (please verify in store).

Why is it design

• Proximity material: wild plant, without irrigation or cultivation; Periodic collection regenerates the garballó and its habitat. See proximity design .
• Modular system: a single ribbon (the llata) and a single ruler (spiral sewing) generate the entire typology, from a hat to a crib.
• Fine engineering: odd brins, double brins for loading, voretes with carritx soul, sotet handle that distributes the weight over the entire edge.
• Built-in quality control: the stretch test measures the density of the braid.
• Tool invented for the material: the stenalles use their back as a lever.

Where and who today

• Workshops with record: Guillem Cassellas (Artà) , Ses Madones (Capdepera) , Artesania La Palma Son Poca Palla .
• Associació Art de la Pauma, promoted by the Levante Peninsula Natural Park (courses, demonstrations).
• Carrier community (according to the official file): artisans from Artà, Capdepera, Andratx, s'Arracó, Galilea, Pollença and Alcúdia.
• Museu de sa Llata, in the Capdepera castle, with demonstrations (schedule to be confirmed).
• Capdepera celebrates the sa pauma night fair, exhibitions and talks (e.g. "La llata a Capdepera", with historians Ramon Molina de Dios and Pep Terrassa).

State

Alive but aged. In 2026, the Consell de Mallorca opened the BIC Immaterial palm work file (Exp. 656/2023; BOIB no. 101/2026). It is the beginning of the process: there is no firm declaration as of the date of this file. Threats according to the file: aging of the artisans, broken transmission, almost no one plucks palm (it is imported from Almería), Moroccan basketry in the markets and the Paysandisia archon pest.

Contemporary Updates

• Es Baluard Museu + Biennal B + Consell: workshop "The arrival of ses madones de Capdepera" in the castle (2026).
• Jordi Ribas Ros (Colònia de Sant Pere), Cadibra II chair in Homo Faber: unites two models of Mallorcan chair, hand-woven seat with palm fiber and pine recovered from an 18th century building.
• Fashion designers visit weavers for short collections (tourist source; no names verified). Pending: identify specific brands.

For the project

• Possible piece: series of contemporary objects (luminaire, bag, acoustic panel) in tin sewn by artisans from Capdepera/Artà; open initiation workshop as in Biennial B.
• Contact: Museu de sa Llata ​​(Capdepera castle), Capdepera Town Hall; historians Ramon Molina de Dios and Pep Terrassa for the atlas.
• Background question: a wild and free plant turned into an object: kilometer zero design model? Why is it seen as "granny stuff"?

Sources

• intranet.caib.es/eboibfront/pdf/ca/2026/101/1226130
• illesbalears.travel/en/mallorca/craft-product-llata-garballo
• illesbalears.travel/en/mallorca/llata-dwarf-palm
• esbaluard.org/en/activity/llata-workshop-the-legacy-of-ses-madones-de-capdepera/
• mallorca.com/ca/agenda/llocs/capdepera
• hotelmonport.com/en/post/discover-capdepera-and-arta-lands-of-llatra
• mallorcamagazin.com/nachrichten/gesellschaft/2017/01/17/52056/der-letzte-korbfle
• homofaber.com/en/works/a1VTG000000f16C2AQ

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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