Llata (dwarf palm)

Baskets, hats, carpets or handbags are woven from the branches of the dwarf palm trees by the hands of the women who keep this tradition alive. In Capdepera and Artà you can get to know this art of nimble hands first hand.

Capdepera and Artà are the two villages in which traditionally most of the llata craftsmen concentrate, because on their mountains (together with a part of the Serra de Tramuntana Mountains) it is where the garballó,the native palm of the Balearic Islands, grows. It is used for the production of baskets, brooms, carpets, etc.

Most of these products are used in field work or t work on the sea. Now they have mutated into popular decorative items. They all come from the nimble hands of the women of Capdepera, known under the name dones de sa llata.

The women gathered in a circle in winter to bunch the branches of the dwarf palm trees and thus receive an additional income. Their age ranges up to 70 and 80 years, and they continue gathering to keep the tradition alive. Sometimes they are visited by designers who commission their own creations. It is a pure handicraft, with a very limited production. So the series are small, but produced with much love.

Capdepera has its own Museo de la Llata; it is located in the castle, and shows the entire process, from the harvest through the drying and whitening of the leaves to the braiding and the manufacture of the finished product.

Senallas (bags) and baskets can be bought all over the island, whether in the specialized esparterías, shoe shops, at markets or in craft shops.