Adventures in Weaving...

This week Sebastian and I had quite the adventure. We thought we were just going out to Teotitlan del Valle, a Zapotec weaving village, for my four day intensive weaving/dyeing workshop.Well, life is always more than the obvious here.

Seb's previous post is a description of our first day in transit from the village back to Oaxaca - typically a 20-30 minute ride - a two and a half hour adventure that day. To save $- we were taking the local autobus (4.5 pesos = .45 US) vs. a taxi (150 pesos = $15). And so the fun began...
At one point, we were seeing the same bus driver no matter the time of day...Sebastian said he felt like Tom Hank's in Groundhog Day (I felt like Lola in Run,Lola, Run.) We would leave home at about 7:45, walk a half a mile or so and then wait...and wait.. and wait. (I will never complain about SEPTA again!) We usually got to the village at about 9 am and would return home about 7pm.

I was taking a workshop organized by a jolly sweet woman named Norma Hawthorne from North Carolina.She was there the first two days and posted our experience on her blog-www.oaxacaculture.wordpress.com- check it out!!!!
The workshop is called Dancing on the Loom and it truly was! I worked with the Chavez Santiago family which are fourth generation weavers.The father,Federico and daughter, Janet were my main teachers. I had asked if I could bring Sebastian and it turned out that there is 14 year old son named Omar, who was delivered by the same doctor and born in the same hospital as Sebastian.



I had the experience of learning to wind my bobbin by hand and to use a two pedal,two harness (standing)loom. All the equipment is hand made and all work is done by hand.
The upstairs of the taller (workshop) and family house was filled was the most amazing colored wool yarns- all spun and dyed by hand using only natural dyes- I was in heaven!!!! I got to dye wool using the "little red bug"cochinilla and indigo.It was such an incredible experience!!! I will skip the details but for those who are interested, I will be posting a "sabbatical" blog- www.wovenculture.blogspot.com.starting this weekend- check it out!
I completed my rug in 4 days!!! I learned the traditional way to knot and create fringe to finish off and protect my rug!

Omar ,who has been weaving since he was 8, taught Seb how to spin yarn by hand and they worked together,for a bit. Then, off they went to play XBox 360, shoot slingshots, ride in the back of the pick up truck to pick up tortillas,tamals, and helados (ice cream.)Each day we had breakfast, snack and comida (main meal 3pm) with the family.The mother,Dolores,also an amazing weaver and incredible cook!
We loved the family dog-Francois.Poor thing had fallen from the second floor and as a result was missing a few teeth and walks with a limp.As you can see, he was a sweetie,nonetheless.(His photo was taken especially for Bridget)