The WARP Blog

Another Cajun Love Story – Acadian Brown Cotton

By Judy Newland. As a longtime spinner and weaver – and a mother – this is a story that reflects a love many of us share. It may sweep you away to another time when mothers created piles of beautiful blankets for their daughters, carrying the name l’amour de maman, a mother’s love. They were made of white and brown cotton with occasional indigo dyed yarns, a beautiful tribute to women, fiber and family. INGLÉS/ESPAÑOL

International Folk Art Market 2022

The International Folk Art Market (IFAM) is held annually in Santa Fe, NM in July.  Many WARP members volunteer at the Market, filling roles ranging from delivering water or box lunches to helping artists with sales in their booths.

WARP Volunteers Speak Out

Volunteering for WARP can be hard work or light. Fun or serious. Big job or small. In a team or isolated. There are many opportunities requiring many skills and welcoming many personalities.

Some Challenges in Artisan Production in Guatemala

Guatemala is a country with a diversity of artisanal handmade products, therefore there is a lot of labor supply in this country, especially in the rural areas. For this reason, it is difficult to market products at a fair price in the communities, and they need to sell them to intermediaries at a relatively low price.  INGLÉS/ESPAÑOL

Introduction to Embroidery from the Arab World

Politics, religion, and the discovery of oil have brought major changes to the Arab world over the past few generations. Many of the customs, crafts, textiles, and way of dress inherent to the region do not exist anymore or are fast disappearing. As the current generation of custodians, we have a responsibility to document and preserve these customs and tradition.

Welcome the Weavers – las tejedoras at the U.S. – Mexico Border

One day in the winter of 2021, Cecilia, a mother, a migrant, and an indigenous weaver from the mountains of Guerrero in Southern Mexico, saw an old broomstick tossed aside at the border shelter in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. From that day on, she scoured the grounds of the shelter for sticks and broken branches, determined to build a backstrap loom with whatever she could find. INGLÉS/ESPAÑOL

Navajo-Churro Sheep and Their Wool: Digressions and Ponderings

If you have not yet watched “A Sheep’s Tale: Preserving the Churro,” the WARP-organized webinar about Navajo-Churro sheep, don’t miss it. The three presenters—Molly Manzanares, Alta Piechowski-Begay, and Lyle McNeal—have been stars in one of the primary constellations by which I’ve navigated my life for a number of decades.

Working Beyond the Museum

There has been a particular rethinking among ethnology, natural history, art and national museums that display textiles and other traditional cultural expressions that have roots in contemporary communities and living cultures. There is now an effort to address the historical lack of agency of these communities in how their identity was portrayed by engaging them in museum activities.