Connecting to WARP Leadership

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Our April blog introduces you to a new board member and two nominees. Janice G Knausenberger will fulfill the term left open by the resignation of Devik Wyman. Mariana Mace and Carrie Miller have been nominated to run for two open board positions and if approved by the membership in June, both will serve on the WARP board for three-year terms.

Janice shares her story…
I have always loved plants, nature, art and needed to keep my hands busy. I grew up in California, where I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in Biology. I received my Master’s in Entomology from Virginia Tech. While there, I took short courses in basics of weaving and spinning, courses that helped change my life. We then moved to St. Croix, USVI, where we began raising our family. After a health crisis, weaving became my source of self-expression and creativity. I also taught weaving at a local high school.

In 2000, we moved to Kenya where I mostly worked with Kenyan weavers in techniques, production and design while I continued to produce new pieces on my own looms. I also consulted with ICIPE (International Consortium of Insect Physiology and Ecology) in Nairobi on silk. In 2008, Laura Lemunyete and my article on the Revival of Rendille/Samburu Baskets of Northern Kenya was published by the Kenya Museum Society. My years in Africa were filled with discovery, inspiration, and new friends.

In the summer of 2010, we returned to Maryland where I was later elected to be president of the Weaver’s Guild of Greater Baltimore. I continue to create art through my weavings, pushing limits and exhibiting and selling my work. I continue to travel to Kenya to see friends and consult with weavers there. I am energized when others share what they know in the fiber arts and love sharing what I know.

What I bring to WARP
I am most comfortable in groups of mixed ages and cultures. I embrace the fact that WARP reaches out to youth. I hope we can more heartily find ways to learn from and encourage groups who bring different ways of seeing the fiber arts and weaving. I am particularly interested in weaving from the continent of Africa…Janice

 

Meet Mariana Mace…
I have been a loom weaver for almost fifty years and a basket weaver for more than twenty. I enjoy collecting or creating the materials I use, going out in the woods to pull bark from cedar trees and grub in the dirt for spruce root or tules. The weaving that travels through my loom is inspired by my handspun or hand dyed yarns.

Working with my hands connects me to family – to the aunt who taught me to knit, the parents who encouraged me to bead, the daughter who wound skeins and balls of yarn for my weaving, and the granddaughters who learn basketry from me. Handwork also connects me to artisans of other times and other cultures. I’ve loved collecting and then re-gifting world textiles for a very long time. My goal is to respectfully use some traditional ideas, materials and techniques in my own way, in my own work, creating new art from old traditions.

My academic background is in anthropology, textiles, Native American art history and museology. I was a special Education teacher and testing specialist for fifteen years. Then I became involved with the Jensen Arctic Museum at Western Oregon University as a volunteer, board member and finally curator/director for fifteen years until I retired.

I became a WARP member very early on. I remember being totally awestruck at the breadth of experience and commitment that was evident from the first conference I attended. I’ve been a delighted witness to the influx of new and younger members, especially the students. It would be a pleasure to serve on the board…Mariana

 

Connect with Carrie…
Carrie Miller is a textile artist and sculptor currently living in Colorado. Her working process and material curiosity are the products of an untamed childhood that she hopes to pass on to her daughter. Growing up on a farm, Carrie was constantly exposed to new life, death and whatever could be accomplished in between. Her time was split between adventures in horseback riding, backwoods archaeology and whole days hunkered down behind her sewing machine. The rhythm of this lifestyle is the source of Carrie’s enthusiasm for the challenge to find and make tools, learn new techniques and manifest a plan.

Carrie was trained as a seamstress and she pursued design and art simultaneously throughout her undergraduate degree. She has been an art instructor, in a variety of capacities, to students of all ages. Carrie is the current Fibers Graduate Teaching Assistant at Colorado State University and will be graduating with her MFA in May 2018.

Her recent professional projects include assisting with the curation of a historic bridal exhibition at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising and interning with the non-profit organization, Weave a Real Peace. Carrie was the 2017 recipient of the Charlie and Gwen Hattchette Creativity Scholarship and the Handweavers Guild of America’s HGA scholarship. Her work was recently featured on the cover of Shuttle Spindle Dyepot magazine and accepted to Scythia, the 12th Biennial International Textile Exhibition in Ukraine.

My Body at Home, 2017; organza, pigment dye, thread.

My interest in being a board member
Part of my internship with WARP was researching and writing a Young Members Initiative. Through this process, I was able to participate in a strategic planning meeting with the WARP board. I was very inspired by all the behind-the-scenes enthusiasm for the continued health of the organization.

Bandage, 2017, handwoven yarn, rust dye, acid dye.

As a WARP board member I would look forward to being a liaison to other young members. I have several ideas for projects that could build on the Young Members Initiative. One of these ideas is writing a grant to fund a textile education project that young members would lead in their local neighborhoods. The goal would be to provide funding for young professionals to gain experience while they facilitate WARP’s mission of creating connected textile communities. I feel purposeful and comfortable in the WARP community and would be so honored to be a board member of this organization…Carrie

Carrie Miller

 

 

 

 

On the Road with Weaving for Justice

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ON THE ROAD
People who love textiles love to travel because of the many opportunities to learn and experience culture through textiles and textile traditions. Traveling is one way to create or be a part of a connected textile community like WARP. But when travel is not possible, you can often connect to textile communities in your own back yard!

Weaving for Justice founding member Christine Eber, took Weaving for Justice on the road in October. Her vehicle was full of woven textiles and handmade items from several womens’ weaving cooperatives located in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. After a stop-over in Tucson, AZ, she headed to California for the 52nd Annual Borrego Days Desert Festival. She happily connected people in Southern California to the Maya textile communities in Chiapas.

In Tucson, Christine (r) shows samples to Amy as they talk over plans for a spring ’18 trunk show.
Weaving for Justice represented 3 women’s weaving cooperatives and a group of doll makers from Chiapas at the Borrego Days Desert Festival.
Festival goers check out the textile possibilities.

WEAVING FOR JUSTICE SUPPORTS WOMEN
For decades Weaving for Justice, a non-profit, volunteer organization headquartered in Las Cruces, New Mexico has worked in solidarity with women’s weaving cooperatives in state of Chiapas. The organization’s goal is to assist co-op members to continue living in a sustainable and respectful way on their ancestral lands, to honor their Tzotsil language and their cultural traditions. Weaving for Justice has helped raise public awareness about social and economic justice, threats to efforts of the Chiapas weaving cooperatives and to issues of human rights in the region.

La Frontera, a fair trade store in Las Cruces, located in Nopalito’s Galería.
Volunteers at La Frontera.

The collaboration between Weaving for Justice and the cooperatives assists weavers in finding various ways to market their products through a model of fair trade with 100% of the sale proceeds returned to the weavers.

COOPERATIVE WORK
Connecting the cooperatives with artisan groups on the US/Mexican border is one way products are marketed. Women weave to support themselves and their families. Co-op members unite around their work as weavers and common interest in issues of social and economic justice.

Even a very full car has room for a horse-mounted Zapatista doll headed to Borrego Desert Days.
Weavers from Tsobol Antzetik (Women United) Cooperative price items bound for La Frontera.
Claudia Pérez Pérez from Tsobol Antzetik Cooperative shares her work for the camera.

STOP IN FOR A VISIT
If you are in Las Cruces, NM stop in to visit La Frontera, the all-volunteer fair trade store run by Weaving for Justice. It’s located in the Nopalito’s Galería at 125 S. Mesquite St. (lafronterafairtrade@gmail.com). You will find hand-woven items from Chiapas, as well as textiles made by women from the cities of Juárez and Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. The store is open Saturdays 9-4 during the months of November and December or by appointment (contact Christine Eber ceber@nmsu.edu).

Weaving for Justice will be on the road again, returning to Tucson in spring 2018 bringing a trunk show hosted by EXO Roast Coffee Co. (403 N 6th Ave.). This is what my community looks like. What does YOUR community look like?

 

Chiapas to Oaxaca – Textile Connections Changing Lives

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For many of us a whole new world opens up when we travel. Weave A Real Peace helped two young Maya women, Claudia Pérez Pérez and Celia Arias Pérez travel from Chenalhó, Chiapas to Oaxaca for the annual meeting in June. This was only the second trip for both young women outside of Chiapas and they were deeply moved by the hugs and good feelings generated during their time with WARP members.

Celia and Claudia show off beautiful textiles from their cooperative. Photo courtesy Oaxaca Cultural Navigator.
Judy Jetson and niece Avalon enjoy Saturday tour to Zapotec weaving studios. Photo courtesy Oaxaca Cultural Navigator.
Celia and Claudia discuss ideas during the WARP meeting.

During our Friday meeting one of the topics we discussed was the pros and cons of outsiders wearing traditional clothing, including the huipiles of Maya tradition. Here are Claudia’s thoughts, in her own words.

We feel very comfortable when we see a foreigner wearing our blouse. We think that she isn’t an egotistic woman, that she doesn’t feel that she is better than us. I feel very happy to see that she wears it on her body, that she has a good heart for us. We think that she honors us, that she has great caring for us, that she gives us a lot of support.
                                                            Claudia Pérez Pérez of Tsobol Antsetik, Chiapas, México, June 2017

Claudia working on a blouse.
Avalon Guarino looks great in traditional huipil (blouse).

Both Celia and Claudia gathered ideas from our Saturday tour to several Zapotec weaving and dyeing families in Teotitlan del Valle, including new ways to talk to visitors who come to their co-op’s meeting house in Chenalhó and how they might develop a museum in their meeting house. Christine will give them a boost by returning textiles she has collected from the coop since the 80s to build a collection. I am waiting in line to share my background in museum anthropology and exhibit design – can you see my hand waving?

Celia observing Zapotec weaving.
Celia and Claudia with long time WARP member Marilyn Anderson.
Celia checks out wool on the Saturday tour.

Upon their return to Chiapas Claudia gave an hour and a half long report on the trip. In a very Maya way she gave an hour-by-hour rundown for the entire 5 day schedule! Claudia since has taken a major step to continue her education. Since dropping out of middle school at 14 to marry she has regretted that decision, but on Saturdays she now attends a school in San Cristóbal, studying computing and English. She loves the experience and Christine is confident Claudia will become a leader of women in her community, following in her mother’s footsteps.

Cooperative in Chenalhó bringing weavings to travel to Oaxaca.
The girls shop for gifts in the marketplace.

Celia and Claudia were a delight – new friends from Mexico to support and cherish for the work they do in their communities. Christine Eber has spent years working with the women of Chiapas and continues to offer support to them in many ways, including establishing Weaving For Justice in Las Cruses, New Mexico. We thank Christine for sharing this story of how our members create and support connected textile communities. The photos were also shared by Christine.

Celia and Claudia enjoying the Oaxaca experience.

Next month we will learn more about Weaving for Justice, a volunteer non-proift organization in Las Cruses, created to assist the members of the cooperatives in Chiapas to continue living on their ancestral lands in sustainable ways that respect their lands, language (Tsotsil), and traditions.

In the meantime, think about how you create a connected textile community – local, global or in-between and share your story with us on the WARP blog!      Judy Newland, WARP board member

 

Traditions of Slow Clothing in Central Mexico

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This is a guest post on slow clothing by author and textile collector Sheri Brautigam.

The concept of slow clothing – hand-made artisan clothing – has been a reality for most of the world until very recently. Commercial goods either weren’t available or too expensive for people in developing countries to buy, so making your own garments from cloth you had woven, or even further back, animal skin you had scraped and cured was the norm.

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Natural Dyers Gather around the Dyepot. Photo Credit Sheri Brautigam

Has it become a buzz word now because we have become aware of the realities of sweat shops in Asia, employing mostly women, who work long hours under wretched conditions to be paid very little per piece they construct? All this so we can buy a dress for $19.99? Our American culture has the luxury of asking these questions because we have options. But the real question is: Are we willing to pay a fair wage to someone to construct our clothing and are we willing to wear it day in and day out like most of the world?

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Mazahua women in Naturally Dyed Quechquemitl Capes. Photo credit Sheri Brautigam

Either it was pure luck or my destiny to end up in an area of central Mexico with spectacularly dressed Mazahua indigenous women, who appeared at the market and on special religious holiday occasions. After several such encounters I decided to find out who they were and found my way out to their little town. Unbeknownst to me, I was about to experience ‘REAL slow clothing’. Were these brightly dyed handwoven embroidered garments for sale? I was told they were very difficult to make and probably weren’t for sale, but there was a revival project going on to teach some of the techniques necessary to make the elaborate and heavy costume.

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Regina being tied into her skirt. Photo credit Sheri Brautigam

This visit turned into a several month documentation of a very old ‘traje’/costume made of hand spun wool, which was then dyed with natural indigo, cochineal, and wild marigolds. The skirt length was easily 3 yards long, woven on a back-strap loom and weighed close to 15 lbs. The top was a small poncho type caplet called a ‘quechquemitl’ – very unique to central Mexico but with antecedents way back to pre-Columbian times. The Mazahua ladies were on the verge of losing the skills necessary to make these ‘trajes’ which are an important part of their cultural identity but worn now mainly for their ceremonies and festivals.

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Spinner using a drop spindle to process wool. Photo Credit Sheri Brautigam

The story goes, that a young Mazahua girl, in order to take her place in the community as a woman/adult, needed to hand-spin the wool for her traditional ‘traje’. This probably took a bit of time as the two pieces weigh close to 15 lbs. She didn’t necessarily need to know how to weave but needed to promise something in return ‘treque’ /exchange- some thing she could do or had, perhaps (chickens?) to trade the woman weaver. Then it needed to be sewn together and embroidered on the edges. Perhaps her grandmother did that for her. After all it was 18 feet and had to be finished at each end. A ‘traje’ went through ‘mucho manos’/many hands and usually took at least a year to make.

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Weaver using a back-strap loom to weave skirt panel. Two panels of this size will be sewn together to create the full skirt. Photo credit Sheri Brautigam

Today very few young girls are drawn to learning the skills to make this costume, so they borrow their relatives older pieces for the fiestas. Sadly there is acrylic knock-off material that mimics the fine stripes and colors of the heavier hand woven skirts. It’s now popular and the go-to material if you need a skirt as they are so much lighter to wear and so affordable.

Will REALLY slow clothing survive in this Mexican Mazahua village? There will be a semblance of the highly complex and laborious costume because after all this is how they identify themselves and their community from other Mazahua.

 A years worth of labor passing through many hands to make one spectacular costume!

REALLY slow clothing. Would you be willing to pay to have them made?

Sheri Brautigam is a collector, and documenter of traditional textiles of Mexico. She was training Mexican English teachers when she first started following her textile passion and visiting many famous Fiestas, artisan fairs and markets all over Mexico.

cover-webShe has just published: “Textile Fiestas of Mexico – a travelers guide to Celebrations, Markets and Smart Shopping” – THRUMS – available on Amazon.

Visit her blog to learn more about slow clothes and Mexican Textiles: 

 http://livingtextilesofmexico.wordpress.com

Etsy Shop for collector textiles:

www.etsy.com/shop/livingtextiles

The Road from Guatemala to Santa Fe

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Recently the Cooperativa de Alfombras de Mujeres Maya en Guatemala (Maya Women’s Rug Hooking Cooperative of Guatemala) was accepted into the 2014 International Folk Art Market, July 11 – 14. We spoke to one of their delegates to this year’s market. Reyna Pretzantzin is thirty-one years old and attends Rafael Landivar University studying for her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She divides her time between managing the Cooperative, running a bookstore in her hometown, and working as a consultant connecting highly skilled artisans to exporters specializing in craft development. Reyna has over five years’ experience of working in product development and fair trade with indigenous Maya women. She speaks English, Spanish, and Kaqchikel fluently. Here is what she said about getting to Santa Fe. 

Rug Hookers Meet in Panajachel
Rug Hookers from the many different groups that make up the Guatemalan Rug Hooking Cooperative meet in Panajachel, Guatemala. Photo by Rachel Green

How did you learn about the Folk Art Market?
Artisans from Guatemala have been participating in the Folk Art Market (FAM) for many years now. We learned about it from other weavers and embroiderers.  It is one of the most prestigious folk art events in the world, and it has been a dream of ours to participate and share our hooked rugs with the world.

Was applying for the Market difficult?
Since I speak English, Spanish, and Kaqchikel fluently, the women could share their thoughts and ideas with me, and I could incorporate them into the application.  We know that the organisers are very selective, so we worked very hard on our application and are delighted that we have been chosen.

What is the history of the Cooperative?

The Cooperativa de Alfombras de Mujeres Maya en Guatemala grew from Mary Anne Wise and Jody Slocum’s, co-founders of Cultural Cloth (www.culturalcloth.com), original rug hooking project in Guatemala. Mary Anne Wise gave her first rug hooking workshop in Guatemala in June 2009. Its success led to other workshops where she taught students more advanced techniques. In 2012, the Delta Foundation supported a  Rug Hooking Teacher Training Program. A core group of seven women were trained to teach others rug hooking techniques. Today, over fifty women from six highland villages are rug hooking, and we have organized ourselves into a cooperative. Our folk art combines the art of rug hooking with design elements and colors inspired by motifs present in the traditional clothing, folklore, and culture of Guatemala.

Yolana Calgua Delegate to the Folk Art Market
Yolanda Calgua (left) discussing design with a new student Estella Alvarado from the Totonicipan rug hooking group. Photo by Rachel Green

Tell us a bit about your other delegate.

Yolanda Calgua is thirty-four years old, married with two children. She lives in the rural community of Quiejel, Chichicastenango. She has helped many women in her community realize their potential. She believes strongly in the power of women to bring about positive social change. Everyone who has met Yolanda has been struck by her energy, vitality, and motivation, she is truly an inspiring woman. Two years ago potable water came to her village. Income from the sale of her rugs allowed her to buy  the faucets and piping for six families to tap into the pipe.

Of rug hooking she says, “it is a privilege to be a rug hooking teacher and bring this opportunity to women in other communities. My hope is that they can make a better life for themselves and their children.” She still remembers hooking her first rug; it was made in memory of her grandmother and incorporated designs she remembers from her grandmother’s huipil (the traditional blouse worn by indigenous woman in Guatemala).  Rug Hooking is also something that fits around her life as a wife and mother.

 The Guatemalan Rug Hooking Cooperative is working on setting up a website.  If you would like to get in touch e-mail rughooking.guatemala@gmail.com. To see their work visit, Cultural Cloth’s website.  

Resolution Revolution

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4VwnucrQcM

As a new year is dawns, many of us are writing down our resolutions—promising to be better, stronger, smarter, and more aware of the world around us.  We are grateful for what we have and we are looking forward to the opportunities ahead.

At WARP, our ongoing resolve is to create connections between people that honor the work of the hand and organizations that serve artisans who create textiles to provide for themselves and their families.

Let us know what you are planning in the new year. We would love to feature your stories on our blog, in our newsletter, and through our other social media channels.  All the best in the new year from your friends at WARP. Let’s resolve to stay connected, who knows what a little bit of sharing can bring.

#fairtradehandmade for the Holidays

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Holiday ornaments made by a cooperative in Kathmandu that uses recycled paper.
Holiday ornaments made by a cooperative in Kathmandu. Using materials such as old cotton rags, corn husks, and banana stems, they transform refuse into wonderment!

Absolutes are like New Year’s resolutions, bound to fail.  We may have good intentions to make everything we wear, grow everything we eat, and exercise every day, but face it—most of the time we don’t.  Small is beautiful, and that includes small steps.

Let’s pledge to buy more gifts that are fair trade and made by hand. Giving one or two fair trade gifts makes a big difference to our hearts and to the hands that made the gift. It also adds to the joy of receiving.

There is another way you can make a difference.  How about sharing your fair trade finds with others?  Huh? This has to do with that symbol in the title.  It represents the power of shared conversation.  In the cyber connectivity of social media, if you use the hashtag(#) with a word it makes social media searchable!  If you find something wonderful—an inspiring story, a unique gift, something that invokes a memory, or perhaps you find a little something you might want yourself—tag it #fairtradehandmade so others can find it, too.

Need an examples?

What a great idea! www.mayanhands.org/shop-our-products/consignment-sales-inquiry #fairtradehandmade

I met some of these weavers at the Folk Art Market, and their work is amazing. I know, I’m weird, but I just love the smell of raw silk www.clothroads.com/product/warm-brown-wild-silk-scarf #fairtradehandmade

Clever, simple, useful, all the things I look for in a bag www.yabalhandicrafts.bigcartel.com/product/sunny-saturday-tote-bag #fairtradehandmade

Fair trade find! www.tenthousandvillages.com/knit-wit-kit #fairtradehandmade

Just imagine, what a wonderful world this would be, #fairtradehandmade

Peace, love, #fairtradehandmade.

Perhaps we will just make the world a better place, one hashtag at a time.

A Connecting Thread

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Joan Ruane has championed cotton spinning for decades. A chance e-mail from a local woman in Uganda created a connection between Joan and a group of crocheters. We asked Joan if she would share her experience with us.

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Allen Nansubuga, founder of Crocet4Life in the small village of outside of Kampala, Uganda, took a chance and e-mailed Joan Ruane, an avid cotton spinner and educator in the United States to ask if she could assist them to utilize their native cotton. Using only the internet, they found a way!

Allen Nansubuga, founder of Crocet4Life in the small village of outside of Kampala, Uganda, e-mailed me in in February of 2012 to ask if I could assist them in utilizing their native cotton. She had stumbled upon my website and thought perhaps I could help her solve a supply problem. 

Allen, a cancer survivor and an electrical engineer by training, works with School Net Uganda and World Links for Development as a technology specialist. Acrylic yarns were all the women had to work with, but cotton grew all around them. Allen wondered if I could help them turn that cotton into yarn that they could use for their crochet projects.

My first step was to mail Allen ten takli spindles and my DVD called Cotton Spinning on the Takli. Within less than two weeks of receiving the spindles, I received photos of the yarn Allen had spun and said she was ready to teach others!

With the support of many fiber friends, the group now has workspace that boasts five spinning wheels, cotton carders, two rigid-heddle looms, and a variety of other tools and equipment. The group meets every Saturday.

About every other month, I send out a package of supplies. What we take for granted like masks, gloves, dye equipment, and buttons are all treasures to them. I wrap the supplies in children’s clothes, cloth bags, or old towels. Everything is used and appreciated!

Allen keeps me abreast of what is happening and sends weekly photos of the groups progress. It is so gratifying that, via e-mails, I can still teach the women the skills they need to be successful. For instance, when Allen first started to ply her singles, I recognized that she was plying in the same direction as the yarn was spun causing the yarn to be unusable. I quickly told her to ply in the opposite direction. She once complained that it took so long to weave. I realized that she was not using the rigid heddle to lift and lower the warp yarns. You can feel the smiles come through my e-mails with each new skill they master!

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The women of Crochet4Life at work in their new space.

It has been a wonderful journey with Allen and her Crochet4Life group. In June of 2013, Allen’s group was approved as an official non-governmental organization (NGO) associated with the United Nations. Since Crochet4Life was started using one fiber technique, but now also incorporates spinning and weaving, Allen wanted all fiber artists to be welcome. The official NGO name is Fiber Your World Uganda. The group has grown to 30 women and still expanding.

Who knew how one email would change my life and theirs for the better.

—Joan Ruane

To learn more about this group and how you can help, e-mail Joan at spincotton@yahoo.com and put Crochet4Life in the subject line. Like to hear more stories about the connections being made between fiber enthusiasts? Like our Facebook page! WARP’s 2015 membership drive is underway; click here to become a member today!