Needed a day like this after yesterday

Woke up, talked to my dear friend Atticus via skype, did laundry, realized the sun was shining.... Wait, what? No really, there was sunshine in Cusco today, and it was warm-but-not-hot and BEAUTIFUL. Upon this realization, I immediately left the house with a vague inclination that I needed a few things from the grocery store, but without any sort of actual urgency to get there.

Wandered through the Plaza de San Bartholomeo and discovered a bunch of tents advertising a small Organic Food Festival. More or less it was a small organic veggie market, with some honey, and delicious smelling baking chocolate from the jungle. I hung around long enough to buy a bar of baking chocolate and watch a cooking demonstration by the Sous-Chef of Chi Cha, Gaston's restaurant in Cusco. Mmm tasty. Then I kept walking, suddenly realizing I was near this really cool bulk cooking-and-other-things store and that I desperately want a new teapot (as the boys in the apt broke the old one...) So I went in and got a teapot! And it whistles! I did end up at the grocery to get the things I wanted (except they didn't have kleenex... how can a grocery store not have kleenex?) and because it was such a nice day I decided I wanted flowers, so I wandered across the street to the Mercado de San Pedro and bought myself S/11 of Gladolius and these other pretty blue flowers. I then had to walk home and not hit anyone with said flowers (It's a ridiculously large bouquet).


These are my flowers in my room!! So very pretty!

However, after coming home, arranging my flowers, making lunch, and cleaning the kitchen, it was still nice out, so I decided I'd take my Manta to the nameless park near my house to weave for a bit. I attracted quite a crowd of Peruvians-- they all wanted to ask about what I was weaving, what material, where did I learn, how long have I been here, when do I think I'll finish it, ect, ect. I just kept weaving and talking to la Senorias, and when they all finally disbanded, a police officer came over (others had already been there earlier, talking to la Senoras), but instead of asking questions about my weaving, this one wanted to know if I had a permit. I was like "What? Isn't this a public space? It's not for sale or anything..." and he was like "Permits may be obtained on the second floor of that building over there." And then he stared at me until I left. So I was effectively kicked out of the park for weaving. Only in Cusco...

Went to the Real McCoy on the way home for Lemonaide, and discovered that I am officially a local! I was talking to the woman who runs the place and she invited me to do a talk on regional weaving sometime in May. She also offered to include me in her under-the-table goat cheese selling (they get it from a vendor who only sells to restaurants, so she orders extra for the ex-pat locals who want it). You know what this means, yea? I get my own container of goat cheese!!!! And on my way out she put me on the locals discount list, because I live here and now I get 20% off whatever I get there. So yea, I'm a local.

And to make everything better, there was so much sunshine today, most of my laundry is already dry. For the win.

New Set of Cut Paper Works

Ramin, 13" x 20" Fall 2011, cuts on cotton paper, design derived from the cellular structures of South East Asian trees.


Black Walnut, 13" x 20" Winter 2012, cuts on cotton paper, design derived from the cellular structure of the North American black walnut tree.


Osage Orange, 13" x 20" Winter 2012, cuts on cotton paper, design derived from the cellular structure of the natural dye plant Osage Orange, a tree native to North America.

Anniversary of the Weavers of Chinchero

So the group of weavers in Chinchero formed loosely in the 70's. This past Friday was the anniversary of the creation of the group, and this of course meant a big Peruvian style celebration. It began with a church mass, procession with music down the hill from the church to the Center, speeches, traditional singing, tonnes of food, and then alot of drinking and traditional dancing. Just another day in Peru, yeah?

The traditional music for the singing and dancing is called Huayno. The definition of Huayno -- Originated in colonial Peru as a combination of traditional rural folk music and popular urban dance music. High-pitched vocals are accompanied by a variety of instruments, including quena (flute), harp, siku (panpipe), accordion, saxophone, charango, lute, violin, guitar, and mandolin. Some elements of huayño originate in the music of the pre-Columbian Andes, especially on the territory of former Inca Empire. Huayno utilizes a distinctive rhythm in which the first beat is stressed and followed by two short beats.

The young weavers sitting together


The elders of the Center at Chinchero


Drinking Chicha (a fermented corn drink) is traditional for before the festivities start. I don't have any myself (not a great thing for my stomach).


Singing Huayno:





Almuerzo:

For the "primera" (soup) we had a chicken foot soup that consisted of broth, three potatoes, and a chicken foot! (not sure which was worse to witness, the dogs eating the chicken feet or the weavers chewing on them...)



This is the giant "segundo" plate I was given. It includes a seaweed salad with rocoto and tomato, a fried corn muffin, andean cheese, fish eggs, 2 potatoes, cuy, chicken, peruvian heart sausage, and roasted corn......



Dancing Huayno:





Weavers drink beer, like everyone else. It's just incongruous to see them drinking in their traditional dress...

Synthetic Indigo and an afternoon wander in Chinchero

Went to Chinchero last Sunday for some dyes and a hiking adventure with my friend Martine!

Helping Sonya and Maribelle get the yarn out of a Cochineal/Q'uolle dye vat.



Dyeing the skeins indigo and then opening them up for exposure to air.



After the indigo was dyed (the weavers, who are used to the 2-week long fermented urine indigo vats, couldn't believe how fast it was), Martine and I headed to the Sunday Market for lunch, before wandering to the ruins for a nice afternoon hike!





Me at the ruins (it's so nice to have friends to hike with because then every-so-often I get pictures of me and not just everything around me)!!

Textile Designs for the Caplets

So we chose four colors to start with-- Red (Cochineal, mote-mote, palo-palo), Indigo blue, Awaypili purple, and Kinsa Q'uchu Teal/turquoise. After some discussion, we decided I should stripe them, using shades of a color and one or two accent colors, so that they're more interesting than being just solid. Once we're ready, I will take the drawings out to Chinchero and, with the weavers, make sample fabrics derived from the drawings!

**A note about the images-- the front and back will not be exactly the same as one another. Therefore, when you're looking at the designs, the textile on the left will be the back and the textile on the right will be the front.