Sunday, January 24
Momostenango, a tiny little town in the middle of the mountains. You have to take some very twisty roads to get up there. You have to go down some very steep stairs to get to Thelma and Luis' house, which is pretty much on the side of a cliff.
See these roofs? Their house is behind them, even farther down.
Thelma and Louis, their children, and well, their grandchildren are too little, are all weavers. They do the whole process themselves, starting with these little guys:
While Don Louis talked to us about the process, Doña Thelma sat in the back with a basket of wool and two heavy-duty brushes. She used the brushes to make it nice and soft.
Don Louis then takes a handful of the brushed wool and uses the spinning wheel to make yarn.
We all took turns using the spinning wheel, with Don Louis guiding our hand. Their spinning wheel is.... he either said 50 or 150 years old. Not sure which, but either way it's pretty old.
These are all of the ingredients they use to make dyes. There's some bark, some flowers, and yup, even dead bugs. This family only uses natural dyes.
Don Louis and his yarn of many colors.
Next we got to learn how to weave! They specialize in rugs, lots and lots of rugs, but they make other things too.
There are some really amazing patterns, like this one, still on the loom.
I'm guessing 150 years old.
ReplyDelete