muerto de risa

where do you think you're going?

thank you for all of the positive feedback on my collage.  and thank you for making me feel like my eccentricities old and new are not really all that weird.  that's one of the funny things about life.  often we hold in these secret silly things about ourselves and it turns out that everyone else is doing the same thing. :)

today is a HOT day in Quito and the sun is super strong.  i thought maybe we could all share a popsicle to help us cool down a little?  it's sweet and cold and yummy...have a bite before it's gone. 

                        

i also wanted to share this fabulous sign from the alpaca factory i visited in peru.  have i posted about this before?

the poster says in english, "don't contaminate" and then "where do you think you're going contaminator!!!"  i love it.  it cracks me up every time i look at it.  i realize why one wouldn't want their products ruined, but i feel for this poor dirty man who i imagine was simply curious about the factory.  i wouldn't want that mean-looking green thing staring me down.

have a great day!  and don't contaminate!

looking for a way to get rid of that sore throat?

for those of you who read my blog but not necessarily all the comments, i have to share the response sasha (the lovely leader of my puchka tour) left me to my post about coca tea:

You're right, the coca "tea" for the Colca Canyon trip looks like swamp water and tastes as bad and you were right to think of it as "medicine" :)  If you thought that it was bad, you're lucky that I didn't give you the "Peruvian Cure" for your sore throat.  What, you ask, is the Peruvian Cure? Fresh lemon juice with some salt mixed into it, in warm water, and snorted down the nose using a dropper.  Horrid but it works and MUCH more effectively than the "cures" bought in drugstores in "developed" countries!

ick! 

coca tea

in honor of our virtual tea party, i thought i'd write about a common andean beaverage: coca tea (mate de coca).  the coca leaf has been used for centuries to help with the high altitude, provide more energy for work, and cure upset stomachs.  many people more used to hearing about refined powder cocaine or the even more stigmatized crack cocaine are concerned when first offered a cup of coca tea.  is it addictive?  will i feel high?  the truth is that one would have to drink hundreds and hundreds cups of coca tea to feel the same effect as one does when using one of her more potent siblings.  yes, coca tea can be addictive and one can feel its effects, but pretty much in the same ways as caffeinated teas. 

i like hot coca tea made from a tea bag.  the flavor is subtle and the color of the tea is a pretty light yellow.  more concentrated forms of coca tea are a different story.  before going to the colca canyon, it was suggested that we make some coca tea with tea leaves in a big bottle of water (the leaves were left to soak in the water over night).  this is what i ended up with:

something that resembled swamp water in appearance and had an extremely grassy, planty kind of flavor.  sometimes grassy can be good, in this case it was bad.  very bad. 

i will admit, however, that this concoction did help me with altitude sickness and also helped the sore throat i had at the time.  nonetheless, i never plan on drinking coca tea this potent ever again, nor do i plan on chewing on coca leaves, the most traditional way the leaves are used.

i will be bringing some coca tea bags to the tea party so you can all try the lighter and more delicious version of this drink.  but right now, i'm off to make myself a nice cup of chai. :)

a new use for your toes

i just love the idea of backstrap weaving with added support from one's toes.  this is weaving that you can really take anywhere.  to the right is a woman from the colca canyon in peru (recognize her embroidered outfit?) who is making little woven and beaded strips while simultaneously selling handicrafts on the side of a mountain road.

i would love to learn how to make these little weavings - they are great for wrapping gifts or wrapping your hair (assuming yours is longer than mine). 

maximo

thank you anabel for mentioning me on whip up!  what a fun surprise.  and in honor of anabel i will post today about one of the amazing studios i visited in lima.

maximo laura is an amazing weaver who combines traditional peruvian methods and symbols with a more modern color scheme and asthetic. 

i have to admit that some of his work is not exactly my style.  yet, i totally love his use of color.  the color combinations are breathtakingly beautiful.

and i loved watching a studio full of men weaving.  why don't more american men weave?

and maximo's smile.  it's infectious.

my friend mandy is going to be working with maximo starting in the spring and i am hoping to return to lima and visit them both.

happy monday

we had a fun couple of days in cuenca.  a delicious colombian breakfast, long walks, pool games in a tiny stone-covered room, and an artesan marketwere some of the highlights.  oh, and also this cute poster (see right) that was pasted onto walls through out the city.  i love the little guys.  too cute.

i've almost finished my little rug and am excited to start a new and slightly bigger one.  i only wish i had access to naturally dyed yarns like these amazing ones i saw in peru:

aren't the colors amazing?  these are my favorite colors.  and i love that the colors i am most attracted to are natural, even if they aren't what we often think of as nature colors.  wouldn't these yarns make a lovely wall hanging just the way they are???

simona

today i want to introduce you to simona, perhaps the hardest working woman i have ever met.  she is a machine embroider and has been since she was 8 years old.  she embroiders all of her own clothing and also make bags, hats, belts, and other goodies to sell.  and get this, she embroiders EVERYDAY from 4am to 11pm.  girlfriend only sleeps 5 hours a night.

simona is from the colca canyon, an area of peru where this type of machine embroidery is the tradition and girls begin to wear beautiful outfits covered in embroidery at a very young age.  these days, the outfits are used partially to appeal to tourists who pay to take photos with locals.  but, there is also a great pride in the embroidered finery and to be known as having the most beautiful attire in your town is an incredible honor.

i have long admired clothing with free-handed embroidery so i was excited at the idea of learning how to machine embroider.  i just love the idea of using the needle as a pen.  but, what i didn´t realize is that i was going to have to learn how to draw all over again.

here is a panel simona made for me:

and here are some of my attempts:

 

simona´s husband, daniel, wrote jordan´s and my name on the second one.  it´s just so incredibly cheesy, you gotta love it.

and here´s one i did of my own design, although simona insisted i add the yellow stripes.  i call her the granny referee:

now i just gotta get myself the right presser foot so i can keep practicing...

turkey, family, embroidery

happy thanksgiving!

i am sad I can´t be with my family today but am super excited that i will see them all in less than a month!  i am going to a veggie thanksgiving at a friend´s house tonight and jordan will be cooking a turkey on saturday.  so, i guess i´ll still get my thanksgiving on.

 

besides being thankful that i get to see my family soon, i am thankful for the continued inspiration i have around me.  as i mentioned in my previous post, one of my big inspirations right now is embroidery.  the bathroom of my hotel room in arequipa had amazing embellished antique photo cards and as soon as i get my hands on the appropriate photos i want to make some of my own.

plus, i´m thinking that if i ever finish the rug i am making (see photo above) the simple geometric pattern would be the perfect background for some simple flowers. 

yay embroidery!

elena and florencio

happy monday!  i hope everyone is well rested and ready for the week ahead.

today, i am excited to post about my favorite peruvian couple: Elena and Florencio.  Elena is an embroidery artist (check out her skirt in the photo to the right) with an excellent sense of humor.  when i told her that if i wasn´t already married i might steal Florencio, she told me i could have him for $1 and when i hesitated, the price quickly dropped to pennies. :)

since coming back from peru i´ve been hot on embroidery and was particularly inspired by this one piece of Elena´s:

and then there is Florencio (with a dorky looking me and in a vest embroidered by Elena):

he is a sweet and gentle man with an amazingly calming effect on others. i could sit and talk to him for hours and hours.  plus, he is the master guard carver of peru, and there is no doubt that the details on his gourds far surpassed most of the other gourds i´ve seen for sale in peru and ecuador.

 

the gourd above is a small sample i purchased, partially because of the backstrap weaver that can be seen in the photo to the left.  florencio also makes beautiful colored gourds with animals and elena carves too, but she paints her carvings to resemble her colorful embroidery. 

florencio likes to draw in the style he carves, and here´s a little close-up of a drawing he did for me:

supposedly, the person sitting down and weaving (right side in the middle) is me.  hee hee.  one day, i hope to visit elena and florencio in their village.  they promised to cook me a big traditional meal.

panchita :)

i think it´s time that i start posting about the lovely teachers who led my workshops in arequipa, peru.  it was amazing to work with indigenous artesans.  i was especially lucky, because unlike most of the participants on my tour, i could actually talk to them (they spoke spanish and quechua, an old andean language).  i learned a lot from these teachers, not just in terms of making things, but also in terms of their general attitudes towards life.  i loved how these workshops were calm, relaxing, and funny.  unlike many other art classes i´ve taken, i never felt frustrated, even though i know it would take me years to master the skills of my talented teachers.

panchita, see above, was our wonderfully silly backstrap weaving teacher.  her laugh is infectious and she loves to talk, even when the person she is talking to cannot understand her.  the looms we used, however, were quite complicated.  for anyone who weaves, there were three sheds and because there was a mix of different types of yarn we ended up with lot of bolitos, little balls of yarn that made it difficult to move our sheds down.  still, we just laughed and laughed. below you can see me weaving, and contrary to what the photo implies, i didn´t get so good that i could weave with my eyes closed.  i needed both of them, and probably would have been better off with an extra pair.

i now have a whole new appreciation for textiles woven on a backstrap loom.  i bought a beautiful shawl made by elsa flores huaman of acha alta.

i wish i could weave like this...maybe one day.  panchita would be proud!