Peru

A significant aspect of my life is the connection I have with Quechua weavers in the Peruvian highlands. I became intrigued with pre-Columbian textiles early on as a weaver, particularly since the level of doubleweave pickup had been so remarkable as to be unsurpassed to this day.

I was able to make my first trip to Peru to attend the first Tinkuy de Tejedores (gathering of handweavers) in Urubamba in 2010, and follow it by attending a tour sponsored by Andean Textile Arts (ATA, see my blog post Off to Peru, 2010). This was a life-changing experience for me and I felt that I wanted to become more involved in working with these weavers in some way.

Following that trip I began volunteering each year at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market for Nilda Callañaupa, the founder of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) to help out in her booth. In 2012 she asked me to attend the next Tinkuy in Cusco in 2013, so that I could teach a group of her weavers in the techniques of doubleweave, a practice which had largely fallen into disuse in Peru after the fifteenth century. (See my blog post Off to Peru, 2013).

In 2015 I was approached by Andean Textile Arts to join their board of directors and serve as their treasurer, a post that I have held since that time.

In 2017 I attended the third Tinkuy in Cusco as a delegate from Andean Textile Arts. A very special experience for me was helping to mount and install two exhibits of pieces that had been woven in doubleweave by CTTC weavers since the class that I taught there in 2013. (See my blog post Off to Peru, 2017).

Most recently, I was a co-leader on the 2019 ATA tour to Peru, along with Anita Osterhaug, another ATA board member and vice president. A highlight of that trip was the day that 300 weavers from CTTC gathered in Pisac for a number of special events including singing, dancing, sports, and various competitions. One of these involved having one weaver from each of the ten communities weave an image of a condor in doubleweave pickup in a 3-hour time frame. (See my blog post Off to Peru, 2019).