Call the Search Off: Guatemalan Organic Handspun Cotton Cloth Found

Wajxa ib Kan, Weaving Cooperative, Chavacruz, Solola

When traveling to cloth-weaving villages, there’s generally one “something” that I’m intrigued by or in search for. Three years ago, it was the seemingly rare handspun cotton and handwoven cloth made from the organic natural cotton beige color “ixcaco”, the … Read the rest

Hunting Down the Netted Bag in Chiapas, Mexico

Chiapas-style netted bags worn in procession in Chamula

The quest for the Chiapas-style netted bag, and how it was made, would soon be fulfilled but not without a precarious journey. Riding into the cloud forest above San Cristóbal into the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, the clouds were so … Read the rest

Tinkuy, A Global Textile Experience Not to Be Missed!

Linda Ligon spinning with Peruvian weavers during Tinkuy 2010

 

 Here’s a link to the 2013 Tinkuy Brochure including workshops, travel arrangements, cost and add on tours. 

 

Here’s an interesting blog from Backstrap Weaving featuring Tinkuy 2010 to give you a good feel for what you can look … Read the rest

Wild Silk Creates a Strong Bond

Sahalandy member, Prisca, winding silk warp.

While one silk thread is strong, many woven together are stronger.”

This is a fomba, or proverb, uniting the many people involved in the production of exquisite wild silk, handwoven products from the island nation of Madagascar, located off … Read the rest

Knit a Scarf Using Handspun Peruvian Alpaca

Peruvian elders handspinning

Walk, talk, spin. Most likely, there’s other things that Andean women do while spinning. Spinning is so embedded in their every day lives that they don’t think about it, they just do. I can barely spindle spin just sitting still … Read the rest

Tajik Spinners’ Goal:Make the Most Beautiful Mohair for the Market

Handspinning mohair

When Wisconsin-based sociologist Liba Brent started working on development projects in Central Asia ten years ago, little did she know how passionate and knowledgeable she would become about fiber and yarn. And not just the end product, she learned about … Read the rest

Molo Wool Project and the Artisans of Animals

Handspun, handknit animals made by Anastasia Njugun

When Gwen and John Meyer take a yearly vacation, they don’t stay close to home. But “home” is what they found in rural areas of Kenya, Africa.  Since 2007, they have been using their skills in fiber crafts and sheep … Read the rest

Golden Buttons: The Vision of Amina Yabis

Silk buttons available at ClothRoads

In 1997, Amina Yabis was a mother of four young boys married to a schoolteacher, Si Mohammed, whose income was steady yet meager. The family lived in a three-room mud brick house in Sefrou, a small town near Fez in … Read the rest

Peruvian Handspun Alpaca

Peruvian alpaca handspun by the elder women of Pitumarca

 

In the weaving villages of the Peruvian Andes, almost no one describes herself as a spinner. Yet most women, and many men, spin in every spare moment for their entire lives. The paradox comes from the fact that the … Read the rest

Pitumarca Spindle Bags

Peruvian Spindle Bag in Rose

Drive an hour or so south from Cusco, then head left up a steep dirt road with countless switchbacks, and eventually you come to the village of Pitumarca. The weaving center here, Centro de Tejedores Munay Ticlla de Pitumarca, is … Read the rest