ancient traditions
the program, last night, at the Victoria Handweavers’ and Spinners Guild was presented by Ashli Akins
a young woman with a vision, a mission and an impressive ability to tell the story of the Quechua communities of the Andean mountains
through the non-profit organization she founded
MOSQOY
Ashli, along with a team of volunteers is making a difference
read their story at http://www.mosqoy.org
they are choosing to support culture and tradition
not change the customs of the people
woven on primitive tools, with local alpaca and wool
softly dyed with colours from native plants
and cochineal for red
the weavings are exquisite – even more so when touched
but – they are being forced out of their small market by enterprising entrepreneurs who are copying the designs substituting man made yarns and chemical dyes
polluting the planet in the process
and charging the tourists a fraction of the price
even more alarming , the next generation are not learning the weaving skills as they can’t support their families with their textiles
if each of us helped – just a tiny bit – the culture, traditions and techniques might survive into the next century
please visit http://www.mosqoy.org
will post this to my facebook & go from there on. this is my kind of project!
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Neki – it gets my support.
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What a wonderful presentation this must have been. I am currently learning this type of weaving (simplified, of course) and it is really challenging. I have a lot of respect for their amazing textiles and culture. I especially like that orange and pale blue number on the left in one of your photos.
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Kristin – those textiles are so-o soft and so fine, handspun on drop spindles, natural dyed and woven on backstrap looms. Don’t see that complexity for all our fancy equipment.
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It really is amazing in all its simplicity…all those patterns hand picked!
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Kristin – once the patterns and techniques are lost they are gone forever.
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Wow, this is very important! Their work is so beautiful . . .
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Kerry – the fact that they are all volunteers and no donated money is going to salaries, advertising and infrastructure is impressive. They are helping young people to get an education who would never have the opportunity otherwise and they make a commitment to go back to their isolated communities. I was extremely impressed.
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