Tag Archives: fiber art

Nuno Felt Fashion Workshop 2015: Clothing Design with Pre-Hispanic Flair

Escape winter, roll up your sleeves, and make a nuno felted wool garment you will be proud to wear. For seven nights and eight days, from January 17 – 24, 2015, you will experience the textile culture of Oaxaca, make wearable fiber art from felt fabric, learn about natural dyes and the process to make them, and explore the textile workshops of local artisans.  In January 2014, we welcomed Californians, Canadians, and Brazilians! What they made is featured here.

Beginners and experienced felters are welcome.

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We use comfortable, unstructured, easy to wear, easy-to-construct , yet elegant indigenous Mexican patterns to show off your design creativity.  If you aren’t confident, don’t worry! The place itself is an inspiration.

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Maddalena Forcella is our expert instructor for 2015.  She is a fiber artist-clothing designer born in Italy where fashion is part of one’s DNA. Maddalena came to Mexico over 20 years ago to study textile design and never left. She is joined by Eric Chavez Santiago from Oaxaca, who will demonstrate the natural dye process using locally sourced plants and cochineal. 

About Your Instructors 

Maddalena Forcella is an internationally renown fiber textile artist whose work has been exhibited in Rome, Los Angeles, Antigua, Guatemala, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Her clothing is sensual and substantial. She studied at the National Museum of Modern Art in Rome, Italy, and the University of Iberoamericana in Mexico City.  For many years, Maddalena has been working with indigenous women in Oaxaca and Chiapas states to preserve natural dye traditions, leading women’s textile projects with the support of private funds. She is committed to indigenous culture and sustainable development.

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Eric Chavez Santiago is a one of Mexico’s most knowledgeable authorities on natural dye sources, chemistry, and production.  He has taught natural dyeing techniques in Oaxaca and at U.S. universities and museums since 2006.  He is a graduate of Anahuac University and is director of education for one of Mexico’s leading arts and cultural organizations.

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I attended the workshop in 2013. Wow! The village of Teotitlan is an experience in itself and will immerse you in a totally different and vibrant world. The B&B and especially the meals were awesome and conversation around the table with other workshop participants was totally fun and absorbing — a bunch of creative, independent and feisty women! And, you can’t lose — even I made several shawls I’m very proud to wear. Highly recommended! –Leslie Larson 

Our Itinerary

Working with Maddalena daily from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in our outdoor studio, we will create lengths of felted nuno fabric enough to make a garment design of your choice.  You might decide to felt on silk or cheesecloth to make a lighter weight and beautifully draping fabric. After your fabric is dry, you will have the option to cut and sew it into one of several indigenous Oaxaca styles: the huipil (tunic), the blusa (blouse), rebozo (shawl), boufanda (scarf) or quechequemitl (cape), or modify the basic pattern into a design of your own.  We give you patterns to adapt to your own body.

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This workshop is for all levels of experience!  You do not have to be an artist or experienced felt-maker to attend.  We welcome beginners who have never worked in wet felting and more advanced fiber artists. This is a perfect residency for university students, teachers and artists who may want to explore a different medium, too.

We are based in the weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle where for generations families have created wool textiles.  During our time together, we will go on local field trips to gain design inspiration, and meet and talk with weavers who work with natural dyes.  Some weave wool fabric for wearable art as well as sturdier floor and wall tapestries.  We will see examples of the types of garments that can be created from the felted fabric we make.

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Supplies to bring (preliminary list).  After you register we will send you a list of supply sources where you can buy the workshop materials to bring:

  • Cotton cheesecloth, preferably pre-colored, 5 to 6 yards or more
  • Silk chiffon, your favorite colors, at least 5 to 6 yards
  • 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of merino wool, preferably naturally dyed, in your favorite colors
  • Raw silk and/or wool fleece locks for texture and interest
  • Sewing kit: sharp scissors, needles, threads, tailor chalk 
  • Optional embellishments: beads, sequins, buttons, ribbons, embroidery thread, yarn, etc.

Note: We will provide the bubble wrap, soap, sponges, buckets, work tables, and other necessities for the process.

What is included in your registration fee:

  • all instruction
  • 7 nights lodging
  • 7 breakfasts
  • 6 dinners
  • pattern booklet and natural dye recipes
  • sewing machine to share with needles, thread
  • selected embellishments, yarns, threads
  • guided visit to Oaxaca textile museum and galleries 

Workshop is limited to 8 participants.

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Daily Workshop Schedule:  Arrive Sunday, January 18 and leave Sunday, January 24.   7 nights and 8 days with options to extend your visit. 

Day 1, Saturday, January 17 – Arrive and settle in to your bed and breakfast posada in Teotitlan del Valle (we send directions)

Day 2, Sunday, January 18 – Welcome, introductions, Tlacolula Market Visit for inspiration and to source local embellishments, afternoon natural dye demonstration with Eric Chavez Santiago.  (B, L, D)

Day 3, Monday, January 19 – Jump right in to make samples with silk and cheesecloth to understand the process. We will make an actual mini- scarf during this session, as well as fabric samples. (B, D)

Day 3, Tuesday, January 20 – Take a morning field trip to the village market and church for pattern inspiration from the local environment. Visit a local weaver.  After lunch we will work on designs using inspiration from the morning studies. (B, D)

Day 4, Wednesday, January 21 – After a visit to a local weaver,  you will  start on making larger pieces of felt for your final project/garment. (B, D)

Day 5, Thursday, January 22 – Finish completing your felted fabric. In the afternoon we will demo the art of making felt flowers. (B, D)

Day 6, Friday, January 23 —  Cut, sew and embellish your project. We will have a Show and Tell with Fashion Photo Shoot before our final celebration dinner. (B, D)

Day 7, Saturday, January 24 – Departure (B)

(This is a preliminary daily schedule and subject to modification.)

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Note: Vest design shown is by Jessica de Haas, FunkShui Studio, 2014 Felt Fashion Workshop instructor.

Workshop Fee:

Option 1:   $1,295 double occupancy basic cost per person includes shared room and bath, double occupancy.

Option 2:  Single occupancy with private bath, $1,595

Extension Options: 

Add-On 1:  Arrive Friday, January 16 and take a Zapotec cooking class on Saturday, January 17.  Includes one night lodging, breakfast, lunch, cooking class and recipes.  $115 USD each.

Add-On 2:  Extend your trip one day and depart Sunday, January 25.  Enjoy Saturday in Oaxaca City with Norma to explore the best textile shops and visit the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. Includes transportation to Oaxaca, overnight on January 24 in Oaxaca City. $195 per person double occupancy, $275 per person single occupancy. Dinner on your own.

Add-on 3:  Stay extra days before or after the workshop.  Add on nights in Teotitlan del Valle at $55 per night,or in Oaxaca City at $125 per night.  Let us know your preference and we make all the arrangements for you.

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Cecelia, Margaret, Sandra, Kirsten, Lynne, Margaret show their work from the 2014 Felt Fashion Workshop.Vest design by Jessica de Haas, FunkShui Studio.

About Our Workshops, Retreats and Programs.  We offer educational programs that are hands-on, fun, culturally sensitive, and offer you an immersion experience.   Our workshop leaders are experts in their field, knowledgeable, have teaching experience and guide you in the learning process.  Our goal is to enhance your knowledge while giving you time to explore and discover. 

About Lodging and Accommodations. To keep this trip affordable and accessible, we stay in a local posada/guest house in Teotitlan del Valle. The food is all house made (including the tortillas), safe to eat and delicious. Vegetarian options are available. 

Insurance Required:  Proof of international travel insurance that covers accidents, medical coverage and emergency evacuation to the U.S.A. or your home country is required by all participants.  If you do not want this, you must send us a notarized waiver of responsibility, holding Norma Hawthorne and Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC harmless.  Thank you for your understanding.

Your registration fee does NOT include airfare, taxes, admissions to museums and archeological sites, tips, liquor/alcoholic beverages, some meals, some transportation, and insurance. 

Deposits, Reservations and Cancellations.  A 50% deposit is required to guarantee your spot.  The last payment for the balance due (including any supplemental costs) shall be paid by December 1, 2014.  We only accept Payment with PayPal.  We will be happy to send you an invoice.

If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email.   After December 1, 2014, no refunds are possible; however, we will make every possible effort to fill your reserved space.  Your registration is transferable to a substitute.  If you cancel before December 1, we will refund 50% of your deposit.

To register or for questions, contact: normahawthorne@mac.com

Penland School of Crafts: Oaxaca Registration Form

Penland School of Crafts–Exploring the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca, Mexico — Organized by Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC

November 4-10, 2013

Program Costs and Conditions

Trip Cost

  • Double room occupancy (per person) $3,185
  • Single room occupancy $3,485

Included

  • 4 nights accommodation at the beautiful and highly-rated Casa de Las Bugambilias Bed & Breakfast  in historic center of Oaxaca city
  • 2 nights accommodation at Casa Elena B&B or Las Granadas B&B  in Teotitlan del Valle
  • Daily breakfast
  • Meals listed in itinerary
  • Transportation to and from the Oaxaca airport
  • Transportation listed in the itinerary
  • Admission to archeological sites and museums
  • $500 tax-deductible contribution to the Penland School of Crafts

Not Included

  • Round-trip airfares to Oaxaca from the USA
  • Airline baggage cost
  • Meals other than listed on the itinerary
  • Tips for drivers, local guide, personal services, meals, lodging staff
  • Alcoholic beverages and individual hotel expenses (laundry, snacks, mini-bar, etc.)
  • Travel insurance

Sign Up TODAY! Spaces still available with full payment.

  • Complete the travel registration form and email or mail to Norma Hawthorne
  • Questions? Ask Norma. Call 919-274-6194 or email normahawthorne@mac.com

Choose One of Three Ways To Complete Your Registration Form

  1. Download and complete the reservation form attached to the trip announcement email you received from Penland and mail to: Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, 110 Blue Heron Farm Road, Pittsboro, NC 27312.
  2. Call Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, at 919-274-6194 or email her at normahawthorne@mac.com We will take your registration information by phone or email. Norma will enter all the information for you.
  3. Copy the Registration Form from this webpage and paste it into a  Word Document.  Save the Word Document and complete the information requested.  Save the completed information on your computer and close the document.  Open your email.  Attach this document to the email and send to normahawthorne@mac.com

Choose One of Two Ways to Pay

  1. Email Oaxaca Cultural Navigator and Norma Hawthorne at normahawthorne@mac.com to say you are ready to register. We will send you a PayPal invoice by email to make your payment with a Credit Card. A PayPal account is not required.  This is safe, secure and easy.
  2. Snail Mail a Personal Check.  Make your check payable to Norma Hawthorne OCN-LLC and mail to:  Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, 110 Blue Heron Farm Road, Pittsboro, NC 27312.

 REGISTRATION FORM

Exploring the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca, Mexico — Travel Adventures with Penland School of Crafts, November 4-10, 2013

We will accept a maximum of 12 travelers! Reservations are on a first come, first served basis. Please confirm your participation as soon as possible.  If you wish, we can take your registration information by phone.  (If reserving space in a DOUBLE, please indicate the names of both parties. Deposits may be made separately. Please note—Your Passport must be valid for 6 months after the date of your return to the USA.

Please reserve _______________ space(s).

Name of Traveler (please complete one form for each traveler)

_____________________________________________________

Sharing Room With:___________________________________________________

Traveler’s Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________

City/State/ZIP:____________________________________________

Email:__________________________________________________

Cell Phone: ____________________________________

Land Phone: ___________________________________

Please include Area Code

Reservations and Deposits.  Deposits are due by August 15, 2013.

[ ] I prefer a Double Room at $3,185 per person. [ ] 1 King Bed [ ] 2 Beds —

[ ] I prefer a Single Room at $3,485 per person

If  you wish to pay by personal check, please make your check payable to Norma Hawthorne-OCN-LLC and mail to Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, 110 Blue Heron Farm Road, Pittsboro, NC 27312.

Final payment is due on or before September 8, 2013. We ask that you send us a check for the final payment, and include a separate check made payable to Penland School of Crafts in the amount of $500. We will send you an email reminder with the final amount due.

All travel documentation, notices, and supplemental information will be sent to participants via email. if you do not use email, we will make other arrangements.

Cancellation Policy

Please understand that we make lodging and transportation arrangements months in advance of the program. Our hosts often require deposits or payments in full to guarantee reservations. If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email to normahawthorne@mac.com.

After August 15, no refunds are possible. You may send a substitute in your place. If you cancel on or before  August 15, we will refund 50% of your deposit. We strongly recommend that you take out trip cancellation, baggage, emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip, since unforeseen circumstances are possible. We offer this service and are happy to give you a quote.

Thank you very much for traveling with us and for your support of Penland School of Crafts.

New Location for Puebla, Mexico Folk Art Cooperative Siuamej

After landing in Mexico City, taking the Estrella Roja bus (complete with WiFi, TV, and reclining seats) from the airport to Puebla, and a good night’s sleep, I set out to find my favorite folk art shop Siuamej, only to discover that they moved.  First and foremost, here is the address: The corner of 4 Oriente and 4 Norte. 4 Oriente is the street of the camote shops.  Puebla streets are confusing** and I got turned around and lost trying to find the new location.  But, when I got there — WOW!

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Siuamej is an indigenous arts cooperative that represents the work of artisans from throughout the remote Nahuatl-speaking mountain region which is a good three to four hours by bus from the city of Puebla.

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Within moments of entering the shop, Kit Rank showed up.  She is a New York City artist represented by McKee Gallery who has been living with her husband in Sicily for the last ten years. They have been living in Puebla now for a couple of months and love it.  She had her eye on an exquisite hand-embroidered top that we convinced her to model.  She bought it on the two-month layaway plan!

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While Uriel, son of shopkeepers Mari Jimenez Barbara and Tomas Amaya Aquino amused himself with Sponge Bob, I looked through the all naturally dyed wool quechquemitls and rebozos, settling on a Chal de Hueyapan handwoven by Teresa Lino Bello, dyed with baseide sauco  (elderberry plant dye) that yields a stunning olive green (see photo above of the three shawls).  The hand spun yarn that is used for the embroidery is dyed with nogal (tree bark) and the brown embroidery on the green provides a subtle contrast.  The fringes or punto are hand tied in a style called doble vista.

In addition to the handwoven wool textiles, there is a selection of jewelry, baskets, embroidered cotton blouses, ceramics and lots more.  Tomas speaks English very well (he is originally from Oaxaca), and it is easy to be in discovery of Puebla’s indigenous artisan riches for well over an hour.  This is the only artist cooperative I’ve been able to find in Puebla.  Here you know you are buying the best quality available and the funds go directly to the makers at fair trade value.

**Puebla streets are arranged in a quadrant — north, south, east and west.  Odd numbers go in one direction, even numbers go in the other direction.  Get a map from your hotel or the tourist office on the Zocalo before you set out.  It is really confusing.  Especially since oriente translates to east and poniente translates to west.

Commonwealth Club of California to Host Chavez Santiago Family Weavers on May 10

San Francisco and Bay Area textile and fiber artists, hand-weavers and spinners are invited to attend a presentation at the Commonwealth Club of California at 12:00 noon on May 10.

The Future of Tradition: Weavers of Oaxaca, Mexico Connect Their Future with Their Past.

Eric Chavez Santiago, director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca and Janet Chavez Santiago, education coordinator at the San Pablo Academic and Cultural Center of Oaxaca, will talk about their family’s weaving and textile traditions, indigenous life, and the professional goals they have set for themselves and their institutions.  Jean Pierre Larochette, a Berkeley, Calif. weaver and leader of the American Tapestry Alliance, will introduce them.

Chavez Santiago Family Portrait by Richard Carter c.2012

Their father, Federico Chavez Sosa, is a master weaver whose work is recognized for blending traditional Zapotec design with innovative color combinations and pattern adaptations.  Both Janet (top, second from left) and Eric (top right) are fourth generation tapestry weavers, along with their brother Omar (top left).  Eric’s novia Elsa Sanchez Diaz is to Eric’s left.

The family is committed to using only 100% natural dyes in their work.  They have been featured in the NY Times article 36 Hours: Oaxaca, Mexico by travel writer Freda Moon.

Eric and Janet are in the Bay Area at the invitation of the American Tapestry Alliance.

This summer! Weaving and Natural Dye Workshop with Federico Chavez Sosa and the Chavez Santiago Family Weavers in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, produced by Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.

Chavez Family Weavers, a Portrait by Norma Hawthorne c.2012

In addition, Federico accepts commissions for custom work and when you are in Oaxaca, please visit them at Galeria Fe y Lola, Av. 5 de Mayo #408, Centro Historico.

Questions?  Contact Norma Hawthorne, executive director, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.

Chiapas Textile Cooperative to Exhibit and Sell at Oaxaca Textile Museum

After calling ahead and making an appointment, we took a taxi to the outskirts of San Cristobal de las Casas at the end of a dirt road to find the headquarters of Camino de los Altos.  This is a cooperative of 130 weavers who make extraordinary textiles.

They will be exhibiting and selling their work at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca from Friday through Sunday, February 17-19, 2012.  If you are in Oaxaca, you won’t want to miss this event!

The cooperative began in the mid-1990’s by eight French designers who had a passion for Mayan traditions, textiles, and indigenous design.  El Camino selects ancient traditional colors and re-imagines them.  They produce bags, children’s clothing, pillow covers, scarves, shawls, table cloths, runners, napkins, and dish towels on sturdy, highest quality fabric that is hand-woven on back strap looms in five Chiapas weaving villages.  Six sales are held each year in Paris and at other selected locations around the world.

Wool pillow covers can be the natural color of the sheep or dyed with either palo de Brazil or cochineal to yield a rich red. Mayan women then embellish them with traditional hand-embroidered designs.  The cotton is dyed with industrial color.  The color combinations are juicy and intense, and based upon traditional weaving patterns, too.

 

As a cooperative, the members meet together to decide next steps, new design and color directions, and pattern innovations. Their commitment is to each other — everyone must have work.  The marketplace speaks, so together they determine what needs to be altered, adapted, changed or discontinued.

[Cultural note: In traditional villages, the men work in the fields and do required community service (cargos).  Women are responsible for all the household work, and care for children and in-laws.  We hear that many of the women who are now able to earn their own income through weaving and other crafts, choose not to marry to achieve some level of independence.]

 

El Camino de los Altos operates through the sale of their work and the support of a French foundation, and are able to employ four full-time staff.  The money they earn goes directly to the weavers.  In addition, they are training indigenous women in marketing, sales, production, inventory control and other business development aspects that will ensure ongoing success.

 

A Chiapas retail store, Madre Tierra, sells Camino de los Altos textiles.  It is located across from the sweets market on Insurgentes in the courtyard behind the fabulous bakery that sells the most delicious whole grain onion garlic buns.

 

Contact:  Veronique Tesseraud, director, elcaminodelosaltos@gmail.com, (967) 631-6944.  Barrio de Cuxtitali, Cerrada Prolongacion Peje de Oro #3.  http://elcaminodelosaltos.blogspot.com/