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Alert: WARP Offers Grants to Textile Artisans–Apply Now


DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 26!

Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is an international textile organization that supports artisans, offers scholarship grants, and holds an annual meeting to bring together textile makers and appreciators to talk about all things weaving, cloth, and community. I have belonged to this organization for many years, organized its Oaxaca annual conference in 2017, and find it to be very satisfying to be a member.

I’ve offered to help spread the word about submitting applications for scholarships to help individuals and organizations improve their capacity. All textile artisans are invited. They may need help with the application based on language skills — so if you work with a Mexican weaving cooperative, we hope you will jump right in and help them submit an application in the next week. Thank you.

Here is the application information:

Dear Friends of WARP,

There is one week left to apply for a 2023 WARP Artisan Support Grant! Please help us spread the word: Textile artisans from any country are welcome to apply. WARP is offering one-time grants of up to $500 for individual artisans and up to $1,000 for artisan groups. This year, we are providing two grant options: one for Basic Needs and one for Development. This reflects the fact that while many artisans may still need COVID or other emergency support, others are transitioning out of an emergency situation and now have needs that are more development-oriented. 

The application deadline is March 19th, 2023. The link to the electronic application form is below, with details about this year’s grant program. Please share this announcement with any textile artisan or artisan group you think would benefit from this grant.For any grant related questions, please contact Diane Manning, WARP Grants Committee Chair, at dkmanning@gmail.com.Best wishes,WARP Grant Committee

Here is the LINK TO THE ELECTRONIC APPLICATION.

Use the electronic form to submit, but I’ve included the language of the grant application below.

2023 WARP Textile Artisan Grant Application

Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is a catalyst for improving the quality of life for textile artisans worldwide. We are an inclusive global network of individuals and organizations who value the social, cultural, historic, artistic, and economic importance of textile arts. Learn more about WARP at: www.weavearealpeace.org.

We are delighted to announce that, for 2023, WARP will again award monetary grants to textile artisan communities in need. 

This year, WARP is offering two grant options: one for Basic Needs and one for Development. This reflects the fact that while many artisans may still need COVID or other emergency support, others are transitioning out of an emergency situation and now have needs that are more development-oriented. 

  1. Basic Needs: This option is for applicants who are still experiencing hardship due to continuing effects of COVID or other circumstances such as drought, extreme heat, or floods.
    • Basic needs could include but are not limited to: food or seeds for food crops, medical care/medicines, clothing, utilities, dependent care, education, or housing.
  2. Development: This option is for applicants who are seeking to grow their business coming out of COVID.
    • Development needs could include but are not limited to: artisan supplies (dye garden, wood for loom, fiber), equipment (sewing machines, looms, etc.), marketing materials (camera, product photography), technology (cell phones, computer, etc.), training (need to specify what, whom, where), and travel (to attend trade fairs, markets).

NOTE: You may apply for a Basic Needs Grant or a Development Grant, but not both.

Eligibility Criteria:

Textile artisans from any country are welcome to apply.

If you are applying for a Basic Needs Grant, you must describe in your own words what you require and how specifically this grant will help you.

If you are applying for a Development Grant you must articulate a plan that includes specific information about what you want to do, how you want to do it, how much it will cost, and how it will help you  grow your  business. 

Total grants will be up to $500 for individual/family applicants and up to $1,000 for associations/coops/businesses.

You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.

You may apply for a 2023 WARP grant whether or not you applied for or received a grant from WARP in a previous year.

Timeline:

Deadline to submit completed applications: March 19, 2023. Only applications submitted during this timeline will be accepted.

Grant recipients will be notified: April 14, 2023. Grant funds will be disbursed as soon as possible after grantee notification

Grantees confirm receipt of funds via email: As soon as possible, but no later than 14 days after receipt of funds


Summary written report stating how funds were used (form will be provided): July 17, 2023

Questions?
Contact Diane Manning, WARP Grants Committee Chair, at dkmanning@gmail.com.

Non-Discrimination Statement:
No person shall be denied membership or participation in any of WARP’s activities or operations on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status.

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BASIC NEEDS GRANT APPLICATION

NOTE: You may apply for a Development Grant or a Basic Needs Grant, but not both. 

If you are applying for a Development Grant, please skip this section and go directly to the Development Grant Section below.

You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.

Please select one:

I am applying as an Individual/Family (you may request up to $500 USD)

I am applying as an Association/Cooperative/Multi-household group (You may request up to $1,000 USD)

I am requesting the following amount:

Your answer

Please describe what emergency you are experiencing (for example: COVID 19, drought, flood, earthquake, war, etc.)

Your answer

Describe how the emergency has impacted you/your family/household or group? Please provide as much detail as possible.

Your answer

How specifically do you plan to use this Basic Needs Grant? Grants may be used for essentials including medical needs, child/elder care, housing, utilities, food, and seeds for growing crops, etc.

The more details you provide, the better the Grants Committee can evaluate your application. If not enough details are provided to fully assess how the grant funds will be used, a grant will not be awarded.

Your answer

How many artisans (family/household members/group) would benefit from this grant request?

Your answer


How long have you and/or your family/household/group been creating textiles?

Your answer

What type of textile do you produce?

Your answer

Where do you make and sell your textiles?

Your answer

Please attach up to 3 images of your work here. If you are unable to upload the files, please send images to info@weavearealpeace.org. We must see examples of your work for the grant application to be considered.

Add file

Provide any additional information that will support your application. This will help the Grants Committee better understand your needs and how you will use the funds.

Your answer

DEVELOPMENT GRANT APPLICATION

NOTE: You may apply for a Development Grant or a Basic Needs Grant, but not both. 

If you applied for a Basic Needs Grant above, please skip this section and go directly to the bottom to submit your application.

You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.

Please select one:

I am applying as an Individual/Family (you may request up to $500 USD)

I am applying as an Association/Cooperative/Multi-household group (You may request up to $1,000 USD)

I am requesting the following amount:

Your answer

Please describe your 2023 development plan and how specifically your business will benefit from this Development Grant.

(For example, I/we want to expand our 2023 production by 20%, or I /we want to send 5 people to a training workshop so that we can improve the quality of our designs.)

The more details you provide, the better the Grants Committee can evaluate your application. If not enough details are provided to fully assess how the grant funds will be used, a grant will not be awarded.

Your answer

Describe the specific requirements to execute your plan. These could include, but is not limited to:

– artisan supplies (dye garden, wood for loom, fiber)

– equipment (sewing machines, looms, etc.), 

– marketing materials (camera, product photography), 

– technology (cell phones, computer, etc.), 

– training (need to specify what, whom, where), 

– travel (to attend trade fairs, markets).

Your answer

Submit a budget that lists the cost for each item you will need to accomplish the plan described above.

For example, if your plan states that you needed 5 sewing machines to increase production, your budget would state the following:

– I/we will purchase  5 new sewing machines

– Each one costs $100

– Total grant request: $500

Your answer

How many artisans (family/household members/group) would benefit from this grant request?

Your answer


How long have you and/or your family/household/group been creating textiles?

Your answer

What type of textile do you produce?

Your answer

Where do you make and sell your textiles?

Your answer

Please attach up to 3 images of your work here. If you are unable to upload the files, please send images to info@weavearealpeace.org. We must see examples of your work for the grant application to be considered.

Add file

Provide any additional information that will support your application. This will help the Grants Committee better understand your needs and how you will use the funds.

Your answer

The Social Justice of Textiles

Many of us find comfort in the handmade. We know that most handwoven, embroidered, appliqued, and other ornamental elements of cloth are made by women, many of whom live in rural areas that struggle with poverty, lack of access to health care and limited educational facilities. We buy, collect, wear handmade not only for its innate beauty, but because we are supporting women and families. The social justice of textiles is cross-border and cross-politics.

Yet, political boundaries separate tribal groups and families, too. Think of the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico and Guatemala, who were separated by the Usumacinta River post-Mexican Revolution. Think of the Pakistanis and their cousins who live in Gujarat, India, separated after the partition that created the Muslim and Hindu nations.

Textiles know no borders, grew in similar ways on different continents, using the same techniques, explains Yasmine Dabbous, PhD, an anthropologist who is based in Beirut, Lebanon. Founder of Kinship Stories, she delivered the keynote address at the Weave a Real Peace (WARP) Annual Conference that I attended via Zoom on Saturday, June 19, 2021.

Textiles are the human common denominator, creating connections and giving us the capacity to communicate beyond the politics of national borders. Textiles promote cross-cultural exchange and migration. Ancient trade routes expanded our capacity to understand and fuse differences. As human beings, we desire to create or appreciate creativity, and travel has given us the ability to blend different techniques and designs as creators and makers. Across the continents, peoples exchanged fabrics, culture, art, techniques and language.

Visually, we see the similarities of designs: the infinite circle of life, the Eye of God, the butterfly, mountains and rain, the life affirming force of the sun, the power of lightening, the duality of light and dark or man and woman. Common threads point to common interests, dreams, fears and needs. We seek meaning in textiles that share these common motifs even though there was no physical connection between makers from disparate parts of the world.

The symbols of cloth point to fertility and childbirth, abundance, protection, universal hope. The Evil Eye represents fear of the unknown expressed in the embroidered mirrors of India, glass beads of Egypt, amulets in Southeast Asia.

The Social Justice of Textiles now points us to what we value and what we need to pay attention to: handmade beauty of slow fiber or mass produced fast-fashion that results in pollution, cheap prices, subsistance labor in abusive factories. Disposable clothing in a disposable society represents, I believe, deep dissatisfaction that yields multiple marriages, self-indulgences and self-destruction.

Fabric has a lot to teach us. Whether it is embroidery, knitting, sewing, weaving, piecing, dyeing, designing, these are art forms practiced by both women and men. It is a way for individuals and communities to rise out of poverty, to overcome war and refugee experiences. For the individual, the meaningful act of creating can eliminate sadness and depression, is empowering and healing, may resolve conflict, and overcome the ravages of lingering colonialism.

When we purchase clothing to wear, we have a conscious choice to make. Will we invest a bit more to buy something that is created by hand that will directly improve the lives of the makers? Will we choose a low-cost, factory-made garment that will serve us in the short-term? Either way, it is important to be aware of our own reasons and motivations, as well as our own willingness to understand ourselves, others and the world we inhabit.

There are no intellectual property protections for indigenous makers in the international court of law. IP laws cover individuals, not cooperatives or communities. We must also be aware of “knock-offs,” what textile leaders are calling cultural appropriation or cultural plagiarism. This is rampant in the design world, where native symbols of meaning and spirituality are replicated only for the purposes of commercialization and profitability, made by invisible labor hired by factory owners who work under the most oppressive conditions. We call these sweatshops and they follow the international labor market, moving to countries where manufacturing is the most profitable, taking advantage of the lowest hourly wages with no benefits.

One way we can all reassure the continuity of native cultures and fair-market value is to buy directly from artisan makers, and when this is not possible, to purchase directly from representatives who understand and support their endeavors. Please help spread the word!

Some Resources:

Kinship Stories, Yasmine Dabbous, Ph.D.

Weave a Real Peace (WARP)

Spiderwoman’s Children (Thrums)

Weaving for Justice, Christine Eber, Ph.D.

Fashion Revolution

Local Cloth

I am offering textiles and jewelry for sale in my Etsy Store. I support artisan makers. If you are interested in making a purchase, please see the Etsy Store, then send me an email norma.schafer@icloud.com When you buy direct from me, I will offer you a 10% discount and a $12 flat rate mailing fee. You may purchase with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal. Thank you very much.

WARP Textile Conference Free and Online

Annual Meeting/Conference is June 18-20, 2021

Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is an international textile networking organization made up of weavers, academics, and interested supporters. Their mission is to exchange information, raise awareness of the importance of textile traditions to grassroots economies, mobilize textile enthusiasts, and create conversations that result in action.

I’ve been a member for several years, and helped the organizers produce their very successful 2017 Annual Meeting in Oaxaca, Mexico.

This year because of Covid, the annual meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. It is FREE and open to the public. All you need to do is register in advance. I’ll be there and hope you will join me!

Click Here to Register for Unraveling Borders, Weaving Networks and to see the full program.

Kudos are in order: My godson Omar Chavez Santiago from Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, was just named an Alice Brown Memorial Scholarship recipient by WARP. It is a two-year honor. Omar will attend this virtual conference and the next one in 2022, which will hopefully be in person! Omar is a fourth generation weaver and works only with natural dyes. He is part of the Fe y Lola Rugs gallery and an accomplished textile designer who incorporates contemporary elements with traditional tapestry weaving techniques.

WARP Oaxaca Walking Tour: Textiles and Folk Art

Last Sunday, a group of ten WARP conference participants gathered in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 a.m. We set out for a day-long walking tour of textiles and folk art, concentrating on a few superb venues to see the best of the best.

Walking around Oaxaca on a Sunday morning.

I had set meetings up in advance with two of Oaxaca’s most distinguished shops where the finest textiles are curated and sold, Arte Amuzgo and Los Baules de Juana Cata.

Efigenia, with exquisite Amuzgo huipil, rare caracol purpura (purple snail) dye

I asked the owners if they would select five to ten of their most outstanding textiles, explain the dye and back-strap weaving process, and talk about the maker and the region of origin.

Rare silk + Egyptian cotton huipil, indigo + caracol purpura dyes, San Mateo del Mar

Both are doing an outstanding effort to rescue lost weaving traditions by encouraging villages to bring back an art form on the edge of extinction.

Baby alpaca translates to traditional Mitla weaving, theme of corn + cacao beans

Both have galleries in the historic center of Oaxaca where they offer a market for indigenous artisans to show and sell their work.

Amazing indigo, native coyuchi cotton and caracol purpura blusa, Amuzgos

They give attribution to the weavers, too, by including their names and villages on the hang tags of the clothing.

On the colonial walking street, Macedonio Alcala, Oaxaca

But, first I thought it was important to offer a backdrop to Oaxaca, by explaining a bit about her history and culture. I invited Janet, who was born and raised here, to tell us about her city.

Gold-leaf interior, Santo Domingo Church, Oaxaca

Our first stop was at the cathedral on the Zocalo, where the story of Colonial Oaxaca begins. We then walked up the Alcala, making a coffee stop, a shopping stop for hand-made paper earrings (on special request from Louise), and gathered in front of Santo Domingo Church.

Like a tapestry, silk and Egyptian cotton huipil

Here, we talked about the conversion of indigenous people, the construction of the city, the power of the Dominicans, and the wealth provided by cochineal.

The underside is as beautiful as the front!

With a stop, too, at Andares del Arte Popular before lunch with a welcome from manager Eric Chavez Santiago, by the time we landed at Los Danzantes, hunger had overtaken us. Lots of walking, but we didn’t even complete 10,000 steps!

Efren at Los Baules de Juana Cata explains dedication to preserving Oaxaca textiles

Organic blue corn tortillas, Los Danzantes, Oaxaca

The aperitif, fresh frozen mango mezcal and agua de tuna

Here, I will not bore you with our seven course tasting menu that I ordered in advance.  It included grilled watermelon salad. Coconut shrimp. Rib eye tacos. Wild mushroom lasagna. Let’s go straight to dessert.

Chocolate casacada with house made vanilla ice cream, raspberry drizzle

And, if that wasn’t enough, another taste of my other favorite at Los Danzantes:

Goat cheese flan with toasted, caramelized nuts, honey and chocolate sauce

Oh, and fresh fruit. The figs were out of this world.

I ordered this so we would all stay healthy.

Back into the world of textiles, I want to show you some other beauties that we had the privilege to see this day.

Cochineal dyed silk on Egyptian cotton, embroidered, Ayutla

Irene’s find at Arte Amuzgo

Lollie and Elaine holding down the dressing room fort

Gauze weave cotton by Francisca Palafox, San Mateo del Mar

Getting a closer look

Rare green and coyuchi cotton, native to Oaxaca, Amuzgo

Oaxaca is a vast treasure trove of textile wonderfulness. In the colder mountain regions, the cottons are triple-ply and thick for warmth. Along the coast, the weave is much lighter gauze to cover-up but to also deal with hot, humid weather. Some villages weave. Others work in embroidery.

Close up of Mitla wool rebozo, with traditional corn and cacao pattern

There is a reintroduction of silk weaving, and wool is a perfect wrap around material for rebozos (shawls) to protect from winter chill in the valleys.

Stacks of fine garments at Los Baules de Juana Cata

Early Sunday morning, a perfect time for a stroll in Downtown Oaxaca

WARP Takes a Oaxaca Textile Study Tour with Norma Schafer, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC

Last Saturday, 70 WARP conference-goers divided up and piled into four red vans to go on an all-day natural dye textile and weaving study tour that I organized.

At the Montaño family weavers who make beautiful bags

We left our Oaxaca hotel at 9:30 a.m. and didn’t return until after 7:00 p.m. (and in a rain storm). It takes much longer to move 70 people than it does to lead a small group of three!

Weaver Alfredo Hernandez wearing a wild marigold-cochineal dyed scarf

Of course, I couldn’t be on all four vans at once, so I had great help from dye master Elsa Sanchez Diaz, applied linguist Janet Chavez Santiago, and blogger Shannnon Pixley Sheppard who staffed the other three.

Lunch at Tierra Antigua Restaurant, Teotitlan del Valle

Thanks to them and a schedule that brought us all together for lunch and an end-of-the-day reunion, the day went off without a hiccup.

Program Chair Judy Newland adds cochineal to her indigo hair

We hopscotched all over Teotitlan del Valle and made a detour to Lachigolo to visit weavers I know who work in naturally-dyed wool and cotton.

Lola (Dolores) and Fe (Federico) demonstrate over-dyeing techniques

We got demonstrations of the natural dye process, tapestry loom weaving techniques using the fixed frame, two-harness pedal loom used to make rugs.

In the studio of Galeria Fe y Lola — Federico and Dolores

We saw the flying shuttle, four-harness loom that can make yards of cotton cloth with more intricate patterning depending on the sequencing of the foot pedals. The cloth woven for clothing and home goods.

Preparing warp threads for flying shuttle loom

Most importantly, we had the opportunity to meet each family, understand how they work in collaboration and in family units, and see how they are inspired to make very distinctive products from each other.

Francisco Martinez takes pericone — wild marigold — from dye vat

Every family has their own dye recipes and design adaptations. Some are doing very pioneering work, combining wool and agave plant fiber.

Aztecs used dyed chicken feathers to add color to white cotton – revitalized now

Some are doing very fine wall tapestries with 17 warp threads per inch. It is wonderful to see the range and variety of creativity and inspiration.

Alfredo’s son prepares bobbins for the loom — a family endeavor

Alfredo collaborates with Ayutla embroiderer Anacleta Juarez

Alfredo Hernandez weaves the natural manta with the finest cotton threads. Then embroiderer Anacleta Juarez creates the most detailed, intricate finely stitched work I’ve ever seen.

Wild marigold fixes with a local plant called marush

On day one, cultural anthropologist Marta Turok Wallace talked about the importance of collaboration to further innovation that will sustain tradition.

A shady respite along the way — Judy, Ana Paula, Gail, Patrice

Isaac and his mom, Maria de Lourdes, wash the wool before it goes into the dye bath

Wool tapestries with natural dyes, with Francisco Martinez

We gathered at the end of the day at the home workshop and studio of Porfirio Gutierrez and his family for traditional hot chocolate, bread, mezcal and a demonstration. Big thanks, Porfirio, for your hospitality to welcome 70 people!

Cochineal grows on prickly pear cactus paddles behind Porfirio Gutierrez

The family is working in wool dyed with natural plant materials and cochineal. They are innovating with rug designs that resemble a petate that incorporates plant fibers like jute and ixtle.

Two dye masters huddle: Elsa Sanchez Diaz and Juana Gutierrez, Porfirio’s sister

Wrapping up a petate design rug to go — a combo of jute and indigo!

In the courtyard, Francisco and Patrice talk about possibilities

Behind a wall, a flying shuttle loom workshop awaits us

Shopping for napkins and tablecloths made on the flying shuttle loom

Sales assistant in training!

Juana and her 6 months-old granddaughter

Cochineal dyed cotton out to dry on the line

Almost every weaver here knows how to prepare a demonstration using natural dyes. Many have the materials on hand to show visitors. Yet, it takes half the time to prepare wool using aniline dyes as it does to prepare natural dyes. The dye materials are 10 times more expensive.

Cochineal and indigo dye wool

Some say that about 10 to 15 Teotitlan del Valle families may actually use natural dyes in their work. (I don’t know the exact number.)  If this is important to you, you may want to join one of our one-day study tours to take you to them. The price will be higher for these beauties, but there is a distinctive difference in color palette and quality.

On the van, WARP conference Oaxaca

WARP president Cindy Lair with Montaño family

The little red vans that could! Gracias, Silvia and Cesar.

One more post about the WARP Conference in Oaxaca, 2017, and the walking tour of the historic center that Janet and I led last Sunday. We explored the nooks and crannies, found paper earring for Louise, good strong coffee for Diane. In two outstanding galleries, we had talks from owners and managers about quality differences in materials, dyes, and hand-looming.

Tying pom poms on purse zippers, Montaño family

Thanks to WARP for coming to Oaxaca, and thanks to you for reading.