WORKSHOP: Andean Backstap Weaving First Year Studies in a 2-Day Intensive
Workshop Summary
Saturday afternoon: Class starts with an “Intro to the Loom and Body Mechanics.” We’ll learn about how children are taught in the Andes over the course of their first year of weaving study. Students receive their workshop kits, designed to weave with “three pairs.” You’ll learn to set up and anchor your loom, open and change sheds, and start plain weaving for a warp-faced narrow band. We’ll introduce the Quechua vocabulary for the names of the warp parts and tools (such as: sonqopa, illawa, ayllwi, khata, khaulla, listas).
Sunday morning: (Bring back your Saturday kits) We introduce the complementary weave structure pickup: “First Pattern: Tanka Ch’oro.” This is the traditional first pattern taught in most Cusco regional towns. Demonstrations will first show how Andean Pickup is worked by hand, then students start weaving their own first pickup. The instructor will offer one-on-one coaching to students as they keep weaving.
After lunch and a chance to stretch and relax, we come back to learn to “Install Loom Hardware and Measure Warps.” Students will install a fresh illawa on their existing warp as a practice. Then we’ll learn how to measure out three-pairs warps (with both listas and pallay sections) and install the illawa and sonqopa (to change sheds). Variations on three-pairs are demonstrated and discussed, for continued weaving studies on three-pairs, outside the workshop. We’ll also discuss proper weaving yarn for Andean Backstrap Weaving, a very high-plying twist two-ply wool is optimal, and a few methods for adapting existing commercial yarns.
Materials fee = $30; no further supplies are needed
Student could bring a belt that they find comfortable to wear
Instructor Biography
Cat Ellen has been spinning since 1998 and studying Andean Backstrap Weaving since 2017, with a focus on the culturally embedded methods taught by the Quechua-speaking communities of the Cusco region of Peru. Her instructor has been Abby Franquemont (author of “Respect the Spindle”), both in-person and online mentorship. After intensive study for a number of years, Abby invited Cat to be a co-instructor for Andean Backstrap Weaving in Oct 2021 in her online school (Franquemont University). See https://tinyurl.com/andean-weaving-class where Cat Ellen is the co-instructor in the recorded course offerings. Cat has also been studying the published works of Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, the founder of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco CTTC (Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cuzco), such books as “Textile Traditions of Chinchero,” Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands,” and “Secrets of Spinning, Weaving, and Knitting.” Both Abby and Nilda have given Cat their blessing to teach Andean Backstrap Weaving in English for the past five years, continuing to center the Quechua-speaking weavers as the protectors of this indigenous heritage, culture, and traditions.