I went to Ecuador and learned to weave with the Salasace indians in the highlands (the family with whom I stayed is pictured). Here I learned to weave the ''frutilla'' (strawberries) design used on the women's typical belt. It is a supplementary warp technique. Women usually weave the belts but I had a male teacher who was also teaching his three sons to weave. This is the design you can see on the right.. In coastal Ecuador I learned to weave the technique used for making cotton saddle bags. This is the project on the left.l You can see a photo above of my eighty-six year-old teacher preparing the warp. She uses eleven heddle rods to program the design. My teacher, Luz, is the only one left in the area who knows how to set up the warp-her daughter, Trinidad then weaves the piece. and makes it up into the saddle bag. My projects pictured here are the covers for my notebooks where I have documented the processes with diagrams and step-by-step photos.
Here is detail of the Salasaca weave.