Ecuador purse

Eighty-six year-old Luz taught me to weave this technique when I stayed with her and her family in her stilt house(pictured above) in the village of Zapote in coastal Ecuador. Luz and her daughter, Trinidad are the last weavers in the area who know how to make  patterned cotton saddle bags although Luz is the only one who really knows how to prepare the warp. They use 11 heddle rods to program the pattern.. These bags have long been out of use having been replaced by plastic ones. Others that are still woven have simple warp stripes. Luz still handspins all her cotton. She is seen above spinning with Trinidad and I am trying to follow! My project here is a small purse woven on my backstrap loom using overspun acrylic.  The pattern color,blue,is thicker than the background white color. The traditional colors used in Ecuador are natural white cotton-handspun with a pattern of indigo blue. You can see a finished example still on the loom above.I wanted to get the technique down before attempting a project with my own precious hand-spun cotton!!! The button is tagua nut also from Ecuador.