Last week we had a gathering of weavers here in my home of Santa Cruz Bolivia which brought backstrap weavers from a Quechua community of Peru and an Aymara community of Chile here to meet and interact with Guarani weavers of the Bolivian lowlands. Weavers of plant fibers also attended...those who work with the straw called paja toquilla in Ecuador or jipijapa here in Santa Cruz and others who work with cabuya, a kind of agave. A master Panama hat weaver from Ecuador showed us his work with the paja toquilla and a lady of the Nasa ethnic group of Colombia taught us about the cabuya fiber they use. A Peruvian anthropologist shared her research on the use of the garabata fiber (which is extracted from a plant closely related to that which bears pineapples). This fiber is also used by the Ayoreo people here in Santa Cruz to knot beautiful bags.
Here is my Guarani weaving teacher Angela learning about three color pick up weaving from Celinda, an Aymara weaver from the northern Chilean high plains.
I wrote a full report on the event with pictures on my blog this week with an introduction and a few more photos here.