Learning to weave on a backstrap in Guatemala-what a fantastic experience!! Whenever I travel and learn a new technique or structure I make a book when I get home with warping and weaving instructions. I try to include step-by-step instructional photos as well as pics of my teacher, her work, her village and family etc. These are the covers for the book on single-faced supplementary weft patterning which I learned in Santa Catarina Barahona and double faced patterning-which looks like embroidery. The bird is the double faced one. Lidia, my teacher, had the patience of a saint and is the best teacher I have encountered in all my travels. The cover with the burgundy ground weave is the single-faced patterning that I learned in Santa Catarina Palopo on Lake Atitlan. Here my teacher, seventeen year-old Carmen, taught me to weave many little bird, plant and human figures in supplementary weft patterning. The additional photo on my project page is the inside cover of my notebook.Also pictured are my two weaving teachers in Guatemala andt there's a picture of me at home weaving the inside cover piece.
Detail of the single-face supplementary weft patterning (with the wobbly selvedges typical of a new weaver of this technique!)