At Work - weavers & spinners the world over

We started travelling a l o n g time ago, and though we were interested in textiles, we didn't go out of our way to find weavers & spinners and take their picture.  (Bummer--I guess we'll have to go back?!)

I did want to show you a few photos that we did take...not scanned in from postcards, which we also have many of.  Anyway, this first one is a family we met in Otavalo, Ecuador in the early 90s.  The Maldonados were great, so friendly (this was taken at their home, but we met them in the market).  They gave us dinner, too!  That's me on the left peeking out.  The family's main source of income was the weavings the husband, Segundo, made, and which his wife sold in the market.

Here's another photo of a woman spinning in Guatemala in 1997.  It's not a very good picture...sorry.  We tried to be polite when taking photos, and sometimes people just seemed irritated, or ignored us.  You can see the combed wool to her left, turning into yarn on the wheel to her right.  Magic!

We'll be going through our many photo albums & scanning in what we find to share w/ you.  Stay tuned...