When I was growing up in Oklahoma in the 1950s, I had a music teacher, Miss Sadlo, whose father had emigrated from Czechoslovakia early in the century. She had grown up in the nearby little town of Prague (which we Okies pronounced “Prayg”), founded and largely populated by her fellow countrymen from Bohemia. Miss Sadlo […]
26
Aug
Aug
Two Hundred Years of Lace Last weekend the knitting needles were clicking in Haapsalu. Each August, for the last five years, the Estonian seaside town of Haapsalu has celebrated Pitsipäev, Lace Day. It’s a charming festival that celebrates the town’s lace knitting heritage. The knitting of delicate lace shawls and scarves has been a significant aspect […]
29
Apr
Apr
This month our featured museum is one that may not be the easiest to visit, but it is most definitely one that you should know about. Kurdish Textile Museum In 2004, Lolan Sipan founded the non-profit Kurdish Textile Museum in the Kurdistan city of Erbil—a place some say is the oldest, continually-inhabited city in the […]
15
Jan
Jan
Accha Alta A little more than ten years ago, I was visiting the breathtakingly high, beautiful Andean village of Accha Alta. This very traditional small community was still farming potatoes the old way, tilling near-vertical land with handheld hoes. They were still weaving sacks (costales) of handspun llama wool on backstrap looms to take those […]
21
Aug
Aug
A special, behind-the-scenes look from author Deborah Chandler: “Making” is such an all-encompassing word, a good word for the discovery, research, and creation processes that led to the birth of Traditional Weavers of Guatemala. It truly was a privilege and an honor, and equally, an adventure at every level. Their Stories I confess that some […]
24
Jul
Jul
Linda wrote the post below over two years ago, after she and photographer Joe Coca had returned from a photo shoot for Traditional Weavers of Guatemala: Their Stories, Their Lives by Deborah Chandler and Teresa Cordón. We thought it would be fun to have a look back at those behind-the-scenes photographs of Joe at work, but this […]
26
Jun
Jun
I’ve been fascinated with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival blog and Facebook feeds the last few weeks. Interpret “fascinated” as spending way too much time watching video clips of upcoming events and dreaming myself there! The Festival started this Wednesday on the National Mall in Washington D.C. and runs through the weekend, then it’s on again […]
12
Apr
Apr
Coincidentally, I’ve spent parts of the past three Easter seasons in either Mexico or Guatemala. Compared to the sedate Easters of my childhood or the flurries of Peeps and candy eggs I see now at every turn, what I’ve experienced in Latin America is dramatic, moving, sometimes startling. Let me share. A church in a […]
