African Fiber Arts!

“So what shall we do today?” asked my dear daughter in law.   I knew that Burkina Faso (the country in West Africa where we spent a week) grew cotton, and therefor there must be fiber work going on somewhere and I told her that was what I’d really love to see.  Not with fleece of course, but fiber is fiber!  She thought there might be a cotton weaving cooperative some where nearby so off we went on another adventure. 

The sights along the way – donkeys pulling heavy loads, women carrying loads of everything from bananas to bundles of wood on their heads ( that will be my next blog post) getting their daily water from nearby wells,  continued to amaze me.

woman carries fruit

Some of my photos are blurry because I was in the car bouncing along and trying to be discreet about taking  photos! (not easy)  But I will share them anyway.

Ohh! I think we found it!!   There were no other visitors there so my daughter in law asked if it was all right that we were there.  One very gracious woman said they were happy to have us.  I probably missed a bit of the communication since I speak no French or Mooré but fortunately my daughter in law knows enough to communicate in either language.

color color everywhere!

These women were winding yarn from what looked like swifts on to the larger “winder”. Their babies were tied to their backs or left to sleep in the shade of the tree.

the weavers

Turning around we saw the weavers!  Using chunks of concrete or rocks to hold their work securely, they quietly wove their cotton fibers and created beautifully colored cloth.  Did they enjoy their work?  I think they were happy that they had work, as so many do not, but I did not sense the joy of creating or working with fiber that I see in women I know in the US.  Perhaps because they were not creating, but rather following a set pattern and just putting in a day of work.  ??

How old might this weaver be?  Did she enjoy her work?

weavers weaving

 More photos of the african weavers…

 

yarn winder and wheel

Then finally I saw it!! A smile!! 

It certainly could have been that her smile had nothing to do with her weaving, but I was happy to see it none the less.

day care for weavers babies

Our hostess then showed us a “boutique” where the women sold their woven cloth and of course I had room in my suitcase for that!  It was one way I knew I could tell them I appreciated their work and I am enjoying my African weavings back in Utah as much as I thought I would.

hand spun cotton from Africa

The handspun cotton above is probably my favorite treasure from the day we spent at the weavers co-op.  I am winding some of  it into skeins and will eventually use it.  For now I’m happy that it is woven in my memories of the day.

Win a Whole Alpaca Fleece!

Squished between tales of Africa we are having a fleece giveaway!  The fleece I have chosen for the giveaway is from Paris, a sweet brown baby girl with one of the nicest baby fleeces this year.  There will undoubtedly be some vegetation, but at this point she has one of the cleanest fleeces of all the babies. This is Paris!

BMR Paris

You can see from the size of her neck  in this photo that she has a very nice staple length and you might notice there is not much vegetation on her either.

Why am I doing this? To get more traffic to my Etsy site! I am starting to create alpaca batts with my new Big Tom electric drum carder. I am blending alpaca with silk, bamboo and merino to create one of a kind batts.  I’m using organic dyes, blending colors and fibers to create batts that I personally would love to spin. (and sometimes I do!) I decided the best way to attract spinners would be to give away something that a spinner would love!  The only problem with my grand plan is that I have not had as much time as I need to create more batts, but the contest goes on and I’ll get the store filled up as I can!

But what if you don’t spin? No problem! Several options.  You might want to learn to spin! It is an ancient art that is relaxing as well as productive and there are classes offered in most areas. Or you can send it to a processor to have roving or yarn made. Our favorite processor is Spinderellas.  Read more about them here. Fleeces do not have expiration dates if stored properly, so you can take your time to decide what to do if you win the fleece.

 OK, so How do I enter?  You can enter as many times*or ways as you like. Each method of entry = 1 entry into the contest. Here’s how:

1. Visit our Etsy shop, then come back to this blog page and leave a comment telling me about something you like in the shop.

2. Leave a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. You must however link to this blog.  Leave a comment that you tweeted with a direct link to your tweet. *Limit of 4 tweets per day.

3. Write a post on your own blog about our giveaway. You can write whatever you want, just link back to this post. Leave a comment that you did this with a direct link to your post.

Use the “leave a comment” box at the bottom of this page. Each comment gets an entry number.  You may enter as many ways or times as you like!

 When and how will you choose a winner?  Winner will be chosen at random as we put all the numbers in a hat on May 1, 2010 and will be announced on our web site.  Last entry accepted on April 30 at midnight MST.   The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win.  Shearing is scheduled for June 7 ,2010  , you will be sent your fleece within a week of shearing. 

Entries welcome from outside the USA, but we will ask you to pay shipping only.

a pretty darn cute alpaca I 'd say

 Have fun, play nice and enter often!

Now I better go card some more batts.

Ever been chased by an elephant?

Well now I can say I have.. twice!  

time to move on!

Africa???      Why??      Are there alpacas there???   

We recently returned from the trip of a life time because of a very generous gift from our son (who works for the US embassy) and daughter in law who currently live in Burkina Faso in West Africa.   No alpacas – they’d cook in the heat here.  (109 degrees the day we landed)  

We decided to make a quick stop in Paris on the way to Africa and saw the sights there, really wishing we had taken a few French lesson before arriving!  The cultures and architecture of our two destinations provided enough contrast to boggle my mind – even before the elephant experience!  

Notre Dame Cathedral Paris France

typical family dwelling in Burkina Faso

 

A bit of difference, no?  Paris was delightful – and we found that the French people were amazingly helpful and friendly even though we spoke virtually no French.   But since we spent most of our time in Africa and I know you have seen plenty of photos of the Eiffel Tower, I’ll share more of Africa with you.

On our first day in Africa we got to visit a sacred lake filled with more than 100 crocodiles.  Our guide brought a few chickens to entice the crocs out of the water and let me tell you they move fast when they want to.

Did someone say chicken?

The guide always had one eye on the crocs and one eye on us to be sure we didn’t have too close of an encounter.  He said (in French, but now our kids were translating for us) they all have different personalities and he would let us come and touch the “nicer” ones.  Just how “nice” do you think a nice croc might be???

Ed gets to grab the crocodile by the tail!

I decided my job for the day would be photographing , not touching crocs, but the guide insisted and I did touch one big dude who had just eaten a chicken so I figured he might not be as interested in my toes (I wore flip flops)

What people look like before they are eaten by crocs!

The really great thing about this crocodile lake is that the man who had the idea to attract tourists here used the money he collected to build a well for the nearby villagers.   On our way back home, the sights out the car window amazed me almost as much as the crocodiles.

view from inside car

I want to share some of my impressions of the beautiful people of  West Africa, my visit to a cotton spinning and weaving co-op and our amazing encounters with elephants but those post will follow this one.  My head still has not recovered from jet lag so my posts will be paced accordingly.

Did I really touch this guy???