KITTY CAT PARADE

Here come the cats! Once again, Mazatlan's "Bow-Wow Meow" fundraiser is happening and I'm a loyal fan who loves to create something in the dog or cat line for their silent auction. This year, my husband was very sick with a bad case of the flu and I had a week of free nights to sew and create to my heart's content.

On my recent trip to San Cristobal de las Casas, I discovered an artist who is a new inspiration for my fabric work. Kiki Suarez is German born, now living in Mexico, and produces lively, colorful, whimsical art that sings of life. Her figures are simple and primitive and perfect for rough-cutting fabrics and creating collages from my hand-dyes.

Our local animal group, Projecto de Animales de la Calle (PAC), are a devoted group of individuals who work to care for our local street animals and to control their populations. Often times they post photos on facebook looking for someone to adopt these special cratures. Recently two of them went to a weeklong spay and neutering clinic in La Manzanilla, and hope to have a similar clinic here in Maz in the future.

These four pillows will soon belong to folks who support PAC!

ADIOS MES DE AMOR #1

So goes my shaky Spanish: goodby month of love, part 1!
Really, where did February go? Which is much like the question I asked myself last weekend: how'd I get to be 59?
Even though we're blessed with a 29th day this year, the month has flown by.
Midst my trip to Chiapas and an added escape to Guadalajara during our city's Carnaval celebration, we had four fun dyeing days in my studio. One session was particularly busy with my Minnesota friend, Mary (another Mary, aka Orange Mary as that is the color she almost always wears), as she tie dyed meters and meters of fabric for her granddaughter's SKIRTS FOR PEACE project. Check it out on the web: www.skirtsforpeace.com.

During the last five years, Mazatlan has really found it's place in the art scene. My friend, Glen Rogers, brought the First Friday Artwalk to our town and it truly is a fantastic, crowd-drawing event. I participated for the first three years, but then dropped out to focus on my groups and my slow-to-produce craft that doesn't lend itself well to commercialism. I was missing having my work "out there" so happily participated in Glen's gallery, Luna (lunacontempo.com) for the annual Valentine show. The one directly above is my "credit card" piece I call "Circles of Love".  I thickened different colors of dye, squirted them on my treated fabric, then spread the color to fill in the spaces with the side of an old credit card. It was fun, easy, and I just had to quilt it!

CHIAPAS - PART TWO

I am back home now and spin-drying the full color memories of my trip to Chiapas. These are guaranteed to be color-fast, not to fade easily.

We were on the go each of our twelve days, either on our own, roaming the streets of San Cristobal de las Casas, or with our guide, Alex(www.cieloytierratours.com), exploring the ruins,

or the villages, or popular “water” spots:  Sumidero Canyon, Agua Azul or El Chiflon.

Since Chiapas provides 35-50% (two different figures I heard…take your pick!) of Mexico’s hydroelectric power, you can imagine how much water there is in this southernmost state of Mexico. Supposedly the rainy season is from May through October, which adds up to big rivers, big waterfalls, BIG water. And with big water comes amazing GREEN, particularly in the lower elevations.

Most amazing were our visits to the indigenous communities. With Alex we felt comfortable, rather than intrusive gringas. Under his direction, we put our cameras away, and tried to respect these villagers' requests to not be "in their faces” with our pushy western ways. San Juan de Chamula was the most unique village and certainly the strongest in their desire to retain their culture.

They have created their own religion (within the structure of the Catholic Church) and use this building as a gathering place for worshipping in their own way. The priests have been kicked out (except for baptisms) and it is common to see healers of all types at work, along with hundreds of candles burning (different colors for different requests),
pox and coca-cola being consumed (burping up coke is a way to rid oneself of the bad), groups or individuals chatting, all dressed in indigenous clothing that is the norm. As I said before, it was like stepping back in time.

All throughout these Mayan lands (from the Yucatan down to Honduras) there are many ruins of ancient sites. On this trip we visited three: Palenque, Tonina, and Tenam Puente.

To imagine what these sites must have been like 12 or 13 hundred years ago, with their incredible architecture and connection to the planets and the stars, seasons and their mathematical mastery is truly mind-boggling.

Another interesting aspect of this area was the recent revolution of the Zapatistas against the government. We saw two good movies on these revolutionary events that began in 1994, and although there is little that we witnessed on our trip besides signage along the roadsides and souvenirs in the shops, I believe it’s not over yet. The government has been more responsive to the Chiapanecans, but there’s a long way to go for the indigenous people to have their basic needs met.

Our travels in Chiapas once again confirmed that we are living in a truly amazing country with gracious people, fascinating history, and interesting culture. We never felt unsafe, as the northern media would like travelers to question. Go, visit, travel, search and find. All of Mexico is a jewel, waiting to be discovered.

CHIAPAS - PART ONE

I've been in Chiapas for almost a week now. Along with seven girlfriends from my Mexican home in Mazatlan, we arrived last Saturday and have been busy, busy, busy from our very first day. We've had a mix of free exploration throughout the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas and guided tours throughout the surrounding area with our wonderful guide, Alex. (www.cieloytierratours.com) If I could describe my experience so far, I would say I have been a time traveler into the world of Mayan culture and indigenous Mexico. Textiles and traditional dress are everywhere which is quite a  difference from other areas I have traveled in this amazing country.

Each Mayan village has its own distinctive dress. On our first day we traveled with Alex to the village of Tenejapa which was celebrating its annual feast of their patron, San Idelfonso. Men of political and religious status wore ribboned hats and black dresses woven from sheep hair along with various embellishments and accessories that identified their role. We were surprised to find out this dress was their daily attire, not just to be worn on this day of celebration. (These idigenous people do not like their photo taken as they believe it robs their soul so we had to be careful to only capture their dress from the rear.) The women had beautiful ribbons in their hair and wore village blouses and skirts, along with a wide, stiffly woven belt to help give them support in their daily activities of carrying heavy loads of wood, corn, and other items, not to mention children.

While in Tenejapa, we were allowed into their church while they prepared for their procession throughout town that honored San Idelfonso and other regional patrons. We were the only "gringos" there and Alex knew enough of the locals so that we didn't feel unwelcomed at all. It was a social setting with people chatting while they waited for the church officials to prepare the statues of the patron saints to be carried throughout town. Men would come to talk to Alex and the women would gather close by to curiously eavesdrop and watch us. As Alex described the role of the healer to us, the women watched his gestures and nodded, laughed, or whispered among themselves, and as time passed, smiled warmly to us. Once the procession began, the local distilled drink of pox (pronounced poash), carried in bottles by the women, began flowing throughout the crowd, even to us. Men wore a steer-horn vessel and a funnel around their waist that held any pox that they wanted to save until later. We spent about a half hour inside the incense filled church and were happy to follow the procession outdoors, into the fresh air, throughout the town. This was an amazing event that left a strong impression on all of us.

Later that afternoon in San Cristobal, we visited the museum of Dr. Sergio Castro who has devoted his life to serving the indigenous Mayan people in Chiapas. (Of the 5,000,000 people who live in this state, 1.5 are indigenous.) He personally greeted us and led us through his incredible collection of the traditional dress of individual communities, showing us examples of what both men and women still wear to this day. His medical work is renowned and well respected throughout the state and an award winning documentary has been made of the work of this amazing man. (http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4872)

The following day we traveled to the village of Amantenango where we visited two sisters who create brightly painted pottery.They too wore dress that  is specific to their Mayan village.

Another interesting visit was to Na Bolom (house of the jaguar), the home and center of Frans Blom and Gertrude Duby Blom who devoted their lives and studies to the Chiapas jungle and the Lacondones people who live their. Franz began his connections with this area in the 1920's, while Gertrude came a decade or so later, and they met in the mid 1940's. They too had an amazing collection of artifacts, including many textiles from the area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na_Bolom)

 Cooperatives from surrounding villages are located throughout San Cristobal. On days when we're not touring with Alex, we make our way through town, visiting these shops that feature the textile work of women from individual villages.

As we wander through the streets of San Cristobal, we are starting to connect the local traditional women to their villages by the dress they wear. (Outside of their local villages, few men wear traditional dress.) We have just touched upon a tiny portion of this amazing state and look forward to six more days in Chiapas.

DAYS TO DYE FOR

We’ve had lots of fun in my studio this month. I love the camaraderie of my Mazatlan friends who happen to be enamored with the dyeing process as much as I am. We gather together twice a week and dye our little hearts out. AND lots of fabric.

My friends come from Canada or the US and some now live here full time. After I give my little “shpeal” to any newbies, we fill the day with happy chatter, laughter, and ideas. When something is taken out of the dyebath, all attention goes to the sink, which is then followed by oohs and ahhhs. My Toronto friend, Rosemary, is now in her 4^th year visiting my studio (she created the beautiful pelican piece last year), and every week returns with the same fabric for overdyes, discharging and making changes…and if it’s not up to her satisfaction, we’ll see the same pieces for more treatments the next time. Linda, newly returned to Mazatlan after a two year break, is creating a piece to partner with the fictional story she is writing about a  young woman in the circus. Finally, after 3 tries, she achieved the perfect RED for the background.
 Sharon, a full time Mazatlecan, brought an enormous bag of lovely whites and is having a great time giving them a facelift. BC (there’s a story with that name!) and Kathy are also producing  some fantastic “revived” outfits, while Rosemary #2 (oh, that was a confusing day!) has sampled the process and is anxious to return! What fun we have and we’re learning so much from each other!

Now I’m taking a two week break for a vacation to Chiapas with friends. Textiles will be a highlight for me, along with the amazing Mexican culture that I love so much! And let’s not forget to mention the camaraderie of being with a great group of women! Life is good!

BUCKETS OF FUN!

I received an email from Christine the other day with an interesting pdf file called “Gallon Bucket Dyeing” by Terri Stegmiller. The idea behind it was to dye many fat quarters with different colors in a large bucket. I forwarded it on to a few of my dyeing friends, and when they showed up at my house the next day to play in the studio, they all were keen to try it. So we took the plunge into “gallon bucket dyeing”.

I gathered up 10 white cotton fat quarters and decided to use them dry rather than to pre-wet them as I usually do. In my 1.5 gallon plastic container, I poured one cup of soda ash, set an oddly folded fat quarter in the solution, then topped it off with a three-quarter cup solution of a teaspoon of deep yellow concentrate and soda ash. Next I threw on another piece of cotton and poured a similar quantity solution of a teaspoon of Chinese red and soda ash on top, being careful not to agitate any of this. I continued this layering of cotton and dye solution (adding navy and black to the colors I was using) until I had completed a 10 layer bath of what now looked like very muddy water. I was not very hopeful.

The directions I received over the internet said to let it sit overnight, but patience is not one of my virtues. I wanted to give it just a tiny bit of movement to get the colors to mix, so I set a yogurt tub of water on top of the whole thing to add a bit of weight. I thought three hours was enough processing time so rinsed them then.

The results were amazing. I’d say 7 out of 10 pieces were fabulous blends of the four different colors I used and the others are certainly usable in my projects, or perhaps for overdyes. Isn't it hard to imagine all of the above fabrics coming from one dyebath?

LETTING GO

Sometimes you just have to let go of things that don't work any more.
I've carried these threads around for over ten years. AND I remember buying many of them at a closeout sale in Fairbanks...probably because they were already past their time. They are shiny threads that look great whenever I use them, but break every three minutes or so during the sewing process. It was a New Year's moment, during another thread-break, that I told myself to let them go.
I put them in the plastic bag that has been their home for many years and was ready to toss them in the trash, when I thought of a friend who is looking to build up her stash. So I offered them to her (with full disclosure, of course!). She was happy to take them, but I'm not sure it was a kind gesture on my part.
Like life patterns that don't serve us well, there comes a time to let these things go. Good-by shiny threads!