Spinzilla

Final Countdown to Spinning Week
Rainy Prize Awarding Day, Huancarani, 2020, Polleras on Left, Knit Tops on Right

Spinning Week in Independencia, Bolivia will begin Monday, October 3rd. Yesterday, was the annual Spinning Week Shopping Spree to purchase supplies to make 15 polleras (skirts) for the 1st place winners and cones of yarn to knit the 15 sweaters for the 2nd place winners. Doña Maxima, her daughter Zoraida, and 4 other family members were patiently waiting at the rendezvous point in Cochabamba´s huge vendor market, La Cancha. Dorinda arrived a few minutes late due to the turtle crawl through the hoard of mobile vendors and shoppers stretching out for blocks. Doña Maxima had insisted on meeting during one of La Cancha´s 3 weekly shopping days. Last year´s shopping spree on a quieter market day resulted in closed shops and a limited choice of yarn colors. The group plunged into the crowd, but it thinned out near the yarn booths. Doña Maxima and Zoraida had a ball discussing the merits of the rainbow of colors than bargaining until the deal was sealed at a price below the budget.

Zoraida, Doña Maxima, Zuni Eyeing Pollera Material Selection
Zuni Folding the 3 Meters of Cloth with Uncle Ademar

La Cancha is a maze, but Zoraida confidently led the way through back aisles to the area selling material for polleras. Shop after shop displayed bolts of vivid, somber, and jewel toned colors. Polleras are 3 meters (roughly yards) of pleated material, originally rough woven wool, the store-bought material is currently a synthetic with lycra. Doña Maxima and Zoraida were drawn to a shop that had 2-faced material with a brighter hue on the underside. They bargained the price down 40% less than what was budgeted! Working with the saleswoman they helped to measure and cut 10 lengths of cloth then couldn´t agree on another color. Zoraida´s 13-year-old daughter, Zuni, who has participated in PAZA events longer than she can remember, and Doña Maxima´s son, Ademar folded the cloth. Ademar took off with the bag of cloth to sit with Zoraida´s husband, Luis, who was patiently sitting and guarding the bag of yarn cones. He was also keeping an eye on their 5-year-old daughter, Ariana, who was having a ball running around.

The women and Zuni went from shop to shop until finding an incredible array of colors, including burgundy, but a shopkeeper who wouldn´t budge from her original price, which was PAZA´s budgeted price ($7.20/meter). Doña Maxima had her heart set on burgundy, which obviously wasn´t a color trending this year. Burgundy and 4 other colors were selected, and the lengths of cloth were quickly measured, cut, and folded. Doña Maxima is going to have to increase her spinning effort this year to win one of the first-place polleras.

Doña Maxima Measuring Doña Alicia for a Pollera, Huancarani

The next search was for inexpensive ($1.45/meter) cotton/synthetic material to color coordinate as the pollera´s sash. Zuni ran for the 1st bag of material while Zoraida and Doña Maxima conferred and made their 15 selections. Thread was the last item on the list. Zoraida guided the group back towards the entrance, and the material was once again matched in color. Luis is the 1st generation of his family to drive and own a vehicle. He led the way to the parking lot lugging the huge bag of yarn. Zuni was carrying the pollera cloth on her back in an aguayo. Max had a tight grip on Ariana´s hand. Ademar carried a mesh bag of all the other bits and pieces purchased to make the prizes. Zoraida followed happy but tired.

Arminda & Daughter, Jhoselin, Learning Weaving Motifs Together, Club de Artesanas

Jhoselin Checking Out Her Mother’s Knitting Project

The Club de Artesanas members will earn income by making the polleras and sweaters. An increase in those wages was budgeted per their request to $10 per sweater and $11.50 per pollera. Last year there was a larger gap between the 2 wages, and they learned that the knitting machine work was nearly as labor intensive as the machine and hand sewing of the polleras. A few Club members will earn income by helping to measure the Spinning Week results on the 2 days following the competition.

Thank you to Lyn, Susan, Margaret, Rob, Gail, and Cloth Roads (sponsor of original Spinzilla Warmis Phuskadoras team, 2014-2018) for supporting this year´s Spinning Week!  Spinning Week is PAZA´s biggest activity of the year, and this year only $782 of the $1,100 needed for expenses has been raised. Any donations received over the amount needed for Spinning Week will go toward the year-round Club de Artesanas which offers project-based contemporary and traditional fiber skill building activities to women and girls. PAZA also supports the weavers of Huancarani in their quest to preserve their weaving heritage.

Arminda’s Youngest, Anita, Embroidering
Club Dye Day

Wi-fi will not be available from Independencia, but the Spinning Week blogs will be written in Inde and posted in early November when author and wi-fi are reunited. E-mail and WhatsApp video chats are possible via cell phone. Dorinda Dutcher, from Cochabamba, September 25, 2022, dkdutcher (at) hotmail.com.

2022 Spinning Week & PAZA Change

Doñas Julia, Alicia, and Maxima, Spinning Week, Huancarani, 2015

July was Spinning Week registration for the Bolivian spinners. It was also a busy month on their farms with the once-a-year harvest of Andean grains, corn, and legumes such as tarwi known as Andean lupine. Spinning Week will be Monday, October 3rd through Sunday October 9th, which falls during a lull in the spinners´ agricultural calendar. They do not like change. They have witnessed so much in their lifetimes having been born into the famer subsistence lifestyle which their children escaped by heading out into a larger unfathomable world. What little the women can control they are adamant about controlling. Last year on short notice Spinning Week was changed from the 7-year-old practice of Monday through Sunday to Spin Together´s Saturday through Friday schedule. Beginning Spinning Week on Saturday, which is the sacred (church) day for the many Evangelico spinners was not well received. Because of the demand to return to a Monday through Sunday Spinning Week, the team Phuskadoras Internacionales will not be registering for Spin Together’s Spinning Week competition this year.

Doña Justina in her Tarwi Field, 2014
Corn Always Appears at Communal Lunches, 2011, More Plastic than Weavings as Food Containers Today

The 2021 Spin Together team Phuskadoras Internacionales (drop spindles only) consisted of the top 15 Bolivian spinners from 2020 and had 10 slots for foreign spinners. Only 3 foreign spinners joined the team, with one placing 7th. The video and photo exchanges on the team’s Face Book page wasn’t enough to connect the spinners. Last November, foreign team member, Stephane, had a rewarding video chat with Doña Maxima and Dorinda. She told Doña Maxima that watching one of Vilma´s Spinning Week videos helped her improve her ph´uska (drop spindle) spinning technique.

Spinning Week, 2014 (Watch Video in Sidebar)
Spin Week, 2016 (Watch Video in Sidebar)

This year during Spinning Week, PAZA would like to experiment with video chats via WhatsApp or Zoom. Dorinda will be in Bolivia to facilitate the timing, connecting and help with language translation. There is no wi-fi, so social media is accessed by purchasing cell phone data. The quality of the calls can´t be guaranteed, the weekly video chats with Doña Maxima vary from great to frozen pixelated frames. If there is interest in a video chat during a Club dye day, that can be arranged as well.

The PAZA blog began in 2010. Other than a few grants over the years it has been used as the chief source of fundraising to cover Club and Huancarani workshop expenses (around $4,500/yr). Those of you who are WARP members have generously supported since the blog’s beginning, and except for the 4 of you who visited Independencia, have not had the opportunity to interact with the weavers who you´ve supported for so long. It’s long past time to fix that.

Doña Maxima & Arminda Checking Out the Team’s FB Page Last Year
Doña Narciza Herded her Goats to Meet Up for Photo Day During Spinning Week in 2016

PAZA is going stronger than ever in Independencia, with dynamic women and chicas in the Club and engaged Huancarani weavers. The blog postings, fundraising, and sales of the weavings have declined because of the other demands on Dorinda’s time. The blog postings and fundraising for this year will be between now and mid-December to cover Spinning Week and sales of the weavings that will be traveling to the U.S. in early November. You still have time to commission a special-order weaving to be woven to your specifications. The weavings are the topic of the previous blog posting.

Deisy and Vilman, Club de Artesanas Dye Day, 2021
The Dye Day Results

If you would like to arrange for a video chat with the Bolivian spinners during Spinning Week, please contact Dorinda through her e-mail below. If you would like to join the Phuskadoras Internactionales, you may register to spin with the team. The Bolivians chose polleras (skirt) for the 1st place prize and long-sleeved cardigans for the 2nd place prize. All prizes will be made by the Club members. Your prize will be a small woven pouch made from the 1st weavings by either 14-year-old Lineth or 12-year-old Jhoselin. (Sarahi, who is 9, is unhappy she´s not yet strong enough to weave on the loom). It has been 10 years since PAZA has been able to motivate chicas to progress to the level of weaving required by Doña Maxima to weave on the leaning frame loom. Participating in a video chat or spinning with the team requires a donation. The amount is at your discretion. For those of you who enjoy the blog, but haven´t donated, the donation thank-you e-mail always includes more scoop than what makes it into a blog posting. There will be blog postings into the end of the year because Spinning Week is so much fun and provides so many tales and photo ops that need to be shared. Dorinda Dutcher, dkdutcher@hotmail.com, August 14, 2022

Lineth´s 1st Weaving, Using Her Mother´s (Vilma) Loom at Their Home
Doña Eulalia Offering Advice to Doña Arminda Who is Warping her Daughter, Jhoselin´s, 1st Weaving for the Loom

Spinning Week Tales

Doña Sebastiana, Mid-Week, Huancarani

The 7th Annual Semana de las Phuskadoras (Week of the Women Who Spin with Drop Spindles) began the first Monday in October The median age of the team Warmis Phuskadoras (Women Who Spin with Drop Spindles) is 57, and they all live in the rural community of Huancarani. Their spinning and weaving rivalries date back to pre-adolescence and have not mellowed with the years. Few have smart phones and the mountainous region makes for poor cell phone service so they can’t check in on each other virtually.

Gathering Mid-Week, East Side of Huancarani

In 2014, the first year of Spinning Week the spinners asked that a meeting be organized mid-week so that they could check each other’s progress. That mid-week check evolved from meeting at the church to a morning gathering on the west side of Huancarani, and an afternoon gathering on the east side. Spinners living on the west side with no shepherding responsibilities pile into the truck contracted by PAZA to head to the east side for a communal lunch and social afternoon before walking and spinning their way back home.

After the week of spinning, the measuring began in Huancarani. Doña Maxima, coordinated the logistics and contracted her husband to do the driving. Her daughter Vilma and Vilma’s 3 daughters rode along as well. Vilma was paid to work all day measuring and her 2 oldest girls who in past years were in school helped with the measuring and took turns tending their new baby sister. Maribel who is the youngest spinner and weaver in Huancarani was also paid to help out. Besides the 16 members of the Warmis Phuskadoras, there were 5 Huancarani spinners on the competing team, the Phuskadoras Alegres (Happy Women Who Spin with a Drop Spindle). The total of 21 spinners spun 49,148 meters (39”), but because the yarn was doubled, the measuring teams only had to measure half that amount. The measuring is done 1 meter at a time along 2 sides of the measuring table, or between marks on a wall or any available piece of furniture. It´s an all-day activity, but fun so those who can arrive early and stay until the end.

Doña Rufina, Right, 1st Place, Sanipaya

The following day the truck was again loaded up in Independencia with the measuring paraphernalia including the table and chairs plus beef to be cooked for lunch. There is no refrigeration in the rural communities, so the beef delivery was a treat for the 6 spinners in Sanipaya. Doña Beatris splits her time between her farm and her home in Independencia where her son lives to attend school. In 2014, when the Cloth Roads sponsored Spinzilla team Warmis Phuskadoras was formed, not enough spinners registered to fill the 25-member team.

Doña Casimira, Right, 2nd Place, Huancarani

Doña Beatris who´s a member of the Club de Artesanas said she had friends in Sanipaya who wanted to join the team. She has organized that group through the years; and hosts the measuring team at her home. The 2 newest members of the Club de Artesanas live in Independencia but have spent much of the COVID quarantine on their family farms in Sanipaya. They were there for measuring day, so by day´s end all of the Spinning Week yarn had been measured.

The results for each spinner were tallied on a notebook page, with a tally mark made for every 5 yards measured. Doña Maxima photographed each page with her cell phone and sent the photos to Dorinda in the U.S. to calculate the results. A photo of the results was returned.

Tally Sheet, 1 Mark for 5 Yards, 1 Square Equals 25 Yards

The team Phuskadoras Alegres won by spinning 42,748 meters (close to a yard). In 2018, the measuring was changed from yards as required by Spinzilla to the metric system used in Bolivia. Doña Rufina, from Sanipaya who is Doña Beatris´s mother came in first place for the 2nd year in a row by spinning 4,900 meters. The team Warmis Phuskadoras spun a total of 37,562 meters. Doña Casimira took 1st place on that team by spinning 4,541 meters. She has won 3 out of 7 competitions and her best year was 2017 when she spun the-all-time high of 5,072 yards. She admitted to taking a day off from spinning this year.

Measuring Day, Huancarani

Spinning Week will wrap up in December when all the Huancarani spinners receive their prizes after the annual Centro de Artesania, Huancarani meeting and feast. Between now and then the Club de Artesanas members are busy making the prizes which are polleras (skirts) for all members of the 1st place team and knitted sleeveless tops for the 2nd place team members.

Thank you Lyn Lucas for your ongoing support of the Bolivian weavers. The PAZA activities continue monthly and that comes at a cost. Please consider using the “Donate” button on the blog to support the activities that encourage the weavers to continue to spin and weave maintaining their textile heritage. Thank you, Dorinda Dutcher, November 14, 2020

The Spirit of Spinzilla Echoes in the Andes

Spinzilla, Huancarani, 2016

The two teams of Bolivian spinners are adamant that there will be a Spinning Week the first week of October. Few have flocks anymore, so instead of shepherding and spinning daily they depend on Spinning Week to spin a year’s worth of yarn for their natural dyed traditional weavings. Planning and thinking about La Semana de las Phuskadoras (The Week of the Women Who Spin with Drop Spindles) is providing a joyful distraction from civil unrest and COVID worries. The spinners have decided on this year’s prizes for the 2 teams, and they aren’t a repeat of past awards.

Petticoats Have Been Awarded Twice, Huancarani, 2016

The prize for each spinner on the 1st place team will be a pollera (traditional skirt). Each pollera takes 3-4 meters of material, depending on the number of pleats. The prize for the 2nd place team and abuelitas, who always spin but never want to register as a participant, will be a knitted sleeveless top. The members of the Club de Artesanas will make all the prizes, and they´re thrilled to be able to earn some income. The Club members have crocheted many tops as projects, but that´s not practical for income generation.

Club Members Have Wanted a Knitting Machine for Years. Reyna & Mary’s Crochet Projects, 2015

For years, Vilma, Doña Maxima´s daughter and long-time Club member, has been making polleras to sell so will serve as the Club’s trainer. She learned from her husband who had worked in his sister´s workshop in the city. Vilma began earning income by sewing polleras for rural women who had been gifted pollera material by the municipal government. Two new members of the Club own knitting machines which they bought through a development program run by the local cultural center. They will serve as the Club’s trainers for the other members. Doña Maxima has arranged for PAZA to purchase a knitting machine through the cultural center.

Distributing Gifts of Petticoat & Pollera Material, Pucara, 2009

She is borrowing a fourth knitting machine from the Organization of Mujeres de Huancarani, and that is a monumental step forward. The annual municipal budget has a line item for the development of women’s crafts.  In 2008, a Bolivian non-profit organization led the women leaders of all the municipal Organizations of Mujeres through the process to increase that budget substantially and spend it effectively. That one instance of training wasn’t sufficient for the women to continue being proactive in managing their annual budget. Over the next few years the budget decreased and government officials decided how the funds would be spent. All of the Organizations of Mujeres received treadle, electric, and industrial sewing machines and knitting machines, although electricity is still not accessible to all parts of the rural communities. For a number of years the members of the Organizations received material for polleras, blouses, and petticoats as well as synthetic yarn. What was never included was training to use the equipment. Much of it has sat abandoned for years.

Doña Maxima Eyeing Her Gifts of Material, Huancarani, 2010

Storage for the equipment belonging to the Organization of Mujeres de Huancarani is an empty schoolroom. Because of former President Evo Morales anti-foreigner rhetoric the Organizations of Mujeres quit working with PAZA in 2010, although Doña Maxima is a member. Today, the Organization of Mujeres in Huancarani is no longer active. Doña Maxima deemed that the time was ripe to start putting the equipment to use. She asked to borrow the knitting machine with the promise to return it and teach classes. Although PAZA´s objectives have always been to train local trainers and empower women through the fiber arts it is Spinning Week that has proven to be the perfect activity for meeting those objectives and reaching more women. Their current challenge is to determine how to safely hold Spinning Week in these times of COVID.

Doña Dioncia Sorting Out Snarled Yarn, Measuring Day, Huancarani 2015

PAZA and the rural women are eternally grateful for what began in 2014 when Cloth Roads sponsored the Warmis Phuskadoras so that the team could enter Spinzilla. Thank you to those of you who dreamed up and organized Spinzilla as well as to those who participated as sponsors and spinners. Laughter rings off the mountains as it continues in spirit as an extraordinarily fun week of spinning camaraderie in the Bolivian Andes.

The 1st Group of Club Chicas Learned to Weave. Of the 2nd Group, Only Veronica Attempted to Learn, 2017

How to encourage the Club´s chicas to advance their weaving skills has been under consideration. Zuni, Doña Maxima´s granddaughter, has expressed a desire to weave to sell now that she´s learned numerous motifs using body tension to weave narrow straps. All of the weavings that PAZA buys must be woven on a leaning frame loom. Last week it was decided that any of the chicas who complete their first project on a leaning frame loom to Doña Maxima´s satisfaction will receive a cash prize. Doña Maxima is working on the dimensions for that project and the amount to be awarded. As a girl, it was young Maxima´s spirit of competition with the other girls in Huancarani that motivated her to progress as a weaver.

Vilma Sews the Yoga Mat Straps & Pouches, PAZA Workshop, 2016

A belated thank you to all of you who purchased weavings in May! You helped to greatly reduce the inventory so that the funds collected were returned to Bolivia in July with a new weaving order. There are still zippered pouches ($17, $18 with wrist strap), fajas (70” x 5” lengths of cloth, $41), straps, (75” x 1.5”, $20), and yoga mat straps ($22 for a ¼” thick sticky mat, and $23 for a 1/8” thick mat) for sale. Hopefully, one day Zuni´s weavings will be in the U.S. inventory

An All Time Favorite Photo, Spinzilla, Huancarani, 2014

Meeting the Spinning Week budget is looking promising as $650 of the projected $800 has been received. Thank you Patty, Irene, Margaret, Constance, Rob, Sandra, and Sue for your generosity in these uncertain times to ensure that the expenses don´t impact PAZA´s other activities. Any financial support that exceeds Spinning Week´s budget will go towards the purchase of the knitting machine ($175), supplies for the training workshops, and the monthly operating expenses for the Club de Artesanas which are averaging $220 per month this year. If you’d like to support La Semana de las Phuskadoras and the Club, please use the donate button on the blog. Thank you. It was great fun going through the photo archives for this posting. Dorinda Dutcher, September 1, 2020, http://www.pazaboliviablog.com

Club de Artesanas & Spinning Week

The First Club Workshop was a Spinnig Class, 2010

The birth of the Club de Artesanas in 2010 was the silver lining following the politically motivated public humiliation of Doña Maxima, a local, and Dorinda, an American, which ended collaboration with the municipal government of Independencia. The partnership was a continuation of Dorinda’s time as a Peace Corps volunteer and was a program offering a series of natural dye workshops in rural communities and assistance in the sales of traditional weavings.

Volunteer Kelsey Introduced the Chicas to Sewing Patterns and All Made Skirts, 2010

Three of the original four chicas in the Club were interviewed in the first documentary listed in this blog’s sidebar. They all learned to weave, and although they had a sewing class in high school they made many of their clothes on the Club’s sewing machines and through Club crochet projects. The volunteer program began at the same time, and the exposure to foreigners and working on projects not otherwise available to them was empowering. They were 11 to 12 years old when they joined the Club, and turned their interest to other

Reyna with a Completed Club Project, 2013

activities around the age of 16. All of them graduated high school, which is notable due to the lingering belief that there is little value in education girls. They all left Independencia and two of them earn an income through sewing. Reyna was the only original teen who wore the traditional pollera and blouse. She earned a wage on Saturdays during her senior year as the trainer for the younger girls in the Club. After graduation she switched to jeans before moving to the city, and later migrated to Argentina.

For 8 years, the Club had a lot of foreign influence, and the time seemed right in 2018 to turn it over to Doña Maxima and the members. The Club members continue to meet once a week. Dorinda (PAZA) continues to fundraise to cover the expenses of rent, Doña Maxima´s wage, and the Club´s activities and projects.

Weaving Circle, 2020

Three new 30-something members have joined since 2018, and although they’d had exposure to traditional weaving all their lives in their home communities of Sanipaya, they learned to weave from Doña Maxima. Thanks to the generous support of followers of this blog who responded to the last blog and placed orders for weavings, an order and funds were sent to Independencia in July. Two of the new Club members have attained the quality standard required for the orders.

Doña Marleny Grinding Cochineal, 2019

The 3 day natural dyeing extravaganza during Dorinda´s April 2019 visit was an intensive learning experience for the new members. Because skeins were dyed for the Huancarani weavers all have enough dyed skeins for 2020. Cochineal was purchased in 2019, and ground in a grain mill in anticipation of another round of dye days during the rainy season of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, that did not happen and the Club met virtually between March and late June.

Zuni Crochets, and Doña Bea Lays Out Her Cubrecama (Bed Cover) Pieces, 2020

In July, the Club began meeting again in the PAZA workshop with 4 to 5 women and 4 chicas in attendance. The time has been split between sewing and crochet projects and traditional weaving. Zunilda (Zuni), who is Doña Maxima´s 11 year old granddaughter and Zoraida´s daughter has shown the most interest in the Club activities. As a toddler and little girl she slept away many an afternoon on a makeshift bed under PAZA´s vendor tables at craft fairs in Cochabamba. Her family lives in the city, but they have spent most of the past 6 months in Independencia. Zuni has woven numerous narrow weavings to learn the motifs, and announced that she´s ready to weave to sell, and would like to earn 130 Bs. by weaving a strap. The weavings purchased by PAZA have to be woven on a standing frame loom because using body tension to weave tends to lead to uneven edges. To encourage Zuni to tackle the standing frame loom, and so that she can serve as an example for the other chicas, a price will be set and funds sent to purchase her initial attempts.

Doña Claudia Warping a Weaving for a PAZA Order

Two of the new Club members participated in La Semana de las Phuskadoras (The Week of Women Who Spin) last year. They were on the team Phuskadoras Alegres with the 6 long-time participants of Sanipaya. It appears that the event will eventually become a competition between the spinners of Huancarani and those of Sanipaya, which can be viewed in the far distance to the north of Huancarani. The team Phuskadoras Alegres won last year. It was the first time the original Spinzilla team Warmis Phuskadoras had local competition.

Zuni Weaving with Assistance from Doña Claudia

This year’s Spinning Week is scheduled for October 5th to the 11th.  Of the 2 teams of 16 spinners, there are only 3 slots remaining to be filled. It is the second time the event will be managed by Doña Maxima, Doña Justina, Doña Beatris and members of the Club with no foreign influence. The budget is set for $800, and the organizers are tasked with figuring out what to do about prizes this year. The recognition of the spinners’ skills through the tangible awarding of prizes is important. The participants of the first place team will win a prize worth 100 Bs. ($14.50), and the value of the 2nd place prizes is set at 30 Bs. ($4).

The Club´s Annual Fiesta de Don Jorge, 2019

Support for the Club de Artesanas and Spinning Week may be made by using the “Donate” button on the blogsite, https://pazaboliviablog.com/. Thank you Lyn Lucas for your unwavering support of PAZA that has allowed the Club to carry on through the years. Thank you and hugs to George Dutcher (Don Jorge) who’s been supportive in so many ways. Thank you and hugs to Joyce Dutcher for contributing to the “Family Fund” that is used exclusively for placing and purchasing the weaving orders.  Dorinda Dutcher, August 22, 2020

Rustic Loom Tales

Doña Narciza’s Passion for Weaving, 2014

Weavers in the Andean highlands enjoy the meditative comfort of their long practiced skill in quiet moments free of home and farm chores, children, and other distractions. Their rustic looms (leaning frame) are propped up outside against a wall for light and to accommodate the 12 foot length. If the space isn’t sheltered with an eave or a roof as in a 3-sided shed, then the weaver doesn’t weave during the rainy season. The looms are quickly and simply made by trimming and notching 2 saplings and cutting them to equal lengths of around 12 feet. There are few photos in the PAZA archives and most were staged because of the rare opportunities of finding a weaver at her loom. PAZA’s first visit to Doña Narciza´s home on the far east side of Huancarani wasn´t until Spinzilla Spinning Week 2014 provided a reason and it was possible because a crude road had been bulldozed to that area. She had 2 chuspa straps of llama fiber on her loom. You can see in her expression her joy in weaving, a passion established early in life.

Vanishing Sight of a Weaving in Progress, Kami, 2007

When one gets a glimpse of a weaving in progress, it’s most often a phullu (blanket). They are the easiest and quickest to weave, as the yarn is thick and there are no motifs. The handspun wool is dyed with cheap aniline dye and runs when washed. For generations, a rural woman’s reputation was established while a girl based on her spinning and weaving skills. There are no secrets in the small rural communities, so any woman known to not weave at the least phullus for her family was branded a sluggard.

Doña Maxima´s 2010 Weaving Is In PAZA´s Textile Collection

Weaving the finer weavings on the rustic loom requires upper body strength to beat down the weft with a “wichuna” which is a carved llama bone tool. Doña Maxima has struggled with health issues since prior to the birth of

Doña Maxima, 2013 Tinkuy, Cusco, Peru

her 4th child who turned 20 this month. In 2010, PAZA took photos of her at her loom weaving what was to be her last weaving for 3 years. Her recovery from minor surgery was slow and at times she was uncertain as to whether she´d ever weave again. Good fortune smiled on her and by 2013 she felt strong enough to weave and to travel. In November of that year she was invited by the Center of Traditional Textiles to do a weaving demonstration at the 2013 Tinkuy International Weaving Conference in Cusco, Peru.

Doña Margarita Had Set Up Supports for Her Loom, Chuñavi Chico, 2011

In 2011, a Bolivian nonprofit organization encouraged PAZA to pursue “Hecho a Mano” (Made By Hand) certification for the traditional weavings. The government certification process required an inspection, and it took 3 months before an inspector could make the long bus trip requiring an overnight to Independencia. PAZA was working with 3 rural communities at that time and Chuñavi Chico being the closest was chosen for the inspection site. It was a wonderful photo opportunity because the weavers had been asked to be at their looms for the walk through. The inspector, being city-born, was duly impressed with the intensive hands on process from sheep to weaving. Unfortunately, an inspection for recertification to ensure no mechanization had been added to the process was required every 6 months. The agency had neither the funding nor the manpower for a second visit to certify an eons old traditional “Hecho a Mano” craft.

With each passing year, there are fewer rural weavers further reducing the chances of getting a photo of a weaving in progress. In 2006, Dorinda purchased 2 used and faded phullus for $22 each to use as rugs on the cold cement floors from her landlady Doña Filaberta. She no longer wove, and the poles of her loom laid in a storage shed until her husband repurposed them to serve as a railing on the way to the outdoor water closet.

Faja in Progress, Doña Toribia´s Potato Storage Shed, Huancarani, 2008

Thank you to those of you who have inquired as to how the weavers are doing and what can be done to support them. During the weekly video chats with Doña Maxima she reels off a list of names of weavers who have asked if PAZA has sent a weaving order. Many adult children returned to the family farms prior to the national lockdown. Marleny, a member of the Club de Artisans, told Doña Maxima that her parents are accommodating her siblings and 22 grandchildren on the family farm in Sanipaya. Although the bartering system is still in common use, some staples and seed for next year’s crops will require a cash transaction. After 2 months in quarantine and the return of unemployed adult children and their families to the farms, there is little cash remaining in rural households.

PAZA would like to be able to send a weaving order by July, but must sell inventory already in the U.S. to be able to fund an order. Like so many supporters of artisans in communities in need around the world, PAZA was heavily relying on craft fair sales this year, specifically the Weave a Real Peace (WARP) Marketplace  which was scheduled for May in Bozeman. Dorinda was the 2020 WARP Meeting Planning Chair and continues with the planning for next year.

Weavings For Sale in U.S.

The finished products are zippered pouches ($17, or $18 with wrist strap) and yoga mat straps ($22 for 1/8”  sticky mat or $23 for ¼” thick exercise mat). The weavings for DIY projects are straps (78×1.5”, $21), fajas (used in Laverne Waddington’s classes and are 70” x 5”, $41), and larger weavings used for the zippered pouches (63” x 9.5”, $73). The total cost of the weavings is returned to Bolivia. Ninety percent of the cost was paid to the weavers, and they set pricing annually. Ten percent helps pay the rent for PAZA´s workshop/store and Doña Maxima´s wage on Sundays to open the store and attend to the rural weavers. Please send purchase inquiries to dkdutcher@hotmail.com.

Thank you Lolita for your recent PAZA support and thank you Ginny – enjoy the weavings! Dorinda Dutcher, May 21, 2020

Spinning Week Prep, Step #1

Spinning Week, 2016 (Spinzilla)

The countdown is 7 weeks until November’s “La Semana de las Phuskadoras” (the Week of Women Who Spin with Drop Spindles).Tracking Spinning Week preparation is done between Bozeman and Bolivia through WhatsApp video calls. They are a hoot because Doña Maxima´s phone is passed around to whoever´s nearby, which could be her children, her grandchildren, women in the Club de Artesanas, the weavers of Huancarani, or a visiting neighbor. The reminder of the strong communal life in Independencia is always heartwarming.

Rinsing Fleece in the River

Doña Maxima reported that 2 of the 3 sheep hides that she´s going to shear for Spinning Week are washed. She sounded quite smug about the quality of the fleece saying that it has beautiful long fibers and is very white. This week she plans to wash the third hide which will involve scouring it in a big pot outside over a wood fire, loading the heavy wet hide into a wheelbarrow, and trundling it down to the river for a thorough rinse. Doña Maxima chose her fleece while still on the hoof from her neighbor’s flock. The neighbor sells mutton at the white tiled meat counter in Independencia’s morning market.

Navigating Heavy Load of Wet Wool Up to Road

Doña Maxima said that her sister Doña Narciza had also purchased hides from the same fleece purveyor. Doña Narciza lives in Huancarani and spends many hours a day herding her huge flock of ornery goats. Doña Alicia, a neighbor of Doña Narciza (and weaving rival for over 50 years), had asked Doña Maxima about purchasing hides. Doña Alicia pastures her flock of sheep daily but said the fiber quality is poor because so much of it is pulled out by the spiny trees and shrubs. She plans to take a look at Doña Maxima´s neighbor´s flock.

Doña Maxima Cutting Fleece from Hide, 2016

There are few black sheep in the flocks. Black yarn is used in the background of the pebble weave motifs in the traditional weavings, so all need a ball or two in their stash of natural and natural dyed handspun yarn. With a huge sigh, Doña Maxima stated that Doña Beatris had visited Oruro and brought back a spectacular black hide to prepare for Spinning Week. Oruro is situated at over 12,000 feet above sea level and that cold treeless environment produces superior fleece much coveted by the weavers of Independencia.

Fleece Buying Frenzy When Highland Weavers Visited in 2009

Doña Beatris splits her time between her family´s farm in their home community of Sanipaya and Independencia where her youngest is going to school. During the 4 years that the Bolivia team competed in Spinzilla Spinning Week, she organized the 6 Sanipaya spinners who were part of the team. Sanipaya is remote, and the women are shy. There is a Saturday market nearby and a high school, so the women rarely make the long trip to the big town of Independencia (population around 3,000). It is one of a dwindling number of communities that is still multi-generational and seems to maintain the most Quechua celebrations in the area.

Black Yarn Under Discussion, Spinning Week 2016

Spinning Week provides Doña Maxima, Doña Beatris, and Doña Justina who captains the Huancarani team opportunities to assume leadership roles and that is empowering. The women are passionate about spinning, so it´s a week of socializing while doing something they love and have lived their lives sharing with one another. There was no fundraising last year and the Sanipaya spinners were disappointed in not been invited to participate. This year they are participating on the mixed team that includes 3 Huancarani spinners and the spinners living in Independencia. It is the first time 2 local teams will compete against each other. Please view the Spinning Week videos on the sidebar!

How You Can Be Involved

Measuring Spinning Week Results, Sanipaya, 2016

This is the second in a series of fundraising postings for the November 4-10 Spinning Week. We´ve raised $650 of the $1,200 needed for this year´s event. Any additional funding will go into the Club de Artesanas operating budget. It would be impossible to coordinate a once a year event without a local organization in place. Doña Maxima works year around managing the Club de Artesanas and the workshop/store which provides a headquarters for the spinners and weavers. Please make a donation using the button above to support La Semana de las Phuskadoras and the Club de Artesanas.

Fleece on the Hoof

The purchase of a weaving allows for a continuous supply of orders to be sent to the women, and offers them a sense of security by being able to anticipate an income. The current inventory in the U.S includes weavings for weavers and designers who would enjoy working with the lengths of cloth and straps to create their own bags or incorporate into clothing. Ready made products include the zippered pouches and 2 sizes of yoga mat straps. Inquiries may be made through dkdutcher@hotmail.com.

Thank you for supporting the Bolivian spinners/weavers and their ancient textile traditions! Dorinda Dutcher, September 15, 2019.

Abuelitas Prepare Your Drop Spindles!

Spinning Week in the Andes

This month is the official kick-off of “La Semana de las Phuskadoras” (“The Week of Women Who Spin with Drop Spindles”) in Independencia, Bolivia. Registration opened on July 7th and will close at the end of the month. Spinning Week will be November 4th through the 10th, and for the first time 2 local teams of 16 will compete against each other.

History

Between 2014 and 2017, the ClothRoads Spinzilla team “Warmis Phuskadoras” were the only Latin American representatives. The Andean spinners consistently placed in the upper 40%, competing against

Mid-Week Check-In

spinners and spinning wheels from around the world. The Spinzilla founders organized the spinning competition as a way to raise awareness of the joys of spinning and to encourage a global connection of spinners. Thanks to the personal notes and financial support from spinners on other Spinzilla teams and PAZA supporters the Bolivian spinners learned of the existence of the big fiber world outside of their isolated mountain communities.

This year, the spirit of competition that goes back to childhood is going to reach new heights as the 2 local teams square off against each other. Their spinning and weaving skills are an integral part of the farmer subsistence lifestyle and are the core of their self-identity. It will be a competition where the “abuelitas” (little grandmothers) rule.

Annual Prize Awarding of Petticoats in 2017

Whether Spinning Week is international or local the spinners are adamant that the event be held annually. To help them recognize their merit in a tangible sense each team member is awarded the same prize. They vote on the prize each year and it is always their choice, personal, and something they rarely have the ability to buy for themselves. The prizes chosen this year are petticoats for the first place team and cardigans for the second place team.

Logistics

Spinning Week Encouraged Maribel to Learn to Spin and Weave

The “Semana de las Phuskadoras” is estimated to cost $1,200 which will cover the prizes, local wages, logistics, and transportation for the visits to the 2 rural communities involved. Trips to the communities are made for the mid-week Spinning Week check-in, measuring the results, and the prize awarding and annual feast. Any funds raised over the cost of Spinning Week will help meet the challenge of raising the monthly operating expenses of $175/month.

Doña Casimira Always Places in the Top 3

The two “Semana de las Phuskadoras” team captains will be Doña Maxima Cortez who is the PAZA Coordinator and manages the Club de Artesanas in Independencia and Doña Justina Vargas who does an excellent job of managing the Spinning Week logistics in the rural community of Huancarani.

Dorinda Dutcher began PAZA as a Peace Corps project in 2007 when she began working with the spinners at their request. She moved back to the U.S. in 2018, but maintains a home in Independencia and will be on hand to provide oversight of this year’s event.

Support

Doña Maxima Preparing Roving for Spinning Week

You can help to make the Spinning Week competition a success and support the Bolivian spinners in two ways:

  1. Donate by clicking on the “Donate” button above. Any amount is most welcome.
  1. Purchase a weaving which will provide cash flow to the spinners as well as building their sense of self- esteem in knowing that their skills will allow them to care for their families. Inquiries may be made by contacting Dorinda Dutcher, dkdutcher@hotmail.com. Information about the weavings: https://pazaboliviablog.com/2019/04/13/bolivian-weavings-have-arrived/

Spinning Week Provides the Women a Rare Opportunity to Socialize

Updates on the “Semana de las Phuskadoras” and the spinners and weavers will be posted regularly to this blog. Dorinda will personally respond to all forms of support as well as inquiries for further information or weaving orders. We thank you in advance for your help in keeping this global connection intact and look forward to November’s Spinning Week. Finally, thank you to the BritSpin spinners for encouraging the Bolivian team to register – maybe next year! Dorinda Dutcher, July 20, 2019, dkdutcher@hotmail.com

PAZA Evaluation and Future

PAZA Store/Workshop, Doña Maxima Tagging Skeins for Dyeing, Doña Narciza Finishing a Chuspa

Is there anything more wonderful than a joyous homecoming? The bus ride from Cochabamba to Independencia at the end of the rainy season is spectacular with the vivid green of wheat fields and pale green of the high mountain grasses that will soon fade to drab tans. Bright yellow flowering shrubs reaching 8’ tall line the road descending into the Palca River Valley where a growing Independencia is nestled.

Spigot by the Church, Huancarani

PAZA has been in transition since April 2018 when Doña Maxima took over management of the Independencia activities and Dorinda relocated back in the U.S. The time had come to evaluate if PAZA will continue and if so how. There was a happy reunion between Dorinda and the Huancarani weavers who had come to town for market day. Many brought handspun skeins of wool for the upcoming Club de Artesanas dyeing extravaganza.  A year ago, the PAZA workshop/store was relocated a few doors down from its former location and Dorinda´s home for 12 years. The walls of the new smaller space were lined with equipment and supplies. The little bit of free space in the middle of the room was packed with women sitting on low stools and spilling out the door.

Waiting and Spinning

A meeting of the weavers of the Centro de Artesania, Huancarani had been arranged for the following day. Doña Maxima, Dorinda, & Vilma loaded into the family van driven by Doña Maxima´s husband. The meeting was held on the church´s covered porch, and as always there was a wait. Most of the weavers had been in Independencia the day before, and had to pasture livestock before heading to the gathering. The rain gods took a break and although overcast the rain held off. The weavers arrived in ones and twos from all directions, many with their drop spindles whirling. Doña Narciza, Max’s sister, was absent. She’d been in Independencia the day before and mentioned that her goats were dropping kids. Over the next week her flock increased by 54.

Doña Maxima Chaired the Meeting with Maribel´s Assistance

The purpose of the meeting was 2-fold. The first was for the weavers and Dorinda to confirm their commitment to continue working together. The repeated statement of, “I’ll weave until I die with your support” was a strong affirmation for PAZA to carry-on.

The second topic was what to do about the lack of a Spinzilla sponsor and the lack of clarity as to Spinzilla’s future. Dorinda put forth the idea of a 16 member Warmis Phuskadoras team made up of the first 16 Huancarani spinners to sign up. A second team would be comprised of the Independencia spinners, the spinners from Sanipaya who were excluded last year, and Huancarani spinners who sign up late. The 2 teams would compete against each other. The excitement and an animated discussion of the idea went on for over half an hour.

Weaving Quality Discussion

The 4 years of official Spinzilla participation as the Cloth Roads Warmis Phuskadoras and last year’s local spinning event have turned Spinning Week into a much anticipated tradition. Spinzilla Spinning Week has always been the first week in October which is a downtime in the Andean agricultural calendar. The spinners titled Spinning Week 2019 as “La Semana de las Phuskadoras” a mishmash of Spanish and Quechua that means “The Week of Women who Spin with Drop Spindles”.

Angelica Sold Her First Weavings This Year and Her Self-Confidence Has Soared

On the return to Independencia, the van stopped a few times and the occupants spilled out to harvest dye plants along the side of the road. Not having a home any longer in Independencia, Dorinda was staying at the local modern hotel run by the Centro Cultural Ayopaya. After 4 nights and a conversation with her former landlord she rented two of her former rooms and moved back home. With biannual visits planned, it made economic sense to rent by the month while offering tangible proof of her commitment to the weavers. The larger of the rooms is the former PAZA workshop/store and will allow Doña Maxima to store unneeded equipment and supplies to free up space in the current workshop/store.

Vilma & Doña Maxima Collecting Suyku on the Way Home

The fundraising efforts for PAZA have been minimal the past year due to the uncertainty of PAZA’s future. The weavers are doing their part in Independencia and Dorinda´s doing her part in Bozeman. We appeal to PAZA supporters to do their part to support this grass roots textile preservation effort by clicking on the “Donate” button above. The budget for Spinning Week is $1,200, and the monthly budget for the Club de Artesanas in Independencia is $175 per month. Another way to support the weavers is by purchasing weavings. The current inventory in the U.S. is tying up ¾ of the revolving fund limiting PAZA´s ability to keep the orders and cash flowing to the weavers. There is woven cloth for your own projects in the form of 63” x 9.5” weavings, fajas, and straps. There are also zippered pouches with and without wrist straps and yoga mat straps in 2 sizes. Thank you! Dorinda Dutcher, May 28, 2019

2018 in Review and PAZA’s Future

In 2018, PAZA attained the goal that all development projects aim for, and that is to turn the project over to the beneficiaries. After 12 years, Dorinda´s move in late April to the U.S. left Doña Maxima with the reins firmly in hand. She managed 3 weaving orders, settled the Club de Artesanas into a new workshop space, managed the quarterly budgets for Club activities (with a 3rd grade education), increased the Club by 2 weavers, and ran Spinzillita Spinning Week. Blog postings have been erratic because she also had to figure out social media to send photos and tales to Dorinda. Towards the end of December, she

Spinning Week Spinners and Their New Mesh Bags

mastered Skype, and the calls were heartwarming and hilarious usually with a backdrop of family,Club members, or Huancarani weavers.

In mid- December, the weavers of Huancarani took a break from spring farming activities to attend the annual meeting of the Centro de Artesanía, Huancarani (CAH). The gathering also includes a feast prepared in an outdoor wood burning adobe oven and the awarding of the Spinzillita prize due all participants of October´s local Spinning Week. PAZA funds were used to purchase 25 reusable mesh shopping bags as prizes for this year´s registered participants. The team grew as unregistered spinners joined in during Spinning Week. Doña Maxima, team captain, worked with her team to figure out how to award the additional participants. The registered spinners chipped in to buy extra prizes so all who participated would be recognized for their skill.

Waiting to Feast

Although rarely seen in the hands of city dwellers, a rural woman´s ensemble would seem to be missing something without a mesh bag in hand. The bags have largely replaced the hand woven incuñas (squares) formerly used to wrap cargo for carrying in aguayos. Aguayos, the Andean backpack consisting of 1 piece of cloth if machine woven, and 2 pieces of cloth if handwoven, are still very much in use. The incuñas were organic, the mesh bags are plastic, but reusable, and alas, vendors’ use of disposable plastic bags is increasing.

Warping a Faja for Laverne´s Order

During the CAH annual meeting, the weavers voted to not raise weaving prices for 2019. A PAZA weaving order was sent in October, but lacked transportation to the U.S. until a former Peace Corps volunteer and her Bolivian husband made space in their luggage among what they had to stow for themselves and their 2 young sons. Thank you Claire and Beto for going above and beyond!

The newly arrived fajas ($38) and zippered bags ($16/$17) are available for sale. There are also a lot of yoga mat straps ($22/$23), which are no longer in production. Send inquiries to dkdutcher@hotmail.com.

In November, Laverne Waddington, placed her annual order of fajas (bands) which she uses in her weaving workshops. We’re still waiting for her annual quality report which is accompanied by photos if there are errors. Laverne’s weaving students purchase the majority of the PAZA orders and as weavers themselves their 2018 feedback in photos helped Doña Maxima with the quality control. She has difficulty rejecting a weaving and denying payment to an elder. Prior to April, she’d ask Dorinda to convey the bad news.

Sewing in the Club Workshop

Another PAZA order was sent in January to ensure the weavers could count on a payment in February when the panic of scraping up cash to purchase school supplies and uniforms peaks. Dorinda is planning a trip to Independencia in April to pick up that order, make sure the dye pots are bubbling, gather tales, and help Doña Maxima, the Club de Artesanas, and the Huancarani weavers make adjustments to continue to progress. Regardless of the future of the TNNA Spinzilla event, the weavers love love love Spinning Week, so that may morph into a local event. How that will evolve is a discussion to be had with the weavers of Huancarani who make up the majority of

New Club Member Doña Claudia with Completed Backpack

the team. The spinners of the community of Sanipaya were miffed when the budget was cut to include them in 2018.

Are we still on in this together? The weavers and Club members are carrying on, Dorinda continues to commit time and travel expenses, but you need to decide as to whether or not you will continue to financially support PAZA. Last year’s expenses totaled $4,092. The 15 donations received totaled $1,221. There is just $1,344 remaining in the general operating fund. The quarterly activity fund of $820 was wired to Doña Maxima this month. Her salary was increased $3 to $21.60/day to reflect her increased responsibilities as the Club de Artesanas trainer and PAZA.

The PAZA fundraising pleas were few and far between last year due to the unknown of Doña Maxima and the weavers’ commitment to moving forward. During the April trip, discussions about the future will stem from PAZA´s financial health. That´s up to you! I encourage you to click on the “Donate” button above and continue to support this grass roots effort of Andean weavers striving to preserve their textile heritage while at the same time empowering themselves. Thank you. Dorinda Dutcher, January 18, 2019