Posts Tagged ‘Weaving’

DESIGNER OF MAYU’S HAND-KNIT ALPACA BLOGS ABOUT FASHION, FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Mayu would like to present a guest post from Laddhavan Sutana, our esteemed designer from Chicago. Without her, Mayu’s accessories would not be the snazzy and fabulous pieces of art that they are! Here Laddhavan provides the answer to one pivotal question:

When did I decide to become a clothing designer?

I don’t know, really. I do not ever remember saying I was going to grow up to be a designer. This was before Project Runway and celeb designed labels.  I always was an artistic kid and drew lots of pictures of glamorous women and copied pictures of period costumes in books-paying close attention to seam lines, ruffles, and other design features. In middle school I was awarded best artist and best dressed. I guess my fate to become a clothing designer was sealed at an early age.
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JOIN MAYU’S ARTISANS: WORLDWIDE KNIT (WITH ALPACA) IN PUBLIC DAY!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Through no fault of our own (ok, maybe a little), Mayu completely blew past celebrating Worldwide Knit in Public Day! This day has been recognized since 2005, taking place on the second Saturday of June every year. Communities of knitters all over the world get together in groups every year to showcase their talents in public. Well, the good news about us being a little slow on the uptake is that Mayu’s Peruvian artisans knit in public every day!! Due to the flexible nature of their jobs, they can gather in the streets and knit with friends, family and neighborhood children. Worldwide Knit in Public Day brings out some of the spirit of community that Peruvian knitters experience all the time, it is KNIT into the fabric of their lives (pun definitely intended)!

Connect with Mayu on Twitter, Facebook and our blog for exciting news about Peru, artisans, sustainability, eco-fashion, fair trade, and hand-knit alpaca.

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Posted in Community Events, Peru | No Comments »

PEACE CORPS JOURNALS: MADELINE WU WORKS WITH PERUVIAN WEAVERS

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

We are back with our series, Peace Corps Journals to hear about our current and past volunteers who have served close to Mayu’s artisans in Peru.  Madeline Wu shares here experience with weavers. For more on Peru and artisans, subscribe to our RSS feeds, follow us on Twitter and find us on Facebook.

Every week, I find my way to the caserio where my artesans live.  One of my small business projects involves an artesan association.  The artesans weave beautiful cloth that they use in their daily lives.  I walk about an hour to reach my artesans, who live in the rural part of El Faique.  Even with a small pueblo like El Faique, the townsfolk
tend to be the richer, better educated folks.  The farmers live on the
outskirts of town or further.  Rumor has it that the furthest caserio
from El Faique is a two-day walk or an 8-hour motorcycle ride.

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Working with Peruvian Wool

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

 

Pictured below is my host grandmother, Angela, who I lived with while I served in the Peace Corps. She was definitely the expert weaver! In the afternoon, she usually sit inside her kitchen and spin all-natural sheep wool that she or her husband had gathered just days earlier. They owned hundereds of sheep and used their wool to make a variety of items including much-needed blankets to keep them warm in the Anden weather. As you can, the wool comes in a variety of colors, similar to the Alpaca. Unfortunately, Angela did not own any Alpacas, but if she did, the process of shearing, separating, classifying, washing and hand-spinning the fiber would be very similar. To learn more about Alpaca fiber, visit www.whatisalpaca.com!

Grams and Wool sm

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