I am excited to learn about textile traditions in Mexico because I have spent much of my life striving to become an expert in this area. As a teenager, I took classes and spent countless hours sewing to fulfill my desire to become an expert seamstress. However, once I achieved this goal, I became a beginner once again. Today, I am a beginner at weaving and spinning, and learning these art forms from scratch is exciting, nerve-racking... and entertaining!
As a beginner, the best way to learn is from the expertise of others. Case in point: once, in St. Louis, I drove four hours to Chicago just to take a weaving class. It was worth it because my teacher was extraordinary, and an expert weaver. However, now that I am in Mexico, I have teachers who have dedicated their entire lives to mastering these skills. These masters come from a long line of makers and artists devoted to their traditions. Even the children in Teotitlan del Valle were devoted to their traditions. There, I took a dying, weaving, and spinning class, and just like in El Taller de Suenos, everything was made by hand. There were bales of raw cotton, wool, natural plants, insects used in dying and small stools where the weavers worked.
