Weaving in South America - Laverne Waddington

Laverne Waddington addressing a group in Sacramento CA on Weaving in South America

 On Thursday April 4, Laverne Waddington gave a presentation on behalf of the Sacramento Weavers and Spinner Guild. The subject is Weaving in South America. The venue is Generations Church in MidTown Sacramento, Calif.

Members and guests of Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild listening to Laverne.

 The Thursday night presentation is different schedule than the usual daytime meetings, but members and guests came out to hear Laverne's presentation. Far right on the above picture is Rachel, who drove all the way from Berkeley!

Watching pictures and videos while Laverne explains what we're seeing.

Laverne travels have taken her from one end of South America to the other, from Chile to Ecuador. She describes differences in fiber uses of the Highlands (wool, llama, alpaca) and the Lowlands (cotton). She showed some of the differences in patterns. Patterns can be unique from village to village, and from country to country. Looms and equipment are variable. While Laverne is expert in backstrap weaving, she also showed us pictures of ground looms, vertical looms and others.

Laverne had to sit in the back juggling mouse and microphone with her laptop computer plugged into the projectors.

Laverne had to sit in the back of church with her laptop plugged into the church projectors. Laverne speaks very clearly, and is adept at pronouncing the names of products, peoples and tribes in languages that reach back hundreds of years. When she speaks English she has a little trouble when her Australian accent gets in the way of her tongue.

After the video presentation, Laverne answers a few questions.

After the pictures and videos Laverne sat down and answered questions. It was a wonderful presentation and I'm grateful that Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild invited her to come to Sacramento. I'm also grateful to Generations Church in Sacramento CA for letting us use the meeting room for the evening presentation. Special thanks to Darren for hooking up the projectors and microphone for us.

This coming Saturday and Sunday some lucky weavers will have a two day workshop in Backstrap Weaving taught by Laverne Waddington.

It was a good day!

Links of interest

Backstrap Weaving - Laverne's blog

http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/

Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild

http://www.sacweavespin.org

Generations Church 

(formerly Capitol Foursquare Church)

http://www.capitolfoursquare.org/