The Kateri Circle Sewing Group at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota could use some help from those of us with abundant stashes! The women of Pine Ridge meet regularly to sew, quilt and bead. The group includes many elders, as well as youth who are learning traditional crafts and beading.

Supplies of all kinds, including fabric will be much appreciated by the Kateri Circle Sewing Group. A list of needed items and more info about the group and Pine Ridge is available at their website, as well as mailing address. Please share your stash!!

Greg Mortenson’s book, Three Cups of Tea, remains on the NY Times Bestseller List, now over 188 weeks! I first published this post last February. I repeat it now in acknowledgement that the book is so important, the concept within valid and more to the point, is working very well bringing a new reality for many in war torn Afghanistan.

2 Feb 2010: “Three Cups of Tea” has been on the NYT Best Seller List for 155 consecutive weeks. In essence it’s the story of one man’s belief , put into action and brought to reality-that being, that the key to peace in the world is education- primarily educating girls, that is.

For those followers of my blog who might wonder about the connection to fiber…put this under the category of “fabric of life.” Actually, this is the first in a series, a future post to talk about the work of women’s textile work in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Bill Moyers on PBS interview with Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and a new book, “Stones into Schools”. Seventeen years ago Mortenson’s. Greg Mortenson is a very soft spoken man whose dedication to educating the children of Pakistan and now Afghanistan as a means to an enduring peace is now in its 18th year. Plain and simple, it’s working….very well.

More than building a way for peace, Mortenson’s work in these poor countries has helped to rebuild poverty wasted villages, renewed cultural traditions of the people in the remote areas of the two countries where Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute has built 131 schools. The impact of educating girls makes a difference in communities and it’s measurable: infant mortality is down, population growth reduced, and educated women promote non-violence to name a few significant changes. (Read more at Central Asia Institutes website)

Talk about ‘hope’ – Mortenson is in the league of innovators and visionaries who have proven that one man/woman can make a difference.

Coming next in this series: Women’s Centers and traditional designs

Thousands of garment workers are protesting and rioting in Bangladesh demanding a fair wage. 40% of the workforce in Bangladesh are garment workers, predominately women. The government just recently raised their pay by 80%….that may sound terrific, but alas this raise falls way below the country’s minimum living wage, which is $73. The garment workers “raise” brings the workers monthly wage to $45.

Meanwhile, business is booming for the garment industry in Bangladesh — a $12 billion a year industry, which generates 80% of the country’s export income. By the way, if you are shopping for your clothes at the Gap, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohl’s or buy Levi’s, you are helping the Bangladesh garment industry, but what about the workers?

Read more about the garment workers at Ms Blog or The Guardian, UK. The NY Times has a piece too with a rather misleading headline “Bangladesh Garment Workers Awarded Higher Pay”.

The SAQA Journal, Spring 2010, featured an article,”Weaving Women Together,” written about weavers in Thailand by the founders of TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles, Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase. TAMMACHAT supports the weavers and artisans in a fair trade, social enterprise, promoting the beautiful and traditional fiber work of Thailand and Laos’ indigenous weavers. “We founded TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles to bring together our interests and expertise in SE Asia travel, weaving, fair trade, photography and supporting women weavers in rural Thailand and Laos, ” says Ellen Agger.

I have written here before about Ellen and Alleson’s important work and urge you to read the article, “Weaving Women Together.” This piece tells of the Prae Pan Weaving Coop in Khon Kaen, Thailand where women produce beautiful silk and cotton handwovens, combining tradition and creativity, and with ecological sounds methods.

As I read the article, I had some questions about the origins of the Coop in Prae Pan and how cultural heritage is blended with economics. Ellen Agger answers below:

Bonnie: As I read the article, Ellen, I wondered how long ago the coop in PraePan, Thailand was organized and by who?

Ellen: PraePan Group was started to address issues of women’s health, education and empowerment. From PraePan’s website (http://praepangroup.wordpress.com), created with the help of a volunteer in 2009:

Encouragement to form the group came originally from the Handicraft Center for Northeast Women’s Development (NWD) that proposed the following objectives:

• To preserve and teach to others the techniques and traditional patterns of hand weaving to the Northeast.
• To provide a lasting career and steady income for the women.
• To encourage the women’s participation in all aspects of community affairs while they cooperate with one another in the weaving project.

The NWD program continued for 10 years. Beginning in 1997, NWD turned the management of the program over to a committee consisting of representatives of NWD and of each of the villages. The parent organization has gradually withdrawn as the village group has learned to take over its functions, until NWD now has only an advisory role.

Bonnie: Was this coop formed with the idea of sustainability or creating a market or both in mind?

Ellen: Self-sufficiency has always been a core value of PraePan. They bought their own shop building in the province’s capital city of Khon Kaen, where the co-op sells handwoven products made by (and purchased) from members in 7 surrounding villages. They are extremely proud of managing their own shop and community business, as well they should be.

Access to a market is a huge challenge for rural artisans, so belonging to a group like PraePan gives individuals access to markets they can’t otherwise reach. TAMMACHAT’s role is to link these artisans – and others like them – to markets in North America and online to the world. This access to international markets is critical with the drop in international tourism in Thailand over the last 2 years.

Bonnie: You mentioned in the article that there are similar groups of village weavers throughout Thailand and Laos – does this seem to be networked or growing?

Ellen: This artisanal work is very much at risk. Women who have been involved with weaving groups in Thailand for decades have predicted that home-based silk weaving may disappear in a decade because of increased competition from factory-produced “silks” from Vietnam and China.

These weavers learned their craft from their mothers and grandmothers, often starting by age 10. Their daughters and granddaughters are not continuing these traditions, they tell us. Unless the younger generation sees income potential from these crafts, we suspect they will die. The good news is that the internet can potentially make a real difference by opening markets, providing income and showing that there are people all over the world who appreciate these handcrafted textiles and will buy them.

Bonnie:  Are most of what is produced ethnic or traditional in design and the importance of this in preserving cultural heritage of women’s handwork.

Ellen: Each group with whom we work is made up of women in different villages and even provinces, both in Thailand and Laos. Some villages have specific traditions that the artisans prefer to follow. For example, one village where PraePan members live and work specializes in cotton traditional “khit” weaving (supplementary weft for you weavers).

Some weavers have worked with designers from Europe and Japan to create specific products and designs that suit those markets. When we asked weavers on our last trip what they preferred to weave, most told us they want to weave whatever will sell.

We try to choose designs that will have appeal in our market and also respect their traditions. It’s a process of collaboration for us. Also, we have sought out groups that work with women who make the silk yarns (sericulturists), natural dyers and weavers – all of whom work using traditional methods they have honed over generations, even if the designs are not traditional designs. It’s important to us that not only do we help them generate income, but also sustain these traditions of handwork. It’s really part of their cultures.

When I bred and raised alpacas, I learned about their history. Research tells us that the alpaca has been a domesticated livestock for over 4000 years, producing fiber that was the basis of class struggles in South America, often called the “fiber of the gods,” and even now referred to as “the gold of the Andes.” Alpacas were part of the traditions and cultural development of the herdsmen and women of the Andes, known as “compesinos”  who today still are part of the alpaca industry in Peru. The Compesinos, generation after generation, have raised their herds high in the mountains, with skill and caring, and the alpacas in my pasture were descendents of those alpacas. Awe inspiring to say the least.

Many of us who work with cloth and fiber, were drawn to this medium in part, because of our interest in the role it has played in the history and cultural development of a people. There is a connection to the past, to the earth and to people who created and were sustained by cloth before us.

Like Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food movement in concept, the Slow Cloth Movement is about one’s relationship to your work, life and expression with cloth. In 2007,  Elaine Lipson starting developing the Slow Cloth movement and in ‘08, after much reflection, identified ten principles applicable to any textile-related process. Just recently, Elaine together with two artists of like-mind, Jude Hill and Glennis Dolce, have gone Facebook with a Slow Cloth community page. It has grown remarkably fast, has many interesting discussions and great array of resources too. Join the community and become part of the movement.

HandEye Magazine featured Elaine Lipson’s “Slow Cloth Manifesto” in their February 14th edition in which she outlines the ten principles of the movement-reflective and meaningful to those of us who work with cloth.

Elaine Lipson is a writer, editor, and artist, and the author of  The Organic Foods Sourcebook (Contemporary Books, 2001), The International Market for Green and Sustainable Apparel (Packaged Facts, 2008), and many articles on organic farming, supporting local growers, sustainable apparel and more. Her blog is Red Thread Studio blog at http://lainie.typepad.com

Jeanette Campbell, alpaca  breeder in Kansas, has just opened her new blog with a very interesting article about poor Bolivian women and their traditional textiles. A center has been built as a memorial to serve the needs of these traditional craftswomen. It’s a good read….and so nice to read about good things happening for people in the world today. Click here to link to the story.

Jeanette and her husband, Jim, own Alpacas at Willowbrook Farm in Louisburg, KS. Their website has a wealth of good info on fiber and alpacas too.

Valerie Hearder, Founder of African Threads, journeyed to South Africa earlier this year. She visited nine different women’s sewing groups to talk first-hand with these remarkable women who struggle everyday with the devastation of AIDS on their families and villages. Here Valerie tells about the women, their creative and meaningful art, and their determination to support and educate their grandchildren.

Valerie Hearder:

Tradtional Zulu doll maker Loboleli Ximba

Earlier this year I went on my long planned trip to South Africa. Six busy, beautiful weeks visiting 9 women’s sewing groups in various areas of S.A. I’ve built up relationships with various women’s sewing groups through my small fair-trade business African Threads, as described in my previous blog posts here. I was keen to visit them, hear their stories and share the huge suitcase of embroidery threads donated by women in Canada. I’ve come home with so many rich memories and images and I’ll try and share just a few with you.

The early winter weather in the southern hemisphere was exquisitely warm and dry and perfect for travel. Our first visit was to an embroidery group called Intuthuko, which means To Make Progress. It’s near a sprawling squatter camp about 3o miles from frenetic Johannesburg. Intuthuko provides the only income for 35 embroiderers, all of whom are single mothers and grandmothers. We talked, shared tea, stories, laughs and tears. The group presented me with an enchanting embroidered hanging – a portrait of themselves in their sewing group. They sang to me in 5 part harmony that gave me shivers and tears. Intuthuko’s charming renditions of both traditional and township life is hand-stitched with hand-dyed silk on black squares of African cotton. Quilters buy the squares to stitch them into quilts, cushions and bags.

Bertha and Pinky Resenga of the Mapula group, The Winterveld.

It was a hot, early winter’s day when we drove out to visit The Winterveld, desperately poor a rural area north of Pretoria. Mapula, which means Mother of Rain, is an embroidery group begun by the Sisters of Mercy about 16 years ago and supported by Soroptomists volunteers in Pretoria. Mapula provides the only income for 80 embroiderers who create exuberant village and social scenes on black cloth. Mapula creates economic empowerment, social stability and is a vital support for women. We brought in boxes of oranges, school supplies and cookies for the extended families and of course gave bags of embroidery threads to the stitchers. It was fascinating to visit their homes including this brightly painted house.

Joyce Gazuba with her appliqué and embroidered wall hanging, KwaZulu Natal.

We visited an extraordinary embroidery group in beautiful Limpopo Province close to Kruger national Park. This group was started 18 years ago by Irma van Rooyen, a farmers wife who wanted to create employment for the desperately poor farm families. Irma’s first group had 8 embroiderers who embroidered brightly coloured Shangaan tribal designs onto black cloth. Today employment is provided for a staggering 1,000 embroiderers! The spin-off economics for the entire region is significant as there are no employment opportunites. I was particularly impressed with the consistent quality of the handwork and it was explained that the women are paid by the weight of their stitches. Their cloth is weighed before they stitch is and once it’s returned – and that is how their payment is calculated. Brilliant. What it encourages is extremely rich embroidery.

I was thrilled to find a large group of Zulu bead workers who were employed through an AIDS centre near Durban. Zulu women are renown for their bead prowess and the jewelery they make is exciting and contemporary.

My encounters with women crafters all over South Africa were all equally impressive, heart-warming and often heart-wrenching as well. I learned when visiting an AIDS Centre in Ixopo, a poverty stricken area of Kaw-Zulu Natal, that their exquisitely embroidered note cards were the only form of income available for the women. There is simply no other way to make money. The desperation of this was driven home when I was told that a young mother had recently gone off her ARV (anti-retroviral) medication to force her CD4 count to drop to dangerous low levels. Shocked and confused by this I pressed for more understanding: how could a mother risk dying? Well, it turns out that in S.A. when an HIV positive person’s CD4 count drops they are given a small grant for basic food and put on ARVs. However, people get better quite quickly on ARV’s their CD4 count goes up, and then the government takes away the grant, on the assumption they can work. This mother had no other way to feed her children than to stop her medication, drop her CD4 count and get on the grant again. This simple embroidery project is a desperately important link between life and death. This desperate high-stakes game of life and death is played out daily by tens of thousands of people through-out South Africa.

(Please contact me if you know of a group that would like to order bulk cards to support this particular group. Email me at val@valeriehearder.com)

The simple truth is that we all desire the same basic things: we want to feed out children, to have the dignity to make our own money and not survive on charity. I learned that the sewing groups – often called women’s empowerment groups – serve as a sole source of income for entire families. This ripples out into their communities. Equally important, the sewing groups sustain the women spiritually and emotionally. They gather together in their sewing circles as a community of women, facing their hardships with poverty and AIDS with shared solace and empowerment. Purchasing their stitchery, beaded dolls and bead jewelery is putting income directly into their hands. This is the most dignified and significant way we can show our support.

Find out more at http://www.threadlink.typepad.com/Africanthreads/

At her home in Maine, USA, Linda Cortright runs a small herd of cashmere goats. But each year her passion for “wild fibre” takes her around the globe, on the trail of sheep in the mountains of New Zealand, cashmere goats in Kyrgyzstan, and elusive wild guanaco in the high Andes. So begins an article featured on the International Year of Fibres website about Linda Cortright and the magazine she created, “Wild Fibers Magazine.”

Wild Fibers is a magazine dedicated to promoting all aspects of the fiber industry from every corner of the globe too. The stories of the fiber producing animals- an amazing range- and the shephards who raise them are rich with human interest. The photography is stunning.

Linda Cortright travels the world to find these herdsmen and women, understand their way of life and tell the world about them. She is indeed an advocate for the nomads, natives of various lands and artisans who generation after generation have raised fiber animals well, harvested the fiber and supported their families in this tradition. Ms. Cortright also tells of the artisanship and expertise of these people.

Amazing stories, many with a touch of Linda Cortright’s humor, and photography rivaling any found in National Geographic, make Wild Fibers Magzine fascinating from cover to cover.

Textile fair traders publish their 3rd book
TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles’ co-founders Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase spent two weeks with the Pattanarak Foundation’s Organic Cotton Project along the Mekong River in Thailand. Their latest book, “Weaving Sustainable Communities: Organic Cotton Along the Mekong,” chronicles how this project helps sustain rural communities and protect the environment. It’s a window into the traditions, now over a century old, of organic cotton production in this area and it introduces some of the women who continue to practice these traditions and learn new ways to do so sustainably.

For a free look inside the book — and to order your own copy — visit TAMMACHAT’s online bookstore at www.blurb.com/user/store/ellenagger. Take a look at their other 2 books too, “Panmai” and “Prae Pan Group,” that take you on a visit to Thailand’s 2 oldest women’s weaving co-operatives.

The Textile & Fiber Art Exhibition opened July 11th at the Fisher Art Center in Marshalltown, IA and a popular show it is. Several central Iowa artists participated and the show includs art that reflects the diversity and beauty of textile as a medium. This exhibition will be open throughout July.

The Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA) provided information and materials to visitors and signed up several new members too! SAQA is an international association of fiber artists and provides support, information, and educational resources to its members.

Pictured here are visitors to the exhibition viewing the beautiful and expressive art of Sue Kluber, Grinnell, IA.

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Valerie Hearder, fiber artist and founder of “African Threads” recently visited the groups of African Grandmothers who create the beautiful embroidered pictorial pieces available through “African Threads.” Visit Valerie’s blog for the full story of her meeting with these courageous and talented women of Africa.

Click here to read the story of the African Grandmothers and the supportive project, African Threads.