Threads of Peru Blog

The Indomitable Spirit of the Andean People

Mar 08, 2013

Barely three weeks have passed since the river flooded that separates Rumira Sondormayo from its neighbour Patacancha, and yet the signs of recovery are everywhere.

My colleagues at Apus Peru and I travelled up to Rumira on Saturday to deliver some staple foods to the families who lost crops due to the flooding, and we were amazed at how quickly efforts have been made to repair the damages.

Some of the staples that we brought for the families whose homes and crops were damaged in the flooding

Some of the staples that we brought for the families whose homes and crops were damaged in the flooding.

Just outside Ollantaytambo, we passed a faena in full swing. Faenas are community work projects, where everyone from a particular village or group of villages is called on to come together to work on a particular project, usually a project that is of communal benefit. On this day, we saw men of all ages shovelling sand into sacks, hauling those sacks away, and also carrying all kinds of other construction equipment to a work site some distance away from the road.

As we travelled further up the road, beyond Huilloc, we saw that damages to the road had been repaired, bridges re-built, and most noticeable of all, the river had returned to its normal level.

A road that was impassable just three weeks ago can now easily be travelled by car

A road that was impassable just three weeks ago can now easily be travelled by car.

Much is being done to prevent the same situation from repeating itself next year as well. While we were in Rumira, we crossed paths with a man from the Civil Defense service. Apparently members of the Civil Defense have been in the community investigating ways to divert the flow of the river, should it be in danger of overflowing again, so as to avoid impacting homes and fields. They are also engineering ways to raise the banks of the river.

Hector and Ever carry the goods we brought to one family's one, using a newly re-built bridge. The previous one had washed away

Hector and Ever carry the goods we brought to one family's one, using a newly re-built bridge. The previous one had washed away.

It just goes to show how hard-working and dedicated the Andean people are, and no amount of rain will ever wash that away.

Unveiling the Secrets of Dye Plants in Calca: Science...or Magic?

Feb 27, 2013

This past weekend, a colleague of mine and I went to visit a man in Calca to learn about some of the mysteries of the natural dye world.

Martín Solís has been working with natural dyes professionally for the past 15 years, though it’s a subject he’s been interested in since he was just a boy growing up in the Paucartambo district. He has an innate passion for the extraordinary diversity of colours that can be achieved using locally available plants and minerals, and a deep respect for the plants themselves. Although we carried out our workshop in his relatively urban home in the middle of the Sacred Valley, more than once he insisted that it was infinitely better to dye “in the field”, surrounded by a wide variety of dye-bearing plants, so that we could truly appreciate their gifts.

Martín lifting out the freshly dyed red yarn, our first batch of the day

Martín lifting out the freshly dyed red yarn, our first batch of the day.

Martín is a master of working with the dye plants themselves: he knows just where to go to collect the best quality materials, knows just how to use the plants in different combinations to produce different shades, and knows all the little tricks to ensure that these colours last.

Leaves of the dye plant ttere, which dyes shades of yellow

Leaves of the dye plant ttere, which dyes shades of yellow.

For the past six years, however, Martín has been developing something truly Martín is a master of working with the dye plants themselves: he knows just where to go to collect the best quality materials, knows just how to use the plants in different combinations to produce different shades, and knows all the little tricks to ensure that these colours last.: he has found a way to dry, grind and combine his usual array of dye materials into prepared, ready-to-use, just-add-water dye mixtures.

It’s absolutely amazing!

His preparations (the exact ingredients of which are a proprietary secret) come in a set of six basic colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and black. By using different combinations of each of these base colours as well as pure cochineal, Martín is able to produce a range of 50 natural shades, from the brightest, truest shades of red, orange, green and blue to a range of purples, pinks, and even browns, greys and black.

5 of the 6 prepared dye preparations

The best part about his dye mixes? They allow the user to conserve water and fuel!

Because his dye recipes are calculated exactly, all of the dyestuff in each colour batch is taken up by the yarn being dyed. This means that the same dye bath can be used to dye multiple shades, one after the other. No need to dump out large volumes of water and start fresh with each new colour. During our lesson, we dyed 12 different colours in the same two pots of water! We were also able to add back in water that drained from finished yarn, thus preventing any water from going to waste.

Furthermore, Martín told us that during the course of our workshop he expected to go through about 10kg of firewood in order to boil the water for dyeing. This is a huge savings compared to the 40kg he says it would take if you had to boil fresh pots of water for each new colour.

The scene at Martín's house

The scene at Martín's house.

Martín teaches a variety of workshops to weaving groups and institutions, including a three-day workshop that combines the practical skills of natural dyeing with colour theory, both how to combine different colours in a weaving and also the traditional meanings of colours.

He also takes custom dye orders from weavers all over the Cusco area.

Checking on the orange...

...and the green

When not teaching or dyeing himself, Martín is often off on plant-collecting excursions. On three separate occasions while planning this workshop, Martín had to apologize for the bad cellphone connection when we called him, saying that he was “on the top of a mountain” collecting plants, and the reception must not be very good.

He’s off again today.

But the best part of the experience for us was definitely watching it all unfold. Squeals of delight rang out as a spoonful of non-descript powder was added to the water and instantly turned it a brilliant shade of blue or green or red.

I actually understand a great deal about the chemistry going on during the dye process, but when you watch it happen before your very eyes, no amount of science can explain away what is really going on: pure magic.

- Written by: Project Coordinator, Sarah Confer

The dazzling array of 12 shades that we dyed that day

The dazzling array of 12 shades that we dyed that day.

Rainy Season in the Andes

Feb 18, 2013

Rainy season in Cusco is terribly unpredictable. This year we seemed to be poised for a less intense rainy season than we’ve had in previous years. We’ve had plenty of sunshine, and I even overheard some Cusqueñans complaining about the “heat”, saying that they don’t know how to deal with hot weather in Cusco!

However, that all changed last week as the entire southern Andes region of Peru saw intense rainfall and flooding, from the Sacred Valley all the way to Arequipa.

On February 10th, sudden heavy rains caused the river that flows between the communities of Rumira Sondormayo and Patacancha to overflow, inundating fields and creeping up property lines

The heavy rains caused the river to swell and overflow, creeping up towards property lines

The heavy rains caused the river to swell and overflow, creeping up towards property lines.

Luckily, there were no major damages in Rumira Sondormayo, one of Threads of Peru’s partner communities, although some houses did suffer some water damage, and many families lost crops, chickens and guinea pigs.

I and a couple of coworkers from Apus Peru travelled up to the community to assess the impact of the flooding, bringing some basic supplies with us. Due to the loss of much of this year’s harvest, we will be contributing additional staples in the coming weeks such as rice and sugar, in order to help offset the impact of this loss.

Fields and livestock holding pens were inundated by the river's flow

Fields and livestock holding pens were inundated by the river's flow.

Right now, the community is busy reinforcing the river’s edge in order to prevent a similar overflow in case there is another heavy rainfall. Down below, on the outskirts of Ollantaytambo, others were doing their part as well, making offerings to Pachamama in the hopes that she might spare them another deluge.

The force of the river's flow flattened many planted crops

The force of the river's flow flattened many planted crops.

In Cusco, we’re bracing ourselves for power outages as electrical storms threaten the main power lines throughout the South.

This is life during the rainy season in the Andes!

But, in another month’s time, repairs to damages caused by rain and flooding will be well under way as the dry season begins to take hold once again, and this year’s events will become just another memory in the never-ending cycle of seasons.