Meet Leonor Negrete

Leonor is a power house. She is always busy in the fields or with the animals. Frequently when I visit the rancho Leonor brings me some of her fresh homemade goat cheese. I understand that she makes some of the best salsa mole in the village so expect her receipt this summer when I return. She has a large and very successful family.

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Her daughters and sons are all educated and the girls have jobs working in San Miguel. Her husband was the president of the village for a 6 year term which just ended. It appears that all the family work as a team to help each other out. They also work as a team on some of the rugs. Her daughter, Gaby, is one of the group secretaries. I will write about her in another blog. 
In the photo we see her with her stately mother who is showing her embroidery work. She would love to sell these if anyone is interested.

Leonora Negrete Hernandez     1963     4th grade  edu.
Venacio Ramirez Rameriz, husband   1962     work/farmer and construction, president of the village  Has never left Mexico to work in the USA

Adriana          1983          works as a maid           jr high

Jorge              1985        works in Arkansa illegally  jr high

Leopoldo         1986          farming with family          jr high

Anarosa          1989          maid                              high school

Gabriella         1990          maid                             high school 

Lorena            1993          maid                              high school

Beatric           1996          student

 Animals: 9 cows, 3 burros, 4 horses, 25 goats, 8 sheep 

We're now a member of TAFA and selling on etsy

This blog is bringing in some wonderful connections. I received and email suggesting that I sign up with TAFA which I have done: http://www.tafalist.com/2011/05/las-rancheritas.html

Rachel Biel, the organizer of the site, has helped us get listed and she suggested that I sign up with etsy, which I have done: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LasRancheritas?ref=pr_shop

We have already sold one rug fron esty so I am very encouraged. I have wanted to have an online selling site for some time, etsy makes it easy. In the future I see the group handling their own sales. This is now becoming possible. Fed EX goes everywhere. So step one is in place.
By the way I had an amazing trip into the Boundary Waters wilderness area, 4 days of solitude and beauty. 

 

We're on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LasRancheritas#

Generosity of Rug Hookers strikes again.

The word went out that we could need more then $300 to get the wholesale price for purchasing natural wool for dying. We now have a wholesale relationship with Dorr Mills but we need to purchase 3 bolts to get that reduced price. Kate Kiely and her group, in Rochester MN, have been collecting donated wool. They recently had a raffle to raise funds for the postage necessary to get the wool to me here in Texas. Kate sent part of that money to add to the $300. Now, I just heard from Gene Shepherd and the Orange Coast ATHA group voted to donate $450 towards a purchase of 3 bolts of natural wool!! The miracle in Mexico continues. Now the rugs will be in wool with beautiful colors thanks to our supporters in the USA. Thank you all.   

Wool Dying Camp 2010

I am getting very excited about dying natural wool. This will give us the colors needed to make rugs exclusively out of wool. Polar fleece, a cheap local alternative, is used when a specific color of wool is not available. So, I wanted to include photos of the lessons from August 2010 when  Anne Boissinot, Barbara Hanson and others visited the village to teach them dying techniques. They introduced extracting color from dark wool to use in dying lighter colors. We also included a demo on chemical dyes which can be purchased cheaply in Mexico.

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The participants brought color books, crayons, books and art supplies for the children. It was like Christmas. These are luxuries in the village.

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Rugs were hung up in Bonis' yard and Norberto brought his burro to give people a ride. Here is Jessica, Barbara's daughter. She lived in the village for 2 summers and taught English to the children.

White Wool

This week after returnning from Mexico I found a wlecome surprise in the mail box. Turns out the "Best of Show" we won at the King William Art Show a couple of weeks ago came with a cash award! $300. WOW. So what does the group need? One thing is cutter rolls size 7 and 8 but the are hungery for bright colors. They now have knowledge on how to dye wool. Soooo.I am asking all you rug hookers out there. Where can we get the best price on white wool? Thanks

 

Meet Petra (grande) Ramirez

One of the most colorful and energetic women in the group is Petra "grande". There are two Petra’s,  she is the older thus "grande". Petrahas a warm, positive, energetic personality. This is amazing considering her circumstances. She and her husband were in an automobile accident over 25 years ago. It left him with a permanent spinal injury. He has difficulty standing for any lenght of time. He can do some work but his ability to move is very limited. So Petra has been the breadwinner of the family for many years. Luckily she is a talented rug hooker. Her imagination is unique. She pays no attention to standard placement or design. She likes to make big, colorful rugs with lots of objects in them. Sales from her rugs allowed her to move out of their old 10' x 20' house with 6' ceilings into a new one with two large rooms each 14' by 16' with a 8' ceilings.

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Petra (grande) Ramirez Gonzales            1960            no education
Husband: Uvaldo Velesque Rico             1940            no education            disabled from accident 1980
   He is the brother of Pueblitos’ husband. Meet Pueblito in a later blog. 

 

Cresensio          1977            M          Dallas and SMA/every 6 months Jr. High
Juana                1980            M          Dallas                                                   Jr. High
Eligio                1981            M         1 child lives in other rancho              Jr. High
Galdino            1983            M         Dallas                                                   High school
Jenario             1985              Dallas                                                   Jr. High
Maria de Jesus  1988                maid                                                     High school
Lorencio           1993                student                                                 Jr. High

Animals: 30 goats, 3 burrows, 2 pigs, chickens

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Note they make their animals anatomically correct.

Here we see Petra with tortillas decorated especially for a special occasions. Note the carved wooden press used for making these designs. Felipe will be here tomorrow and I'll ask him what it is called.

Gene Shepherd teaches Las Rancheritas

Las Rancheritas came to my house in San Miguel on April 22nd to view the special bilingual lesson Gene Shepherd created about finishing the borders in wool. They have been finishing with crocheted synthetic yarn for years. Check it out at: http://geneshepherd.com/Genes_Intro/Welcome.html

They were thrilled to hear themselves referred to on the video as they watched, with wrapped attention, this new technique. All of them agreed that this was a far superior way to finish the edges of their rugs. They noted that now the color of the borders would be the same as the rug, something many of us have also been concerned with. Gene had sent them all needles so they were able to practiced the technique right after the film. Everyone got the idea and I think we will be seeing these edges on the rugs from now on. Thank you Gene!

Judy Christoffersen, a retired art teacher, and one of our rancherita angels was there to help. She taught them how to find the middle of a pattern and other tricks for making designs from paper. Remember making paper snowflake designs? This group had never seen this done. Judy gave the demo: folding and cutting to create beautiful symmetrical forms. They loved drawing and Judy and I were delighted to see them having such good time learning. 

  We also spoke more about dying. By the way a group of hookers, lead by Barbara Hanson and Anne Boissinot, visited last August to teach dying. I will talk about this experience and show photos of their workshop in a future blog. Wool fabric is very expensive to purchase in Mexico, and only available in dark colors so they are dependent on the donations from rug hookers in the USA and Canada for their supplies. This wool is magnificent some of it even hand dyed!! However, they always lack bright, light and white. So once again I want to request that your donations focus on these colors. My plan is to bring as much white as I can find when I return in July. 

Judy and I have donated sewing machines so in July sewing lessons will begin. They are so excited to learn new things. This is one of the rewarding parts of working with Las Rancheritas. Much of our everyday knowledge turns out to be exciting and special to these people. All teaching is a joy but seeing lives change our efforts is a great reward.