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.

 

Delivery of Wool and First Place ribbon.

This is what my car looks like when I drop off the wool. Yikes. Thank goodness its not heavy.

Here we see Las Rancheritas in front of the donated wool. Note the first place ribbon on Bonifacias blouse. They are so grateful for the beautiful wool. The

 quality of the rugs has greatly improved because of this beautiful wool some of it even hand dyed.

Petra Grande is always up for fun so she jumped into the wool.

They prepared a potluck as their way of thanking me, and any friends I bring along, for bringing the wool. Since this is the season for nopal cactus, in the USA it is called prickly pear, we had allot of nopal dishes: nopal cactus salad, nopal cactus stew, quesadillas stuffed with nopales and beans. Some of the extras were, spaghetti, fried potatoes patties, rice with mole sauce and of course piles of tortillas. And just to make things interesting there was a spicy dark red chili sauce. It was country feast.

To prepare nopals for eating you much first remove the spins, tricky work, not recommended for the inexperienced.

Nopal Salad

1. Take fresh pads of nopals and remove the spins, or buy them at the grocery store (but they won't be as fresh)
2. Slice the pads into strips.
3. Cook in boiling water for about 20 minutes
4. Drain well in a colandar at least 5 minutes. They have a slippery interior a bit like aloe and you are cooking and draining some of that off.
5. Place the cooked, drained strips in a bowl and add, chopped onions, cilantro, tomatoes, chopped jalapeno chilis, and salt.
Delicious. Nopals are an hightly nutricious vegetable with many additional properties like lowering cholesterol. 

King William Art Show

On Saturday, April 16, Susan White and I showed the rugs at the King William Art and Craft Show in San Antonio. This was a special honor since usually you must be the artist to exhibit your work. But do to the help of Rose  Kanusky and Max Martinez we were invited to participate since they understand the project and want to help rural Mexican communities. We sold 13 rugs most importantly Bonifacia's Wedding Rug!! And we won "Best of Show". Note the ribbon above our heads. I am thrilled.

Pictured: Rose, Charlotte, Susan.

From the show I drove to San Miguel were I am now nerviously waiting for 3:00 when I will give my yearly lecture on the "The Guide to Semana Santa" taken from my book about same. Tears from the Crown of Thorns.
Tomorrow is a big art craft show at the art school in San Miguel. Las Rancheritas will be exhibing there so I will bring them their money from San Antonio. On Sat I'll head out to the village to deliver the huge load of wool I have in my car, donations for all of you especially from the Yellow Rose Rug Camp. I'll take photos of the distribution and post them here.