Andean hand weaving has been through thousands of years of evolution, it was a human answer to specific environmental circumstance. It has likewise become an answer to my environmental circumstance, the root to my creative expression. As an adolescent, the weaving technique, language and identity were passed on to me from my Aymara grandma in Peru.

 

 

TRADITIONAL AYMARA WEAVING

The High Altiplano region where it developed is predominantly in Peru and Bolivia. It was in this region that
millennial weaving traditions were developed by untold numbers of skilled hands over thousands of years.

The people Indigenous to this area survived in their cold highland environment by domesticating the South American camuloids, the Llama and Alpaca, along with their smaller relatives, the Vicuña and Guanaco. These animals’ wool is now revered the world over for the fine fiber and cloth it produces.