Orchids and Ikat Weaving

 

Due to there being lots of visitors wanting to see things, and also us, who haven’t yet seen too many things, we decided to join forces and have a day to see some local things of interest.

The 8 of us hired a little bus/van and driver for the day and piled in.

Our first port of call was an ikat weaving workshop. It was run by a husband and wife and they had maybe 3 employees.

The main workshop area is downstairs and the shop and a smaller working area is upstairs

 

 

This loom had a fairly coarse wool, and as far as we could work out, the finished product would be used to cover mattresses or cushions

 

At the start of the weaving process - these 2 girls were organising the thread prior to setting up the design for the weaving

Weaving in action – a pretty painstaking process

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A work in progress …

This is a loom and seat/back support all in one – the weight of the weaver on the  leather “back support” keeps the weaving tight

Mucho rustico

The weaver’s wife displaying an item made at the workshop

Finishing the edges

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Here the thread has been divided into sections, and they have tied parts of it very tightly with string.  When put through the dying process, the parts protected by the string retain the original colour – rather like tie-dying

Looking from the rear of the workshop towards the main road

The husband stopped what he was doing and came down to give us a guided tour, in Spanish, of course, so some of our group (but not us!) had a go at translating.

He explained how they did things and showed us the various processes involved.

It was interesting how they get the various colours – they use such things as cinnamon sticks, walnuts in their shells (these give earthy/ochre colours), cochineal bugs, crushed, which gives red, and by the addition of baking soda and some other things, it changes the colours again. Blue/indigo they buy from Cuba and the grey comes from certain rocks.

Explaining how they get the colours for the dyeing – Janel (far right) is being our trusty translator

Dyed threads hanging up to dry

 

 

When they had showed us how it was all done (but much too briefly for my liking), we went into the “shop” where there are various items for sale made in the workshop. The man was very enthusiastic about us putting on various items, such as ponchos, scarves, etc that they made there.

We check out the items for sale

Emma is wearing a typical skirt worn by Quichua women in the Cuenca area.  And a fancy shawl for special occasion wear.  Can’t say I have ever seen anyone wearing a hat like that though!!

This style of cape/poncho is probably made for tourists – it is not worn by indigenous people

Brendan models a typical poncho

Janel is wearing this season’s latest – and there’s that hat again!!

And Sutton wears a shawl that was made around 100 years ago, made by a relative of the owner.  The white section is very intricate - possibly some kind of tiny knotting or lace work

After the ikat weaving, we went to a little town called Chordeleg which is well known for silver jewellery. We went our various ways with the plan to meet back at 12 o’clock. Brendan and I and Tania (Aussie sister in our cong who lives close to us) and her Dad (visiting from Queensland) had a quick look around, but decided that coffee was more of a necessity. We eventually found a coffee place downstairs (coffee shops are certainly not on every corner in Ecuador), decorated with lots of wood, and surprisingly, little pictures of kangaroos. Tania asked the man who ran the place about the kangaroos, and he said when he was young he used to run so fast they gave him the nickname “kangaroo”.

Notice the little kangaroo on the wall between us

Then we went to an orchid place. There were all sorts of orchids, and we got to tour the facility where they grow the orchids from seed through the various stages until they are big enough for sale, and then to a lovely display area complete with ponds and rivers.

 

Janel in the showroom where you can purchase orchids.  I saw more different varieties of orchids here than I’ve seen anywhere

Orchid babies in bottles (this provides the right environment for them to grow)

Adolescent orchids

This was one of my favourites

A living wall of orchids

Brendan in the orchid garden – standing on a bridge over a little river

Another family portrait …

 

Yes, this one does look rather like a monkey!

Tania and her Dad and Brendan in the orchid garden

Here’s trouble!

These two should have interesting coloured babies!

By this time, we were starving and so drove to a place known for pork, for the eating of. It’s probably a bit like a food court, but not a modern Ecuadorian food court like they have in the new shopping malls; and you have the choice of pork or pork. There were so many women selling pork, and they all offer you some to try for free before you make your choice on who you will buy from. Maybe if you tried some from everyone, you’d have had your fill and wouldn’t have to make a choice!

When it’s rainy, the indigenous women cover their hats with plastic bags – better that than a soggy hat!

This is the lady we got our pork from – there are numerous identical stalls here.  Those are little round potato patties on the right – cooked in pig fat, of course

 

We sat up in the top area to eat our pork – stalls below selling items – some were not in use.  On the right hand side on ground level was a stall with most of a cow hanging up

 

The remains of lunch

So that’s what happened to the little piggy who went to market!

We had hoped to check out the hat-making, but ran out of time. Hopefully we will do that on a future adventure.