Sacred Treasures from the Sacred Valley of Peru
I was told Nildaʼs mother had been beautiful in her youth. Thatʼs how Wade Davis, acclaimed anthropologist and fellow Curator on Source4Style remembers her: Tall, stately and particularly elegant…unusual, perhaps, for a farmerʼs daughter from Chinchero.
“I donʼt believe I met her,” I said to him. Though upon perusal of my photos from the day at Chincheroʼs Center for Traditional Textiles, he stopped upon the steadfast stare of a woman now fully grayed and beautifully weathered – furrowed and tanned from the Peruvian sun. “That is her,” he said. “That, my dear, is Nildaʼs mother.”
I could see Nilda in her motherʼs liquid brown eyes. She shared that same intensity, the same straightforward gaze as the woman whose skills she seeks to preserve.
Nilda Callunaupa Alvarez has been described by her friends as a “force of nature.” As the Director of the CTTC – or The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco – Nilda provides the template for the revival of Peruʼs rich textile heritage. Though you can visit her store a few miles from the cobbled streets of Cusco, Iʼd highly recommend traveling through the winding roads of the Sacred Valley and settle upon her cooperative of women in Chinchero, just a stones throw away from where Nilda was raised. Over thirty women come to work there, drop spinning alpaca fiber purchased from local farmers; collecting plants and cochineal beetles for dyeing; back-strap looming belts, shawls and modern day table runners; and even logging in and pricing out inventory. Yes, clearly it is a model system for the preservation of an historic craft that can be long forgotten.
Though thirty women call the Center “home” in Chinchero, Nilda works with over three hundred women across the boldly beautiful Peruvian landscape – helping organize and market their traditional weaving techniques and wares through the market in Cusco and to anyone who wishes to pass through.
Preserving history does come at a price, however. “Itʼs a challenge,” she says to us. “We have a number of people who approach the CTTC to do product collaborations, but itʼs difficult for us to meet the low-cost demands since the design and labor is intensive.”
Nilda has however discovered ways to work around this. Sometimes they do less intricate weaves on the backstrap loom – or just incorporate basic detailing into a larger object – like a bag or cape. We discovered that Source4Style could also play a part in the preservation of Peruʼs rich textile history – by showcasing and selling the drop-spun yarns direct, two of which I have chosen above, one of which we learned how to dye from start to finish.
Nilda laments that after commercial chemical dyes became widely available, the dyeing of handspun yarn with natural materials disappeared from the Cusco region for almost one hundred years. Today, the CTTC boasts a rainbow of colors – from the green dye extracted from Chʼillca (a mountain flower in Quechua) or Collpa, a mineral compound found in the jungle to Qʼolle (Buddleia coriacea) that gives the brightest shade of golden yellow and orange, which we witnessed firsthand. Qaqa sunka (Tillandsia capillaris), commonly known as rock beard can give a range of colors – from oranges to sea-foam greens. Copper sulfate from above the Accha Alta is often added to bring out greenish hues; Shapy – a vine from the jungle for the pink (seen above); and cochineal (Dactylopus coccus) – the chemical extract of carminic acid from the bodies of squished female cactus scale insects – create the deep reds and purples. Blues are achieved through non-native Indigo, which can be from both Japan or India.
Flowers or other dyestuffs are placed into a large pot of boiling water and stirred with a sturdy wooden pole. Benita and I tried our hands at stirring – definitely quite laborious! Skeins of alpaca, after they have been drop-spun and stretched – are pressed into the water. When you pull the skeins up, it is not uncommon to see flowers and sticks and other plant matter stuck to the yarn. All of that is removed deftly by hand (an activity we didnʼt end up attempting). And alum or citric acid (from lemon juice) is used to affix the dye.
If you donʼt have a loom – donʼt fret! The hand-dyed yarns you’ll see soon on Source4Style are exceptionally soft due to the low micron count of alpaca fiber and are also perfect for knitting – whether it be caps, capes, scarves or dresses. Weʼd love for you to share with Source4Style your creations using Peruvian hand-spun yarns. And if you are a natural dyer, please share with the community some of your recipes. Vive Peru! ♥
