Follow the Thread 2: Textile Tours and Traditional Craft

This program was hosted by Weave A Real Peace (www.weavearealpeace.org) in July of 2024.
This panel featured WARP Members who give textile-focused tours. Each has designed adventures to broaden the perspectives of textile lovers while simultaneously helping to promote and sustain traditional craftspeople and their skills.
Above the Fray leads small-group tours for textile enthusiasts to visit with and learn directly from traditional textile artists in hill tribe Laos and Vietnam. The cultural venture offers hands-on workshops led by regional, independent experts in their own villages including: wax resist batik, hemp processing, indigo dyeing, Hmong and Yao embroidery, silk reeling, natural dyeing with silk, cotton processing and ikat tying, Lao/Tai silk weaving, and Katu backstrap weaving.
WARP Member Carol Hayman leads tours in Peru to Lima and Ayacucho. On these tours, participants visit museums and craftspeople in Lima, then fly to the lovely mountain town of Ayacucho to visit with artisan families, like Hojalateria Araujo, the award-winning workshop famous for tin candleholders; Professor Agripino Huaman Palomino, for delicate silver and gold filigree jewelry; and weavers of the Santa Ana barrio to watch them dye and weave.
Mayan Hands organizes tours to visit and learn from our talented artisan partners in the Guatemalan highlands. Our immersive tour experiences include visits and meals shared in artisans’ homes and expert demonstrations of craft techniques including numerous region-specific weaving techniques, needle felting, jaspe (ikat), basket weaving and more. At the heart of our tour program is meaningful cross-cultural exchange, creating a platform for our artisan partners to share their skills and stories with an appreciative community of international visitors.