Ethnic folk art weaving
SEPTEMBER 2017 | Lorraine Clarke
FOR A LADY WHO does not drive, Laverne Waddington has certainly traversed more of this planet than most.
She was born in India and raised in Sydney, and has spent all her adult life travelling the most far-flung parts of the earth, notably those with glorious vistas of natural beauty, traditional ethnic communities, and mountain peaks that challenge her trekking skills. She has visited all 7 continents, including two trips to Antarctica, backpacked her way through various Asian countries, explored the spectacular parks, fjords and glaciers of Tierra del Fuego on foot, and trekked the highlands of Peru and Bolivia.
After living for several years at the southernmost windblown tip of Chile, she settled in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which she describes as a humid city of 1 million with a small-town ambience. “We feel as though, if we all went to sleep for two days, the jungle would swallow us up.”
Wherever Laverne travels,she carries works in progress of her other great love, backstrap weaving. Any free time is consumed with weaving small projects such as purses and bookmarks in complementary warp-faced designs that easily fit into her backpack, and serve as bartering objects and mementos for people she meets. She originally learned this ancient craft from indigenous weavers in the highlands of South America, and it has since become a consuming passion for her. Many primitive cultures around the globe use identical techniques to produce the hard-wearing warp-faced weaving which lends itself to striking designs and dazzling colours peculiar to each region, and Laverne incorporates South American, Asian, African and Celtic designs into her own work.
Laverne now makes her living by teaching backstrap weaving classes around the globe. Deloraine was recently graced by her expertise in a workshop run by the Tasmanian Spinners’, Weavers’ & Dyers’ Guild. Over two days, 8 keen students emulated the course of 6-year-old Bolivian girls who, out on the mountain slopes tending their family’s flock of sheep, begin weaving narrow ribbons of fine, tightly-plied homespun wools. They progress through a range of simple patterns which are the building blocks eventually combined to form complex designs on the larger items they will later need to weave for their families, such as shawls, bags, carrying cloths, belts and even llama harnesses. The components of these little girls’ weaving can be stowed in a pocket, for threads take up little space, and adjustable tension is applied to the warp between a string around her waist, the other end secured on a big toe. The weaver herself actually becomes part of her weaving loom. Deft fingers pick up different coloured warp threads in set patterns and beat down the weft.
After mastering the techniques of the simplest “ch’oro” pattern, Deloraine’s weavers soon progressed to using the heavier backstrap and wooden rods on which wider pieces are woven, winding their own warps for wider bands, and incorporating other pick-up patterns that can be flipped, reversed and mirrored to create strikingly colourful Andean pebble weave designs. These basic principles, homegrown materials and portable tools are all that is and has ever been required by weavers in ethnic communities the world over, to produce all the cloth and straps used in their daily lives. The embellishment of their weaving with geometric or pictorial designs from their immediate surroundings, coloured with vibrant natural dyes, goes beyond mere functionality, serving to unify and identify their familial and geographic ties, and expressing the creative talent of the artisan.
Little wonder that Laverne proclaims herself “Passionate about backstrap weaving”! She has inspired local weavers with a taste of this technique, and will soon be returning to improve their skills. Laverne has authored two books and made a DVD teaching her craft, which can be accessed through her website and many blogs at https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com.
Photo | Mike Moores
