CO-CREATING WITH WEAVERS

The PALLAY weavers are all Quechua-speaking women of different ages and living in the high Andean areas of the Incas’ Sacred Valley in Cusco. Something they all have in common in their willingness to continue weaving and be open to innovate in their colors, combinations and designs is to maintain this ancestral textile technique alive. Since 2014 we have been working with them in a very thorough way to co-create new ways to combine the colors of natural dyes to make the looms more valuable. It is a team effort, where the language is no longer an impediment to create unique designs with the looms.

Basilia, makes magic with the “Kiko Kiko” roots, which creates – when boiled with the wool already washed, wonderful shades of turquoise and celestial!  

Luisa, with the “Uchu” roots and herbs, creates beautiful and different shades of yellow. 

Elizabeth, creates the color red with the “Cochineal”, which is a white and chubby aphid, a parasite that needs plants like cactus to live. The cochineal blood is very intense and thanks to it, we can obtain different ranges of red, pink and purple.