On Thursday I headed up to Pamplona Alta by bus with my friend Jean to meet with a group of women at Mision Nazareno. Across from the church, a house had been torn down leaving the shell and interior remains. This is part of the grit of Peru Ian and I often mention. I find the piles of trash, the untended gardens, and the dog leavings difficult to view each day. My eye has not yet learned to edit out the ugly and see beyond it. Some days I find myself searching for the lovely, the beautiful, the hopeful. On Thursday I found it in the Arpillera work of these talented women.
Three days a week Jean unlocks the door of the church and welcomes a group of women to a time of sewing, listening and sharing. This work provides a livelihood for the women. Some have added bathrooms to their homes, laid tile floors in their entryways, and one even put her son through law school. For many, this is the only source of income for their family.
Jean coaches the women in their designs and suggests changes when the colors don't quite work, or the work does not match the order. In this picture, Angelica is finishing up some bags depicting farm scenes. They are lined with fabric, have interior pockets and are closed at the top with velcro. Arpillera pieces are sold to churches in the States and England and to people like Ian and me. I have a toilet roll cover that would make Kimberly Clark proud!
When I visited, we looked at a glasses case I had that also had a zipper on the side to provide storage for cell phone, keys, and money. The women were going to make up a copy to add to their designs. Here they have finished cell phone and glasses cases and oven mitts. The little stuffed dolls and vegetables are made separately and then stitched onto the backing fabric. With needle and thread, the women add short stitches to show expression and add texture. The result is colorful and three dimensional. Each creation begs to be touched. I made certain my hands were clean! I asked one artist how long it took to create the oven mitts and she said a day; the glasses cases take about 4 or 5 hours. The women work in their homes and bring their finished projects along to the church. Usually, they spend their time at the church adding finishing touches or asking Jean for advice about design questions.
Jean works on this piece to help the women decide where to put the dolls. It was a custom hanging to be given as a gift. Each of the three dolls represented a woman known to the recipient.
When I looked at this wall hanging for a nursery, I was confused by the little animals and objects within each pocket. There was no correspondence in English or Spanish. I said nothing, but when Jean returned to the work room I asked her about it. "Oh," she said, "that is going to Holland. Those correspond to the Dutch words." My appreciation rose.
Sometimes the women ask for help in deciding where to put pieces, such as the lost sheep in this hanging called Jesus the Good Shepherd. The artist will add a Jesus figure, stitching detail and some leaves for the tree. One woman had a purple cow in a design that just wasn't working. She was advised to replace the purple with another fabric.
As the women worked, I walked around admiring their ability to do such detailed work. I felt clumsy in comparison. I asked one woman to show me how the little dolls were made. Their little heads are made with a small piece of fabric stuffed with a tiny wad of batting and then wrapped with thread to create a sphere. From there, other body parts are added and stitched on. No one uses glue for assembly; it is all with needle and thread.
Arpillera is not unique to Peru, I found out. It exists in a number of South American and Central American countries. The scenes generally represent community life and/or religious themes. In the tourist markets around Lima you can buy Arpillera pieces, but the quality varies. The women at Mision Nazareno produce work of the highest quality.
This hanging is the finished version of Jesus the Good Shepherd. He is the doll figure in the middle; the sun is rising behind mountains and three dimensional sheep dot the meadow in the foreground.
I loved the color of these parrots on the glasses case. This artist had chosen the fabric, stitched it on and added puffy leaves to the branches to give the piece wonderful texture. Her work is of such high quality!Jean and I left the church with the women around six o'clock. She had ended the time together with a prayer circle where we prayed for some of the concerns the women had raised. Earlier, as the women worked, she had read aloud from Little House in the Big Woods. As she read, she translated the words into Spanish. The women enjoyed the reading and were caught up in this chapter about a bear visiting the farm. At the end I shared in my broken Spanish about a black bear which had visited our house in Vermont. I would love to establish rapport with these women and spend more time with them. Let's see where this leads!
News flash: For those of you in the USA, here is a note from Cindy Rawn about how to find out more about this ministry. I did not know about this wonderful name for the group, nor how to contact the Texas folks supporting this ministry. The Body of Christ is amazing! Cindy's comment:
Thank you for highlighting the remarkable women who make up Threads of Hope, the non-profit that supports Jean and 22 artisans of our sewing groups! I hope anyone interested in learning more about how to purchase or support Threads of Hope will visit our website at www.tohteaxs.org, or email me at threadsofhope@gmail.com.
God bless,
Cinde Rawn, Director
Threads of Hope
972.809.7500
Please read the third comment, too, about the history of this project. I cut and pasted it in comments.
4 comments:
Thank you for highlighting the remarkable women who make up Threads of Hope, the non-profit that supports Jean and 22 artisans of our sewing groups! I hope anyone interested in learning more about how to purchase or support Threads of Hope will visit our website at www.tohteaxs.org, or email me at threadsofhope@gmail.com.
God bless,
Cinde Rawn, Director
Threads of Hope
972.809.7500
Cindy,
I will include this info in my blog. I did not have this info at the time, nor did I know about the wonderful name, Threads of Hope. Love it!
I know you are coming to Peru this month and have but a short time with Jean at the airport. Thank you for your wonderful work.
Blessings,
Polly
HOW THE ARPILLERA PROJECT BEGAN
Some fifteen years ago, Don Juan of an NGO, founded a sewing group. He guaranteed to buy their work and sell it abroad. When I met them 2 years later, they were all sinking into the Slough of Despond, because Don Juan was paying them about 3 dollars a picture, and was ordering subjects they would rather forget, those reflecting the "reality" of their lives: land invasions where all is grey/beige sand and cardboard, landslides, traffic accidents, protest marches....... One day I found them designing larger scenes depicting family violence: children cowering in the corner while the neighbours peeped through the window. Don Juan wanted 5 from each lady in the group.
The ladies were so depressed they were considering disbanding. I offered to help them sell, but could think of no-one who would want a traffic accident on the wall, and so encouraged them to do pictures of the places they came from in Peru, Noah´s arks, etc, anything brightly coloured.
The explosion of ideas and change in style and quality was outstanding, together with a marked increase in the confidence and abilities of each lady. We moved from the NGO hut to the ladies´ own houses, where we could also have a cup of tea and discuss things in more privacy. Most family members are now involved in the work. Husbands out of work or with a little time to spare are now expert sewers, and most of the children are also making their own contribution, even if it is only 4 year-olds passing a needle or the right coloured thread.
As part of each meeting, we usually do some studying. This may concern a Biblical passage or some topic may be taken up for a series. We have done a course on self-esteem and are now working through a book on bringing up difficult children, which leads to a great deal of interesting discussion, and has changed their way of thinking. Several have attended Alpha courses over the past year, and are now members of our church. We have now changed our venue and meet in the Anglican church hall in the area where the ladies live, a much more comfortable, light and spacious place, instead of the cramped conditions we had before. It means that we have the church downstairs where we can go for individual counselling when necessary.
There are now 2 more groups, of ten and eight ladies respectively, who have been taught by members of the original group. One of these groups consists only of members of the church in whose hall we now work. The project is making an enormous difference to their lives. Alejandrina has 7 children, and the family was living in rough rooms made mostly of rush matting and had no proper toilet facilities. She now has a beautiful tiled bathroom with shower and toilet, which is her pride and joy, and several more rooms. Rosa and Edith have each built a brick house with a proper roof. They have all made some improvements to their housing, in some cases being able to buy a small plot where they can build their own house, instead of sharing with sometimes several other families.
The income has also helped with the education of their children. All school materials, and uniforms, have to be bought, and this can mean failing a course if the materials are not provided. Several of the older children have been able to do university or technical training, which would otherwise have been impossible: for example, one young man has completed his 6th and final year of basic law studies, a girl has graduated as a nurse and another as a nursing technician, another lad is finishing studying to be a mechanic etc.
More people are drawn in, who do not attend the actual group sessions, some making the small baskets or the fruits and vegetables, the dolls etc. and so these are often bought, spreading the work further afield. Often the ladies will tack the whole design together and then pass it on to an “embroiderer” who will sew round everything and then hand it back to be completed. This gives us a much wider outreach, which is the intention of the project.
What a beautiful thing! Thanks for sharing :-) I enjoyed all the wonderful photos and the story of the projects history! I was particularly tickled by the changes that were made when women were put in charge of things :-)
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