Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Pueblo Grande Museum ~ Ancient Technology Day ~ Part V

I'm winding down my day at the Pueblo Grande Museum. Of all of the ancient technologies I experienced, there is one that is near and dear to my heart. The wonderful, essential art of spinning and weaving. I guess that's really two, but together they form fibers that have been used to make tools, hunt, gather, and to protect people from the elements.

The fiber arts were represented by the TelaraƱa Weavers and Spinners Guild who had a display of cotton and early spindles. Many people don't realize the range of natural colors that come from different varieties of cotton plants.

In addition to this display, they made box looms to teach how to warp and weave. When I first approached their exhibit, It was busy with excited kids. A young girl proudly held up her finished fabric. One of the guild members showed her how she could sew the sides to make it into a small purse. It was so fun to see all the kids, parents too, connecting to my favorite ancient technology.

Here's a picture of one of the box looms. This is a great way to make a simple loom. Any shoebox can become a creative activity.

I love that they've used lots of color and even added the textured fringe in the middle. That fringe is created by making rya knots. "A Rya is a traditional Scandinavian rug. The name originates from a village in southwest Sweden. The term rya may also refer to a breed of sheep
whose wool is used to make rya carpets."

(Wikipedia was used as a source for this article.)

2 comments:

Pueblo Grande Museum said...

Wow! We loved all of your blog articles about our Ancient Technology Day! Reading about how much you and your family learned and enjoyed yourselves at the event warms our hearts! We are so excited to know that all the time and effort we and our demonstrators put into the event is appreciated and enjoyed! Thanks again for sharing those wonderful stories and pictures with your friends and family, and we hope to see you all at this year's Ancient Technology Day on March 10th, where we'll have even more going on as this year's event is part of the Arizona SciTech Festival!

Jenn said...

I'm glad you liked my articles and we really did have a fun day! I'll mark my calendar for this year's event! I'm sure my boys will love the SciTech Festival too!