about the field trip...

... that started with the mailed out flyer about special events on the Emory University campus during fall semester. The exhibit I wanted see (long before I fell and broke my arm, resulting in semi-disability) was textiles from Central America. Specifically: amazingly detailed work done by Native Americans. Well worth the trip. On display through the middle of December. I knew waiting another month was not wise, as I have vast experience in The Art of Procrastination.

I actually got much more than I bargained for, as the exhibit included carefully preserved hand woven fabrics from centuries past. There are places in the high dry desert of south America, Peru if I am remembering right, where mummified internments have been found from thousands of years ago. I'm sure there is research out there, readily available at your fingertips about fairly recent discoveries of native burial sites. It seems like I recall having read articles with detailed descriptions, and photos of indigenous peoples, complete with funerary offerings to provide archaeologists with a wealth of information. Perfectly preserved in an arid climate, dressed in their traditional garb for eternity, then found hundreds of years later, leaving students of those ancient cultures with more questions than answers.

The fabrics they were wearing, or used to make bags, baskets or other storage vessels were woven from natural fibers, gathered by locals, or received from afar as trade goods. Baskets and other containers, carefully woven with remarkably intricate designs, and clothing incorporating feathers from native birds. Amazingly complicated patterns depicting animals, and scenes from their natural environment. Carefully planned color schemes using materials they had at hand, or fibers available through established trade routes from different peoples/climates hundreds of miles away.

There were embroidery pieces so meticulously done as to be works of art all these hundreds of years later. Done by very experienced hands exhibiting great skill, using what we would consider to be rudimentary materials and primitive tools. Showing painstaking devotion to their work, and great patience in every minute stitch. Tiny decorative chain-stitching with a single thin thread meticulously done to perfection that far exceeds my handiwork.