Connecting to your Heritage through Crafting

Like many crafters out there, I learned most everything I know about sewing, knitting and wielding a hot glue gun from my mother and grandmother. In every piece you make, there is a link connecting you with those teachers and also with your ancestors and heritage. This is the idea behind the Brooklyn based studio Weaving Hand. NY Daily News just wrote a great feature about them:

"For aspiring Martha Stewart types, there is a new craft to tackle in the city....Weaving Hand, an art studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn, teaches weaving techniques from Latin America with a focus on styles from Central America and the Andes. 'These are ancient traditions, usually passed on to young girls from an early age,' said owner Cynthia Alberto. 'Here we are giving students a chance to connect to these old traditions."

The studio offers courses and drop-in lessons for adults and children of all levels. A kid's weaving camps is being offered in the summer months. For those who appreciate the art but lack the patience or creativity, Alberto has set up in her studio a small fair-trade boutique that sells woven goods from Panama and from a women’s cooperative in Guatemala.

Where did you learn to weave, knit, sew, screen print, crochet, cut, paste and glue?

Credit: Elissa Strauss

7 Comments

I taught myself using books and the fine folks at Threadbanger! My great-grandmother is a hardcore knitter and my great-aunt is a quilter (I have tried my hand at both, but I'm not NEARLY as good.), but both of them live in other states. My mother missed the crafting gene entirely. She can't even sew a button back on. She passes that stuff off to me. I took up knitting when I was a kid, but have recently been inspired to quilt. I'm working on my third queen-sized bed quilt sewn entirely by hand. I'd been saving for a machine, but I've joined the ranks of the unemployed, so my machine fund went to rent. Boo.
posted 5 months ago by Then Stina Says Reply to comment
My Dad taught me how to re-attach my first button!
posted 5 months ago by carwinian Reply to comment
I kinda "inherit" if you will all these abilitys from my grama. She use to cast her own porcelen doll faces and make the bodys out of left over clothes and hand painted their sweet faces...she pretty much could do it all! She also taught me the right way to sew in her 1953 (i think) antique Singer...the ones with the long push pedal...it was awsome!!!
posted 5 months ago by gothictany Reply to comment
My mom :P She has been teaching me sewing, knitting and other diy forever
posted 5 months ago by GriffinArt Reply to comment
- Mine too :0D She did everything DIY. She used to make our clothes for me and my sister when we were younger. She even made my Holy Communion dress (and vail) from a Simplicity pattern! I learned by watching her and asking ALOT of questions. She also taught me the basics of crocheting (how to hold the hook, chain stitches, etc.) which I later used as a foundation to crochet. She also taught me to use (and reuse) what we had around us. We were recycling before it became hip! :0)
  posted 5 months ago by Applez357
Sewing in school- Home Ec class, cooking, school & my Mom, all the rest on my own... seems, at least in my family, craftiness was every OTHER generation ! My grandmother sewed, knitted, etc.... but, my Mom, who cam of age in the 30s, was a "modern" woman... they BOUGHT things, cuz they didn't "need" to make them like their mothers ! And, then I came of age in the 60s and totally embraced the DIY back to earth ethos !
posted 5 months ago by Maureclaire Reply to comment
Knit and crochet from my Gran. Sew from my Gran + Mum. Weaving at school. DIY from husband. Screen print: yet to tackle...! Paste + glue: from Mum. Love this post!
posted 5 months ago by Jo Spittler (guest) Reply to comment