We travelled to the 'Puna', a remote area of Argentina, to share a day with our Artisan Partners.
'Puna' means 'high land' in Quechua (indigenous language).
It is 3500 meters above sea level, and the drive gave us incredibly beautiful views of the Andes peaks.
We met them at their workshop where 60 women work, and were lucky enough to experience watching them produce produce our wool goods.
This process is completely handmade, requiring different steps and time frames.
Everything starts with getting the threads ready. They spin the wool to obtein the thickness that they require, depending on what they will be weaving.
They then dye the threads using vegetable dyes such as cabbage, herbs, yerba mate, etc. in different dyeing baths, and let them soak for varying amounts of time. This allows them to achieve different depths of colour. Once this process is finished, the wool threads are dried in the sun.
When the wool threads are ready to weave, they measure them to the size of the garment being made, before starting the weaving process on the loom.
After the garment is weaved, the final details and stiches are finished by hand.
Candela x
