Today we learned about the Paracas and Nasca cultures. Both are very interesting cultures that flourished primarily on the coast. The Nasca ceramics deeply influenced a phase of ceramics at Pachacamac that is characterized by a bird figure named the "Pachacamac Griffin". Because these are visually appealing pieces it may be nice to focus on a polychrome vessel of this style when attempting to virtually deconstruct an artifact or discuss it's iconography.
Then we got right into the hands on part of the class. We set up and warped our mini looms, this was much simpler than warping modern 8+ harness looms. It was interesting to see the logistics of tensioning a continuous warp (necessary for a 4 selvage textile). We did not yet deal with creating the warp selvages because a textile piece must be completed before removal from the loom. We did however ask some questions and learned about a few creative ways to create that selvage (which we will experiment with when we complete our sample piece we are adding to each day). One thing that I (Jeanette) would like to emphasize when gathering information for the public is the attachment of the warp to the loom bar by lashing so that the textile would not have to be cut and the weft could go all the way up to the selvage. This practice, while semi-simple, shows the reverence that the Inkas had for their textiles.
Today we just wove some basic plain weaves (1 over 1), and variations, as well as basket weaves (2 over 2) and variations of that. It was enlightening to see how the shed (space between warp yarns that wefts are inserted into) is meticulously picked out, yarn by yarn, with each pass of a weft yarn, as they did not use harnesses, like looms have today. These are the techniques that will be easiest to illustrate digitally and should be focused on quite soon when we have a modeler ready to undertake this part of the project.
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