|
 I
warn you that this is an unexpected and incongruous
story full of curious juxtapositions, but sometimes
that’s how life is, stranger than fiction. It
starts about twenty years ago when we were still living
in England. We have always been very interested in spinning,
weaving, dyeing cloth, and making costume. At that time
we had been finding out about spinning wheels by using
a variety of types of spinning wheels we had borrowed
from friends. From this experience, we developed our
own ideas on how to make a very simple, elemental, lightweight,
portable spinning wheel.
At that time we were building a
paper boat, but more about that later. We were living
on the wooded slopes of the Cotswolds. I found that
someone had cut up a wild cherry tree for firewood in
the nearby woods. Since I felt that this beautiful wood
seemed worthy of a finer destiny, I carried the best
logs back to camp and made it into the spinning wheel
that we had been planning. I made the wheel so that
it could be quickly dismantled and packed into a handy
camel saddlebag. It was a kind of distillation of all
we had ever learnt about spinning wheels. It weighed
12 pounds and was a present to ourselves for the Christmas
of 1980. We christened the new wheel ‘Trillis’.
It took us 2 1/2 years to complete
our 32 foot catamaran Taulua. We sailed from Bristol,
England in 1982, sailing south to the Canary Islands,
and then West across the Atlantic to the Americas. We
stayed 9 months in Panama, living mostly on an island
off the Pacific coast. We were 4 years in Costa Rica
where we rented a boat yard, built masts, sailing fishing
boats, and fished. Then we were two years in Nicaragua
where we chartered our boat and generally got on very
well with the Sandinista government. We arrived in Mexico
in 1990 and made our way up the Pacific coast visiting
all the ports and beaches.
When we reached Puerto Vallarta
we stopped to make some money repairing sails and doing
carpentry jobs. I was going round the boats in Nuevo
Vallarta talking to the skippers and asking who had
any sewing or carpentry to be done when one skipper
asked me out of the blue, “Can you by any chance
make me a spinning wheel” How could he ever have
known? Well of course we had Trillis packed up in the
camel bag and securely stowed in the starboard bow of
Taulua. I invited him to come round in the evening to
see it.
He was a North American called Dug
who had a small spinning, dying and weaving factory
in Oaxaca. The problem was that his industrial spinning
equipment wouldn’t handle the local wool. His
complaint was that the Mexicans didn’t shear their
sheep just once a year like everyone else, but whenever
they felt like it. A birthday, a marriage, Christmas,
need some money? Go and shear some sheep! The consequence
of all this shearing is of course, very short wool;
too short for Doug’s machine. The indomitable
Doug therefore put the wool through his carders and
combers and produced barrels of sliver that he delivered
to an indigenous community where they spun it in a kind
of cottage industry. They used the “great wheel”
which has to be turned with one hand and is therefore
slower to operate than the treadle powered spinning
wheel that leaves both hands free to spin continuously.
Dug wanted to boost production by introducing the treadle
spinning wheel, so he was delighted that evening when
we demonstrated Trillis. We agreed to make him two machines
and he put down a 50 peso deposit. The next day he sailed
on Southward and I don’t know if he really thought
that he’d ever see us again.
 Meanwhile
we had made friends with a Huichol Indian who sold his
artwork in Puerto Vallarta and who often came to stay
with us on our catamaran. When we had made enough money
we went to visit him in the Sierra where we meet his
mother. There we saw the very fine and beautiful woolen
thread that she spun and plied up to weave pouches and
belts for her family. All this she did with nothing
more than a spindle, but it took her months to do it.
In fact, it took her longer to spin her yarn than to
weave it. We realized what a difference a good spinning
wheel would make to her. If anyone deserved one, she
did, and we resolved to make her one.
Living in the big marina was expensive,
so as soon as we had finished our sail–making
stint we looked for a free anchorage. Trouble was that
we had passed into the hurricane zone. In this part
of the world, when the rainy season begins in June one
either moves out or anchors in the security of a ‘hurricane
hole’. The Bay of Baderas is a safe place, but
outside of the marinas, there are very few places to
anchor, but one such place is La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.
At that time the inner harbor of La Cruz was still quite
deep enough for small sailing boats and it was a truly
excellent anchorage. It was so protected and calm that
we considered it one of the best harbors we had come
across.
On the morning of our first day
in La Cruz as we breakfasted, I was wondering how on
earth I was going to find a local wood suitable for
steam bending to make the spinning wheels. I couldn’t
think because of an annoying noise in the background
and I cursed. Then I realized that the noise was from
a chain saw! I left my breakfast right then and there
to paddle ashore to find the scene of activity before
the guiding noise would stop. Someone was cutting down
a fruit tree. I could see that it was a beautiful wood
and definitely seemed worthy of a finer destiny than
to be burnt. Just as I had finished convincing the owner
of the tree to give me a log I heard another awful din.
It was the whine of a circular saw, so I hurried across
to the other side of the village where I found the source
of the noise and discovered the village carpenter. I
couldn’t have been more fortunate because he became
very enthusiastic about making spinning wheels and offered
me the use of his workshop. So that was how it all began.
 It
was a lot of hard work in the humid heat of the Mexican
summer. Gradually the wheels took shape but all too
rapidly we became completely broke. However, we made
friends with the family that made the fresh drinks and
ice cream that we appreciated so much, and they lent
us enough money to keep going. Finishing the spinning
wheels seemed to be an interminable job. We were forever
rowing back and forth from Taulua to the shore since
much of the fine work we did afloat because the carpenter’s
shop was often very busy.
We wanted to deliver the spinning
wheels ourselves to show Dug’s spinners how to
use the new machines. Then another piece of the jigsaw
puzzle fell into place, we made friends with an Iranian
called Hussein who invited us to join him on a camping
trip to Oaxaca. We drove with him to the other end of
Mexico. Five days later, we delivered the spinning wheels
and Aruna could show the spinners how to use them. Meanwhile
Hussein had run out of time and almost at once we were
off again!
Soon after our return we met a functionary
of the local government. He was the co–coordinator
for the development of crafts in the state of Nayarit
where we are. He liked Trellis enough to ask us to make
5 more spinning wheels to be ready for the state fair,
‘La Feria de la Mexicanidad’. This was due
to begin in only two months so we had to be quick. By
this time I had begun to modify Trillis to make it more
massive and sturdy. I had noticed how the Indians of
Oaxaca kept their spinning wheels in the courtyard with
the chickens, pigs, and even donkeys which came trotting
past. I noticed the more massive construction of their
other artifacts and got the message: “for this
purpose the spinning wheel didn’t have to be collapsible
so much as bomb–proof”. I also noticed how
the people liked turned wood so I introduced some turning
into the now much more massive post. Often we had to
improvise, and I mexicanised the flier unit because
the original brass unit would have been too expensive.
Instead I bought locally made wooden stirrups which
are from strips of a special wood that had been steam
bent into a U–shape. One stirrup sliced in two
and tidied up makes a pair of good-looking fliers.
 By
now we were beginning to know the local woods. The wood
most commonly used for steam bending is Guacimo. It
bends excellently but is very light. Really, I wanted
to use a heavier wood not only to be tougher, but also
to give the wheel more momentum when it spun. Everyone
spoke in awe of a small tree called Cuate that is very
strong, hard, and heavy and doesn’t rot or gets
eaten by bugs. It is reputed to steam bend beautifully.
I went exploring in the hi lls and found a man who would
get me the straight posts I needed. He promised to send
me word. Well, eventually the word came and we went
with a friend who has a pickup truck, but there was
no wood! The problem? The army was all over the hills
looking for marijuana. Anything could happen to the
poor soul found up there! He wasn’t just making
excuses; we could see the army helicopters buzzing about.
By now time was getting on and we
couldn’t make another trip to the hills so we
had to use another wood. Fortunately, we had a contingency
plan. My inquires had aroused the interest of a farmer
in our village when I had been asking about woods that
could be steam bent. Almost everyday he’d bring
me back a branch of another tree that he reckoned would
be a good wood to bend. Before long I was inundated
with all these samples, so I cut them into strip and
steam bent them all. The best wood was a common weed
tree called Juan Perez. Then we set off on horseback
into the ‘monte’ to fetch logs of Juan Perez.
While all this had been going on
we had at last been able to make a proper mould with
which to steam bend the wheels. The old way to make
a wooden wheel was to cut quadrants out of a board and
to then join them together to make the complete circle.
But these wheels are not very strong or stable. With
the advent of plywood and composites it is now more
common to cut a disc out of such a sheet. But these
wheels tend to be rather thin and lightweight, and just
plain ugly. The best method is to steam bend battens
into hoops, and then to laminate the hoops together
to give the thickness required. This makes a wide strong
and stable heavy wheel which will spin with plenty of
momentum, and it can be made without wasting any wood.
With good organization steam bending can be very quick
and efficient, but it all depends on having a good mould
to bend the wood around.
The first wh eels we had made on
a mould improvised from the rim of a car wheel. Now
we wanted to make a proper bending jig. This would need
machine workshop facilities and that could be expensive.
However we found that this apparently sleepy and forgotten
village of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle was actually very
well endowed with just about everything. For example,
tucked away out of sight at the back of the village,
unbeknown to us, was a sizeable school of fishers. We
found this school to be well equipped with a good machine
workshop. At that time, the president of the school
was Tapia Sandoval and he gave us permission to use
the school workshops.
We found a suitable iron wheel.
It was one of those wide flat cast iron pulley wheels
that were once used to drive belt driven machinery.
In the workshop we adapted it and made the rollers and
the bending jig from the drawings I had made. Then we
were ready to go into mass production.
Now we had the materials but we were losing badly in
the race against time to be ready for the fair. Only
by working day and night did we managed to get the first
two spinning wheels ready for the beginni ng of the
fair. Aruna took them to Tepic while I completed the
other three and brought them up a few days later.
The fair lasted three weeks and
was a good opportunity for us to contact a wide spectrum
of the Mexican public. We met many Huichol and Cora
Indians who were fascinated by the spinning wheels but
very shy. Too shy to try one. However, I found that
their children were often bold enough to sit and treadle
the wheel. I’d get them to ply some wool and then
leave them tread ling the wheel. If I peeked back later,
mum would be sitting there happily tread ling away at
the wheel, a little stiff and awkward as all people
are at first, but mastering it.
Everyone was fascinated by the wheel
and as soon as Aruna sat down to spin a crowd would
gather. She sold one wheel to a Mexican lady, but it
was really the indigenous people who wanted them. Even
though we were selling the spinning wheels very cheaply
we realized there would be few Coras or Huichols who
could afford to buy one. Especially since they are such
a traditional people with an extremely cautious attitude
to new things.
The money we were selling the spinning
wheels for wasn’t nearly enough to cover the costs.
This we had realized when we started so we had been
selling T–shirts we had printed with designs from
Huichol yarn paintings. We took our printing machine
with us to the fair where we made another demonstration
out of silkscreen printing, but this one was a moneymaker.
 Financially,
it was the T–shirts that carried the day. For
the previous two months, while we had been making this
new batch of spinning wheels we had had to borrow money
once again from all our friends in the village. After
the fair in Tepic we returned to our little village
victorious. We paid back everyone and still had something
left for Christmas. Already my little daughter had her
hearts desire, a bicycle.
Nowadays the Huichol tend
to use acrylic fiber, which they can buy, in all the
neighboring towns in a wide variety of colors. It is
sold unplied so they always have to ply it, even those
who use artificial fiber instead of wool. Acrylic costs
the equivalent of 7 U.S. dollars per kilo. We bought
a fleece of wool in the Sierra that cost 5 dollars for
a whole fleece of about 2 kilos. Articles woven from
wool sell for about twice the price of those made from
acrylic fiber. This means that for almost a third the
price something twice as valuable is produced.
While we see that the Huichol have
precious little in the way of warm clothes. There is
a tendency for well meaning North Americans to give
them old clothes. Suddenly one can come across a bunch
of Huichols in cast off Mickey Mouse sweaters, a horrible
contrast to what they would otherwise wear. Our preference
is to do what we can to make the weaving of cloth for
clothes as quick and efficient as possible. I am sure
that the key lies in the ability to prepare good woolen
yarn quickly, and this is where the spinning wheel can
have an important role to play.
Archives
by date
| 
Current
Weather Report
