South American Pebble Weave

Day 127: A pebbled or speckled pattern in the background is characteristic of a number of different regional styles of weaving historically practiced in South America, and you will find it variously called "Guatemalan," "Bolivian," Peruvian" depending on the reference and usually with either adjective ("pebbled" or "speckled") preceding it. The geographic distinction seems to lie at least partly in the type and weight of the threads used to create the motifs, i.e., doubled threads of the same weight as used here, single threads of a heavier weight or ply and so on. In any case, the background, border and weft threads are functionally finer to allow the pattern (motif) threads to dominate the weaving. Typically, these motifs are highly stylized and elongated. The design on the left is "corn" (growing in a flower pot?) and the bird on the right appears to be a roadrunner or one of its kin. Both designs appear in "The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory" by Anne Dixon, a marvelous resource covering many different styles of inkle weaving.

Pebble is a heavily manipulated weave. On almost every row, the weaver must drop or lift pattern threads from one layer of the shed to the other. Warp floats in the motifs generally cross three weft passes, sometimes four or five (longer floats tend to snag, and are therefore not practical). The "pebbles" are picked up in the background on every other pass of the shuttle, staggered so that they do not occur one above the other in this particular style. Although this is rather time-consuming and requires the weaver's strict attention, I find it a very enjoyable process.

Field ID Fail

Day 169: When I'm tutoring people in how to do "field-guide" photography, I often use birds as an example. The same method can be applied to Meadow Rovers who are trying to educate Park visitors with respect to being able to identify those little LBJs (Little Brown Jobs) they always ask about. This is the second of a series of illustrations I'll be using in a Rover training session this June.

When observing any species of bird or plant or anything else, it is important to capture as much information as possible, whether by eye or with a camera. A bird viewed head-on supplies very little in the way of distinguishing features. You might be able to see an eye ring or breast markings, but that's often insufficient to make a solid ID. Were there bars on the wings? Was the body colouration uniform? What did the silhouette look like? Was it short and squat, or did it have a sleek outline? What shape was the beak? The famous "Angry Bluebird" is certainly a cute photo, but as far as being helpful in making an ID, it is a classic fail. A square-on side view of a bird is much more informative! Likewise, wildflower IDs often require being able to observe the leaf as well as the flower. If you can't get both in one shot, take two! That way, the ranger at the information desk will be much more likely to be able to help you.

They Always Ask

Day 168: Recently, our Meadow Rover manager asked me if I'd be willing to do a training session for Meadow Rovers on the subject of birds. Well, that's a rather broad subject! We tossed it around a bit and after some further thought on my part, I decided to go with "Helping Visitors Identify Birds." Since I am technologically challenged and have no idea how to go about setting up a Power Point presentation, I have to go at this the old-fashioned way, posters and pointy-stick. This morning, I worked on the first of several 2' x 3' cards: "BURD!" It shows an imaginary species loosely based on a passerine with various field-identification points emphasized: eyebrow, "ear", throat marking, collar, wing bars, breast markings, tail bands, etc. I nicked the basic illustration from a field guide and enlarged it with a pantograph (I told ya this was doing it the old-fashioned way), inked it with a calligraphy pen and coloured it with crayons. Doesn't look like two hours' work, but it was! I still have several other posters planned. Fortunately, I have a month to get them done!