Have sticks, will travel here, there and everywhere! Laverne Waddington is passionate about backstop weaving. Born in India, raised in Australia, she now lives in South America. In 1998, she moved to land locked Santa Cruz in Bolivia — a large city with a small town feel. Life in Santa Cruz, Bolivia is simple and laid back despite the crazy traffic and the blaring tropical rhythms. It is a perfect base from which Waddington travels and continues learning to weave, braid and spin as it shares borders with Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Since moving there, she has continued to travel and learn to weave in Ecuador, Guatemala and beyond.
Waddington keeps journals in which she has meticulously documented all the techniques she has learned here over the years with diagrams and step-by-step photos and it is only recently that she have found a forum in which to share all this with other weavers around the world. Visit her blog (http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/about/) and let her tell you about her life in Santa Cruz and her weaving and learning experiences. She is the author of Andean Pebble Weave, a monograph on one of the many techniques she has learned in her travels.
The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Aptos Village Park. See the guild web page for directions — www.santacruzhandweavers.org