Tapiz - Awana Kancha, Cusco Peru

"Tapiz" hand-woven, cotton from Awana Kanca, Cusco, Peru measures 45" x 58."  The original documented value is $5,000. 

Awana Kancha is a living museum in the Andes where tourists can see llamas, alpacas, and vicunas, and buy textiles.  These include Euro-American style clothing, locally woven indigenous style warp-patterned textiles, and tapestry woven textiles whose design is based on historical examples. Awana Kancha means “The Palace of the Weaver.” Since 1989 authentic weavers from villages around Cusco have showcased handmade textiles using ancestral weaving techniques, iconography and local products to achieve unique natural dye colors and old ways of production as a way to sustain their culture.  Artisans use homemade tools, 100 percent vegetable and mineral dyes, natural fibers. Visitors can appreciate different types of fibers obtained from the South American camelids (alpaca, llama, vicuna and guanaco) in one place and see the types of looms, tools and processes used by the pre-Columbian cultures. Weaving is around 4000 years old in the Andes. The earliest textiles to have been found in Peru are from the dry desert coast, not the highlands where Cuzco is located. The diamond and zigzag designs in this textile are traditional in the area and the plant motifs are of colonial origin. The original tag identifies materials as “algodon” – cotton.

For authenticity documents, photos and more background information, go to https://www.dflt.org/art-for-lands-sake. Click on the image of "Tapiz" and then click "go to link."

• Company Name : Desert Foothills Land Trust