How to Weave a Tapestry

YaKenda McGahee: Armando Sosa does have a regular day job but this little attic room is his private sanctuary. It's within these four walls that Armando built an elaborate loom with his bare hands. At any given time Armando works with thirteen hundred sixty threads and more than forty-five harnesses to gather and hold them.

The themes in his tapestries are mostly South American. From Catholic depictions to complex Incan and Mayan patterns. I sat down with him to find out how and where his story begun.

Hey there, what’s going on? How are you Armando?

Armando Sosa: Thank you so much for coming.

YaKenda McGahee: Thank you for having me. I’m YaKenda. Wow, look at this. This is huge, Armando.

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Is this your loom?

Armando Sosa: Yes, this is the big loom that I have.

YaKenda McGahee: Wow. Oh, I’m excited to learn all about this and to understand what seems like a lot of patience involved in this craft.

Armando Sosa: Well, I start day early. I was lucky that I was born in the home of weavers in the highlands of Guatemala. My father was a weaver and most of his father — my grandfather and they were making this weaving for a living. And as a little boy I was watching them and helping them even to make the little spools and I was really, really happy whenever my father calls me to help him to setup the work. All the threads in the loom, it was like something that I — that he made me happy to even touch the colors.

YaKenda McGahee: Is this something that’s very big in the Guatemalan or South American culture?

Armando Sosa: It’s still is but unfortunately and base up that is less and less and now with the — you know, the revolution of the industry, all of these beautiful materials that you can find also in the market made in electrical machines. And they make you know masses of this materials so it’s — and you can find them in the market less expensive than the hand woven. So I think that’s one of the things that’s killing this art.

YaKenda McGahee: There maybe a hundred things threatening this magnificent art but Armando is determined to keep it alive. The sheer joy he feels working with loom is what brings him back here day after day.

Armando Sosa: It’s very enjoyable — it’s very enjoyable. I play the music that I have in Spanish and some old music that reminds me when my father was alive and he was weaving and he was whistling and he was like also a happy time for him.

YaKenda McGahee: Armando’s loom is commonly called the Jacquard loom or the Jack loom. Before I adventured into weaving, I wanted to actuate myself with various parts of the instrument.

Okay Armando, now that I’m safely inside, first I need to understand the parts of the loom so I know what I’m working with. Can you explain the different components because I see we have the wood here, we’ve got the metal here, we’ve got these strings here, and then we’ve got our pedals but what are they? What do they do?

Armando Sosa: The frame is actually here to hold the threads as you can see. The main part is this metal part here. The threads are going through that.

YaKenda McGahee: Aha aha, yup.

Armando Sosa: And that is what it keeps straight all the threads.

YaKenda McGahee: That pushes them together and makes it nice and clean.

Armando Sosa: And then the important thing after that is the harnesses. Each one of this one has also the threads and this ones at the same are connected to the pedals and that is what actually makes the weaving.

YaKenda McGahee: So, one set is connected to the left pedal and then they do this and then when you do the right pedal, they do that?

Armando Sosa: Yes. And that actually what — when you pass the shuttle —the thread, when you do the switching of the pedals, that is actually what is weaving.

YaKenda McGahee: What is weaving the thing at like this, right?

The mechanism of Armando’s loom is a basic pulley and lever system. The pulley connects the harnesses to the pedals. The harnesses hold the threads and the pedals separate them from each other. When one pedal is stepped on, the lever lifts the harness allowing the weaver to make a pattern then the other pedal is stepped on and the opposite set of threads is lifted and a new pattern is made.

Is this what’s doing my designs like the actual or is this the base color that are going across?

Armando Sosa: This is the base —this is the base color.

YaKenda McGahee: Okay, now we have these. What are these called?

Armando Sosa: Yeah, these ones are also part of the harnesses. But these are like secondary system —

YaKenda McGahee: Primary, secondary. Uh-huh.

Armando Sosa: To makes the designs with.

YaKenda McGahee: Armando first draws his designs on a graph paper. This way an accurate calculation of the number of threads and weavings is determined.

Armando Sosa: Each one of the stream is —

YaKenda McGahee: Is representing one of this one?

Armando Sosa: Yes. And at every line it does that you find all these threads that you connect.

YaKenda McGahee: And this, what is this little situation?

Armando Sosa: That hook is connected to that pedal.

YaKenda McGahee: Ah, these pedal — the very far right pedal.

Armando Sosa: You push in that pedal or whatever strings you have being connected—

YaKenda McGahee: Then that’s what is going to lift.

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Interesting. I love it. So those are the components then.

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: After a lesson on the workings of the loom, I was ready for the challenge but first things first.

And the first things that you told me to do right is to take this piece because I’m going to stand while I do it because I — because you have to use all parts of your body. It looks like your hands, your feet, and your eyes at the same time so I’m going to lean against this piece here, is that right?

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Now, what about these pedals Armando?

Armando Sosa: Those pedals are connected to this what we call harnesses.

YaKenda McGahee: Okay, these four in the middle? Harnesses?

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Armando explained that weaving is basically connecting a vertical group of threads with another horizontal group of threads.

When a vertical set of thread is lifted, a shuttle or a thread bundle is passed across horizontally.

Alright, so I have this purple string, right? Now, it’s there. Now do I let go of my foot here at this point?

Armando Sosa: Yeah.

YaKenda McGahee: Now I let go and then I pull it back. I can do this one. Yes.

Armando Sosa: And you can do this strongly.

YaKenda McGahee: Alright, there we go.

Armando Sosa: Now, just pull back your shuttle from the —

YaKenda McGahee: I have to do the right side.

Armando Sosa: You have to switch. Yeah you have to switch the pedal. Actually that’s what is creating the weavings.

YaKenda McGahee: Oh, look at that. Okay so now it's the right side I’m opening and as a test to what I had learned so far, Armando had me make a pattern on the piece he was currently working on.

Armando Sosa: What we are going to make little circles because that’s a very easy design to make.

YaKenda McGahee: Yeah, I was going to ask how you did this stuff like this.

Armando Sosa: Just leave like eight of them and grab three. Okay you can hook those with the —

YaKenda McGahee: How do you — okay, the only thing is I see — I make sense how it’s done. But it looks like we’re weaving backwards, are we? How do you — I don’t understand even though what this is —

Armando Sosa: That’s why we use graph paper.

YaKenda McGahee: Ah, there we go. So then we follow this.

Armando Sosa: Yes fine.

YaKenda McGahee: Okay, that’s okay?

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: And I’m going to slide it through again?

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: I did that time. Now I got a few purple and I can do it with my left.

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Then I have to squeeze it in there. Yeah, that was a little easy. Look at that right there, what I’m done. I got it. Now I’m going to do a couple more lines of purple right? See, I can speed this up? This is it?

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: Oh, I did the circles. Look at that. Look and then you have not only my circles but now we’ve got a beautiful, beautiful bond around it. That’s really pretty and it made the circles pop. High five, I’m excited. Yes, yes, yes, yes!

Dozens of beautiful spools both interesting in color and texture filled the studio. There’s also an old fashioned spinning wheel that I was really curious about. Armando explained the connection.

I never imagined like this is very thick and like rope almost, you know? And this is more wispy but kind of has a hard feel. This is very soft but then this is like silky.

Armando Sosa: Yes. That’s very — that’s silk actually.

YaKenda McGahee: So tell me exactly so we can understand what you use this for.

Armando Sosa: Now you know given the bands and everything, there are little motors that you can buy — how you’d say— instead of using this to make it almost with no space and faster and even easy to do it. But I decided to it the way that I —

YaKenda McGahee: You know, old fashion way. That’s right. So creates a small spindle that I was sliding through the loom, right?

Armando Sosa: And this is what we use to start a little —

YaKenda McGahee: Do you put it on here?

Armando Sosa: Yes, yes. It is where we actually we put it. Wrap it like this to start.

YaKenda McGahee: To begin it, okay.

Armando Sosa: And then see the thread that I put here?

YaKenda McGahee: Yes.

Armando Sosa: You adjust and then with your left hand, you manage the — or you drive the thread and with your right hand, you just pinch this.

YaKenda McGahee: Look at that. Look at that, very easy.

Armando Sosa: So easy.

YaKenda McGahee: Look at this, old fashioned way. I love it.

Armando Sosa: You know the tension and it makes it easy to weave with. Perfect!

YaKenda McGahee: Nice and then you put this in that —

Armando Sosa: In the blue pole like a shuttle.

YaKenda McGahee: And slide on through.

Armando Sosa: Yes.

YaKenda McGahee: I love it.

Finally it was time to partake in the Guatemalan goodies of Armando’s studio.

Armando Sosa: I made also the image of the Virgin of Concepción. We are very catholic there so we are carrying the statue of the virgin in the back and all the people go in two lines on the streets and these guys are in front of the procession dancing and playing fireworks if it's already night.

YaKenda McGahee: Surrounded by Armando’s radiant tapestries together with notes of Spanish music, we transported as it were to Guatemala itself. For Armando, what started as a childhood hobby has now blossomed into a life long dedication to keep alive the wondrous tradition of his ancestors.