Date: June 21 – July 27, 2024, Community Gallery 201 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe
An exhibition of embroidery, crochet, and drawn thread lace by artisans from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Trinidad, Cuba will open on June 21, 2024. Julia Gomez and Barbara Romero Alba of Santa Fe and Zobeida Gonzalez and Obdulia Gonzalez of Trinidad were brought together through the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. They collaboratively created four beautiful tapestries that are the center piece of the exhibition.
Other work to be shown is by members of Urdimbre, a group of Trinidadian artisans. The work of Urdimbre is teaching Trinitarian embroidery and other techniques to children and adults, and exchanges with specialists and connoisseurs of the subject inside and outside Cuba. The artisans in Trinidad use a variety of threads for their embroidery and drawn thread work that include cotton, silk, and polyester. They use weaving techniques such as crochet to make bags, clothing, and shoes out of cotton, raffia, and jute.
Santa Fe’s Colcha Club members will show their diverse styles of colcha stitching. Colcha embroidery is done with hand-dyed hand-spun wool from the Churro sheep of northern New Mexico. It started as a stitch to mend blankets and was also used to decorate items such as curtains, alter cloths and tablecloths. Today it’s used to create tapestries to hang on a wall, and to decorate clothing and household items.