THE FLEA MARKET

a corner of my new quilt

Violette’s mission is to prove that one can use discarded clothing to do many things- whether it is winterize your house, make art, or make money at the flea market. On a whim, we decided to take a truckload of choice clothes from the stash, along with other treasures collected from the property, to Santa Fe and get a booth in the famous Tesuque Flea Market.  Because the market is on Pueblo land, there is no photography allowed, so I had to mentally document what turned out to be an amazing international imports fair. We were in the slim minority hawking used goods, and most booths were artists, artisans, importers, or collectors & distributors of fine western wear. There were chairs entirely beaded by hand from Africa, floor to ceiling Persian rugs, six-foot tall clay pots, and our booth neighbor with adornments from Pakistan and Afghanistan.  I ended up hanging around a tent full of Guatemalan beaded and woven goods. I first bought a little beaded figure of a Zuni clown that the importer designed after selling goods at Pueblo feast days. That was before I saw the quilts- patchwork grids of Mayan hand woven textiles, each native to a different village, each telling a story. After talking to the merchant for an hour, I had to take one home with me. The merchant is from Guatemala and works with four families there that do all of the weaving.  When I started quizzing him on the origin of each piece, he suggested this great reference, Guatemala Rainbow. Due to an achingly slow day at the market for everyone, Violette and I did not make a living selling clothes, but we did earn our booth fee back and spend a very lovely evening with her friend Abdul the spice trader, who lives on the semi-famous Synergia Ranch- complete with geodesic yoga dome and double rainbows.

happy little fusion of Guatemala & Pueblo