Learning to weave in Tsakonia Greece

Many of you may have thought we crashed our car….

Or given up blogging….

Or fallen off the face of the earth….

Or quit traveling….

Or ……

But no – it has been over a month since my last blog was posted, and only because my Apple Mac laptop computer broke down.

Now, normally this is no big deal.  But when traveling, and in remote areas, in foreign countries, this means you rely on local technicians, and have language barriers, and often are not in a place long enough to source parts.

I will blog on this event later, but it has been a nightmare, complete with a shonky technician who swapped out parts on the laptop, leaving us with broken parts inside.

But here we are.  Nursing a very, very sick laptop.

And finally blogging again !!!! YAY.

And do you know what?  I really missed telling you all about our journey.

So I figure the best thing to do, is to pick up where we left off.

And that was our road trip around Greece, heading up towards Athens.

As we leave Monemvasia (you can read about that here) we are surprised at the amazing change in the landscape.

At first, it was barren land, complete with cactus.

But then we started to snake through the hills, and to my surprise, Greece put on the most magnificent show of autumn colors for us.

I was stunned at the beauty of colors amongst the pines and conifers.

Then before our eyes, we see the bay of water.

The weather has turned quite grey, and we know we need to head on, but we drive through a small town and we spy an authentic shop where they are weaving.

Many of you know what a passion I have for culturally rich and locally made artifacts.  Things that tell a story. And items we can keep that hold special memories for us.

So I head in and meet two of the three family ladies that run this business. Normally there is Grandma weaving, but today it is Mum and the daughter – who had amazing English.  The place is called Textiles of Tsakonia

As soon as we are in the workshop, we feel so relaxed.

I am in love with most of the items and am stunned at how great their prices are for handmade items in Greece.

So as I run around excited looking at all the weaves, Explorason is sitting down and having a weaving lesson with the mother.  They are making coasters.

The style of weaving is really unique. Each item is different, and this one if I remember rightly shows the colors of the hills.

A similar weave done by each of the ladies is completely different – even in style.

The daughter makes some fabulous bags. I think I could have bought some of these items and turned them into unique cushions.

I then spy a few trunk loads of small and medium mats, and I try to see if there was one we could use as a front for the cushions we are making.

I finally discover the piece I want.  It is a wall hanging. And I can make it into the perfect cushion.

It is a weave of the bay just past here, so we are pretty excited after we make our purchase and leave and we drive straight past this bay.

I hope if you visit Greece you can take the time to visit this tiny weaving workshop.

We both loved making our coasters in our weaving lesson.

This workshop is among the few ones which still remains and continues this tradition – a tradition that was left to them through their grandmothers.

You can find them in the town of TYROS in the region of Kynouria which is located on the main road from Athens south to Leonidion, (next to the Shell gas station).

My biggest regret – not being able to buy more.

Maybe another time, when we return to Greece again?

We drive on and feel like we are chasing the most glorious of sunsets.

Greece has really given us amazing sunsets, and this one sees car after car pull over, and people popping out with iPhones, iPads, and cameras.

We stand and stare at the beautiful luminous sky.

It is a great welcome to Nafplion.

Details on Textiles of Tsakonia

Tyros, Arcadia, Greece

Postal Code: 220 29
Tel.: +30 27570 41314
Tel.: +30 27570 41467
Mob.: +30 6973 771139
E-mail: tsakonikaifanta@yahoo.gr

http://www.tsakonikaifanta.gr/en/

Questions and Comments

• Have you been to Greece?
• Did you get to visit Tsakonia?
• What do you make of their culture?
• How was the experience?
• Do share your comments with us below