Abby Franquemont
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1972 (age 53–54)
Abby Franquemont | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Abby Franquemont, 2019 | |
| Born | Abigail M. Franquemont 1972 (age 53–54) Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupations | Spinner, weaver, writer, fiber crafts educator |
| Known for | Reviving the ancient art of hand spinning with a spindle |
| Notable work | Respect the Spindle (2009) |
Abigail M. Franquemont (born 1972) is an American textile crafts writer, lecturer and educator, based in Cusco, Peru. She spent her early childhood among the Quechua people of Chinchero, Peru, where "women spun to eat and pay for the home they lived in."[1] As a revivalist of the ancient art of hand spinning with the spindle,[2] she published her book, Respect the Spindle, in 2009.
Textile arts background
Abigail M. Franquemont was born in Massachusetts. Her parents were anthropologists Ed Franquemont (1945–2003) and Christine Robinson Franquemont (1948–2013). According to Ann Peters in Andean Past, Ed and Chris met at Harvard, traveled as hippies with their children to Chinchero, Peru, and settled there to join the community and study traditional knowledge of weaving, construction and agriculture in 1976 "in the context of social change". They returned to the U.S. around 1982, and by 1985 the family had moved to Ithaca, New York, where the couple continued to research, and to contribute to the community there.[3]
Franquemont's younger sister, Molly Anne Franquemont (b. 1975), was reported missing in May 2013. Glen Griggs of Sunnyvale, California was suspected of her murder, but was shot and killed by police in 2014.[4][5]
Franquemont was born into a textile environment.[3][6] She remembers "falling asleep under her father's loom."[6] Among friends in Chinchero, Franquemont and her sister spent their early childhoods within the hand spinning and hand weaving culture of the local Quechua people, before those ancient skills began to be lost to the influence of Western society, as described in Respect the Spindle (2009).[7] In a world where "women...spun to eat and pay for the home they lived in,"[1] the Franquemont girls learned to spin alpaca fiber at or before the age of five years,[8] hoping to reach a professional standard before adulthood. Spinning was part of their play.[3][7] After the family's return to America, Franquemont attended Lehman Alternative Community School, Ithaca, then read liberal arts at Bard College at Simon's Rock.[9][10]
