Wanda Roe and a group of artists have returned from a trip to Bali. They left Nov. 1 and toured several villages in the country. They saw four theater performances, went to four artists’ galleries, visited the textile markets and saw native craftsmen produce delicate works of art.
They were allowed to see families who cooperated in the production of intricately patterned cloth. A grandmother was in charge of dying the threads, and mother and daughters were weaving and tying fibers on some threads to block the colored dyes. It took several days to weave a few inches of the cloth. One merchant they visited has a collection of rare and ancient cloth, some of which was hundreds of years old.
They watched woodcarvers at work and saw basketsmade and covered with beads.
They admired the sculptures and temples and enjoyed meeting the people.
The countryside is lush with tropical plants and rice paddies are in all stages of growth. They had to wear sarongs to go into one of the temples.
The weather was hot and humid and the temperature one day was 104 degrees.
The group returned to the states on Nov. 18.
Community, Pages 5 on 12/15/2010