A few years ago I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Colombia to photograph a community of Zenú weavers who specialize in making the iconic sombrero vueltiao. I spent a wonderful week in the small town of Tuchín in the Cordoba region being immersed in this fascinating community. I have been wanting to share these images for some time but life gets so busy. With all the upheaval the quarantine brought all of us across the world, one silver lining has been the extra time which allowed me to sort through these images.
The black and white sombreros are made from a cane called caña flecha. The caña flecha is dried after the veins have been stripped out. Then the cane strips turn from green to a beige or whitish color as they dry. Darker strips are dyed with a black mud and then the caña flecha is woven into braids that will form the hat. When all the braids, olma and wings are completed, the hat is sewn together with a peddle sewing machine.
I was in awe of skill these weavers have - their fingers fly at lightening speed, creating what I really think are works of art. At the end of the week, it was finally time to pick out my sombrero. I tried on several and eventually settled upon my favorite one. And this is the sombrero inspired a fashion shoot.
I dream of going back to beautiful Colombia again one day . . . but for now, I hope you enjoy seeing how the Zenú make these gorgeous sombreros. You will be sure to fall in love with the beauty of the people and their art, as I did.
~Stacey
P.S. I had so little video from my trip because my phone fell out of my bag on the way to the airport. Ahhhh, yes I ended up in Colombia with no way to contact anyone but thankfully our organizer gave good instructions about how to meet the team. So the few short clips I put together above, were hand held with my DSLR. So keep on looking and scrolling to the bottom to see these amazing weavers in action!
