Latvian Alpaca Adventure|The Plan

Meet Jo Storie. 
She and I first met a couple of weeks ago, in Latvia, where she and her husband, Ian, own an alpaca farm. 
But long before that, we started corresponding on social media. First, it was about some workshops she wanted me to help promote. Then, we started to knock around a few ideas that might involve me running a couple of feltmaking workshops on the farm in the summer.
Many, many conversations later, we had come up with a plan to offer a week of feltmaking and cultural activities in June 2017 to give visitors some insight into this little-known country.
Below is a photographic documentation of how our week went. A week of snow, animals, friendly people, wonderful food and, a little bit of magic.

Riga...Latvia's capital

We spent a chilly first day in Riga, with its beautiful Christmas lights, markets, and architecture. Even came across a little wool shop with a yarn-bombed bicycle and a myriad patterns for Latvian mittens. Really looking forward to the guided tour of the old town and Art Nouveau district in the summer.

Ieva Prane...mixed-media artist

Our second day took us to meet mixed-media artist, Ieva Prane, who welcomed us to her studio where she teaches art, feltmaking, knitting and weaving. She will be spending a day teaching our group some of her felting techniques. 

Ergli...in the country

The hotel where the group will be staying for most of the week is in Ergli, Jo and Ian's village. The drive from Riga is fascinating as the countryside is revealed. Latvia most recently became independent in 1991. Remnants of Soviet and Russian occupation are plain to see in the landscape where collective farming created huge fields. Relatively flat, you can see for miles...that is, where there aren't forests and birch groves in the way. The lakes and rivers were frozen as we drove past...and lake fishermen squatted by holes in the ice. Immobile. 

Griezites Alpakas...on the farm

Our day on the farm was brisk, cold and a wee bit grey. But the alpacas were worth the cold feet and hands. I can't pretend to remember all their names (yet!) but they are incredible animals, with expressive faces and hugely different characters. Rugged up against the cold, with fleeces that are thick and soft, they sport hairstyles created by Alpaca Stylist, Ian (now a fully-trained alpaca shearer regularly employed by other alpaca owners in Latvia and beyond).
Felting with this fleece has its own challenges, but I can assure you that the results are sumptuous. The week's programme incorporates three days on the farm, felting and embroidering amongst these wondrous beasts.

Latvians...the people

Meeting with Latvians was one of the great pleasures of our visit. Jo and Ian have made some wonderful friends in their time here and, as Ieva Prane said, " We can take a while to warm up but once we are your friends, you can do anything to us....and we will still be your friend."
I like that.
I also like that the people we met had spirit, fire, creativity and a wealth of stories to tell. 
Jo talked about the ethereal quality of the people...there is an element of magic about them. They are close to nature, they love to sing, they love to create and they love to laugh. 
I am looking forward to working with them in June.

Marcis and the Moonshine Laboratory

Erstwhile Latvian singer and hairdresser, Marcis, met us for our introduction to the Moonshine Laboratory on a particularly cold afternoon. Sampling the hooch that he and his wife, Ilze, have created from birch sap, with all its different incarnations, was guaranteed to warm us up. That, and the imagination that has gone into the design of this unusual and magical place. It'll be a great place for one of our BBQs this summer.

The Porcelain factory

Janis Ronis, the director of the Porcelain musuem in Riga, has his porcelain factory near Ergli, with his wife, Zane. The factory is set in beautiful grounds, and hosts porcelain painting workshops by the side of the river.

Mengeli...a family of musicians

Mengeli is where one of the most musical families in Latvia lived. The Jurjani brothers played in a wind quartet together and their home has become synonymous with music, creativity and celebration. 

Santa's cheese farm

I didn't know, until we met her, that Santa is a common girl's name in Latvia. Santa makes goats cheese on her farm but, when she isn't working (which she does almost all the time), she likes to talk. And she tells stories with such colour and gusto that you can clearly visualise the world she grew up in.
​Stories that take you to her childhood in Communist times which, as she said, did not strike her then as hard, as long as the family were together. She laughed loudest when she told us the story of painting the grass green when Gorbachev came to visit.

A last look at Riga...National Art Museum

Chronologically speaking, we saw this exhibition at the beginning of our week. But, the vibrancy of the work by Latvian surrealist artist, Juris Dimiters, impressed me so much that it seems a great way to conclude what was, for us, a week of the unexpected.