SECOND GENERATION WEAVERS

It was in 1972 that Suzanne Wissa Wassef decided to form her owngroup of weavers. For this purpose Ramses built her a large room at the other side of the garden away from the workshops of the first generation. At first, Suzanne's natural choice was to invite the children of the first generation weavers to join her project. Many of these children had spent their earliest years sitting beside their mothers at the loom. To keep them busy, they would often be given bits of wool to weave on small looms.

Palm Tree (detail) - 1989

Suzanne soon discovered however that they imitated the adults' designs knowing that these had already pleased the Wissa Wassefs. She often told the children, "I want you to bring out what you feel, not what your parents are doing." The lack of spontaneity in their work moved Suzanne to disband her newly formed group and to replace them with a whole new group of children who had not been exposed to weaving at all. Their challenge, and that of their teacher, was to become free from the natural impulse to imitate by using the technical skills of weaving to find fresh interpretations of the work.

Sunflowers - 1991

When Suzanne began her work with these children, she made an extra effort to free them from a desire to merely imitate nature. Unlike the first generation, the second generation were made aware from the start of the characteristic details which they wanted to represent.

Here she describes her aspirations for the weavers; "I wove from the age of eight to sixteen and discovered that the technique had many possibilities. The more I wove, the more I discovered how freely one can express oneself on the loom. It was my aim since then to initiate in the weavers this sense of free expression and unfolding magic." Working with this in mind, the results were indeed surprising. Suzanne found that once the children had learned to think for themselves, they were able to create whole scenes and broad landscapes, something that had taken their parents much longer to achieve.

The second generation were able to devote more effort to finding new forms and personal styles. Also interesting to add is the fact that this generation's development took place under different social and economic conditions. The weavers are generally financially well-off compared to the other villagers. Their homes, though simple, are clean and all their needs are provided for. Today, Suzanne continues her effort with 28 weavers ranging from the ages of fourteen to twenty-eight.