The Silk Road Comes to Los Angeles – December 2013

Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World opened at the Natural History Museum this month, and runs through April 13, 2014. The exhibit arrived in Los Angeles shortly after my husband and I retraced a portion of this fabled route in a travel adventure to Xian and the oasis communities around the Taklimakan desert. I documented textiles being made and traded, and am planning a createIt@ARTSgarage seminar where we will make a simple version of Aidelaxi - the warp-dyed textile still worn by Uygur women of all ages. Educators taking this seminar will make their own version of Aidelaixi cloth and can “travel the road” where this cloth is still made – all in our own hometown!