Remember this?

Or maybe not!  I didn’t use the picture in my blog post about the Fonck Museum in Vina del Mar, Chile, after all (for what I think are pretty obvious reasons) but it was one of the exhibits which caught my eye.  As I’m trying very hard indeed to put the finishing touches to my travel journal, I wanted to reproduce the Andean cross design from this weaving on a page and thought I’d simply draw it straight into the book.

Hah!

In my little pocket notebook, I’d drawn a simple version of it quickly during one of the on board lectures, noting the name “chakana” and referencing a photograph of inca fields in the Sacred Valley (which I can no longer find).  But the woven design was a little more developed and needed a little more thought.

A ruler, even?  I spent a while happily drawing with pencil and ruler before I reached the repeat pattern part and floundered a little.  Why had I not thought to use squared paper?

Rather than spend time finding a larger pad of squared paper, I grabbed the closest one to hand and soon found that it’s not as easy as it looks.  Getting the proportions correct meant starting with a four by four square in the centre and, if I was going to begin again, better get a larger sheet, eh?

I didn’t get very far here, either!  Somehow, in the second row, I was into half squares – huh? 

Oh, come ON!

Whose idea was this, anyway?

I then did what any sane person would have done to begin with.

I did a google image search for “Andean Cross”.

Following that link took me to this fascinating page which was far more interesting than trying to complete my journal.

Especially since, further down the page I spotted this design, which looked familiar.

That’s probably because I’d spent ages trying to draw that one in my sketchbook in a different museum a few days later, having already discovered that these “simple” designs are anything but.

Oh well, I’ll finish my journal another day…