Sawdust Carpets

One of the really wonderful things about living here are the interesting things that are happening right around the corner. Literally. Kristina flew in yesterday and we decided to check out the Australian embassy as part of Passport DC (more on this later). Just two blocks from the apartment and on the way to the metro, I'd read that there were going to be two different groups making sawdust carpets. One from Guatemala and the other from Germany. They were to start around 8 in the morning and be finished around 5 in the evening. At the end of the day they just sweep up their work. I didn't know anything about sawdust carpets (and still don't know much), but thought it would be interesting to stop by and check out their progress early in the day, and maybe catch them later on our way back if it wasn't too late.

So, what are sawdust carpets? Well, basically you buy a whole lot of sawdust. You dye it. You choose your design. It looked to me like there were two different methods here. With the German method you draw a grid over your design. You draw a huge grid on the ground and then fill it in using your design grid. The Guatemalan method looked like they used a kind of stencil to fill in their border designs. I'm not sure how they did the central part of the design. With both methods the sawdust is put down by hand. Many artists will work on a sawdust carpet in order to complete it in a matter of hours.

In both instances, sawdust carpets are usually made for religious ceremonies. They will cover the streets as a processional carpet. They are destroyed as the celebrants walk on them and then swept up at the end of the day.