Celia Garduño has been sewing since she was 10 years old living in Mexico. Today her pieces are considered art.
Celia Garduño creates tableclothes like this one, as well as pillowcases, dresses, scarves and anything else she can imagine. She has been sewing since she was 10 years old living in Mexico. Today her pieces are considered art.
Most of the pieces Celia Garduño creates go to family or friends. Each piece can take up to six months to finish, depending on size and level of detail.Celia Garduño sits on a simple metal chair next to the couch in her modest East Ridge home. Her hands are folded in her lap as she smiles gently.
On the couch next to her is daughter Maria Garduño. Another daughter, Arcelia Camacho, leans against the doorframe leading down the hall.
The room is relatively spartan, noticeably devoid of the needlepoint pieces that Celia has become known for creating. Maria explains that the pieces are not on display in the home because the youngest of Celia’s 20 grandkids and four great-grandkids pull on them. They are stored away in plastic bins. Lots of them.
The two younger women do the translating for their mother, who doesn’t speak much English. But when the topic comes up about the Governor’s Folklife Heritage Award that Celia will be given during a private ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in March, all three women smile broadly and the twinkles in their eyes are enough to light up the whole house. Maybe the neighborhood.
“We all cheered when we found out,” Maria says.