Weaving in Beauty

Marie H. Yazzie (left) and her daughter Marilyn demonstrate weaving and spinning at the Scottsdale ArtWalk

Scottsdale, AZ The busy Heard Museum Indian Market weekend kicked off on Thursday, March 4, with the weekly ArtWalk giving special attention to the many Native American artists and craftsman who were in the Phoenix area for this large annual event.  Both artists and attendees travel thousands of miles to be at the market, so I felt very fortunate that it’s near my home.

Mark Winter, the trader at  Toadlena Trading Post, in Toadlena, New Mexico, had even rented a storefront on Scottsdale’s Main St. for the weekend and I enjoyed chatting with weaver Marie H. Yazzie and her daughter Marilyn, pictured above.  Marie does not speak English conversationally, so I got to practice a bit of Diné bizaad (the Navajo language).  Marie said I did pretty well for a bilagáana (white person).  At least I think that’s what she said.  Marie weaves handspun Two Grey Hills designs and also does round Sandpainting pieces as you can see in the picture below.  The larger rug is a depiction of Mother Earth and Father Sky, which has always been one of my favorite sandpainting images.

Round weavings by Marie H. Yazzie among other Two Grey Hills style work

I asked Mark how he was doing on his much anticipated Master Weavers book, the culmination of over 20 years of work with Two Grey Hills weavers and he told me that he expected to have it done by summer and possibly by May, in time for the opening of an exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum.  I’ll certainly keep you posted on that.   Jackson Clarke II of the Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango, Colorado stopped by as Mark and I were talking and I got a nice picture of both of them, which you’ll see below.

Jackson Clarke (left) and Mark Winter (right)

I also stopped at the Old Territorial Shop and Turkey Mountain Traders during the evening, so we’ll stroll there next, but it might be Saturday or Sunday before we get there!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Jennie Slick assists Kathleen Higham with her weaving at last year's Bear Lake Boot Camp

Tempe, AZ Update: The workshop is full as of March 9, but please contact Mary Walker or Deby Pendleton if you would like to be on our waiting list.

I’m happy to announce that plans have been finalized for the fifth Navajo Weaving Boot Camp workshop at Bear Lake on the Utah-Idaho border.   We’ll be weaving at the Utah State University Training Facility starting on Sunday afternoon, June 13th and we’ll keep weaving as much as humanly possible until about noon on Wednesday, June 16th.  The workshop is open to students of any skill level.   Students will be provided with plans for building a loom or you can purchase one from the workshop organizers.   Use of tools is included in the workshop tuition and tools and yarns will be available for purchase.

Tuition for the three day workshop is $350 and includes dormitory style sleeping accommodations, three delicious meals per day featuring large quantities of raspberry based foods, enough yarn to complete your project, use of weaving tools and the instructional support of master weaver Jennie Slick and her assistant Mary Walker (me).  The workshop site is on the shore of Bear Lake, a gorgeously blue natural lake on the border of Utah and Idaho (please see unretouched photo below).    The workshop is limited to 12 students.

Student looms at the 2009 Bear Lake Navajo Weaving Boot Camp.

See you at the lake!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Screenshot of the virtual classroom.

Tempe, AZ We held our first online class session in beginning Navajo weaving techniques  yesterday using WebEx’s Meeting Connection service (that’ll teach them to sell me something with unlimited minutes).   You can see the virtual class space in the picture above but it’s a screen shot of a test meeting to protect the privacy of the current students.  We found that the resolution of streaming video isn’t quite at a level that will let you see some of the finer moves that are involved in warping, but in combination with pictures, handouts and encouragement from others in the class,  we were able to create what seems to be a workable learning environment.   We’re troubleshooting an audio problem (a wicked echo) that seems to be related to speakerphones and possibly to the fact that there’s a microphone in my webcam (Who knew?  Certainly not me!)   WebEx has been great about addressing issues as we’ve brought them up and our next session is scheduled for this coming Sunday, February 7.  If you’ve written me about getting involved with a second session, I’ve got your note and I’ll be announcing dates as soon as I’m comfortable that this is a viable learning environment.  I’m almost, but not quite, there.

As one of the class members has noted, this may open up many opportunities for Navajo weavers to show their work and teach over the Internet.  And to find out about the microphone in their webcam…..

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary