Weaving in Beauty

Jennie Slick demonstrates Navajo weaving at Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque

Window Rock, Navajo Nation It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for Jennie Slick and me and a time that we will always remember.  Last week, we were at the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque, New Mexico where we taught several classes, visited with old friends and met many, many new ones.  We were absolutely awed by the interest in Navajo textiles shown by the participants in our workshop and classes and by the people who stopped by our booth to watch as Jennie created a small weaving on a C-Cactusflower loom.   We saw several people who have attended our Weaving in Beauty classes here in Window Rock and one of them, Arlene Anderson even brought her finished class rug to show us.  You can see Arlene below with Jennie.  Other alumni stopping by were Marsha Herr and Jean Walbridge.

Arlene Anderson and Jennie Slick with Arlene's completed Weaving in Beauty class rug

Our Convergence experience included coordinating and teaming with Morris Muskett and Rose Dedman to teach a Navajo weaving class attended by a mind boggling 51 people.  The class was divided into three groups led by Morris, Rose and Jennie.  Volunteers Pat Thalhauser, Sarah Zapata and I circulated among all the groups  to provide extra support for the students.   Students used small looms made from heavy duty canvas stretcher bars and most took their looms with them.   As instructors, we were challenged and thrilled by the response of the students, who warped their looms, started the weaving process and headed home with their work in progress and new insights into the world of Navajo weaving.

Convergence also featured an exciting Navajo rug auction with auctioneer Hank Blair of R.B. Burnham and Co. Native Auctions.   There were 201 lots and about 75% of the items sold with competitive bidding.  Weavers Nathan Harry and Gilbert Begay stopped by to watch their work being sold.  Gilbert, an expert spinner, created yarn for a new weaving as one of his handspun bags found a home during the sale.   Because the Burnham’s were doing another auction the same day, they were short a bid spotter in their auction team so they got a short bid spotter: me.  It’s so much fun it shouldn’t even be legal.

The Convergence vendor hall was a wonderland of goodies for people like us, but we didn’t have very much time to take in the offerings.  Jennie and I realized on our way back to Gallup that we’d forgotten to check out the comfort footwear booth and I never got a chance to get back to see weaving tool makers Al Snipes and Jim Hockett.  So many people were going to C-Cactusflower loom maker Caroline Spurgeon’s booth after seeing Jennie weave that she stopped by with a nice gift for Jennie.  Thanks, Caroline!  Diné bé Iiná (Sheep is Life) had a beautiful booth featuring TahNiBaa Naataanii, Beverly Allen, Sarah Natani and other weavers and Marilou Schultz’s booth featured her incredible hand-dyed trading post yarns.

If you’re thinking that we had a good time in spite of doing a lot of work, you’re very perceptive.  Would we do it again?  Well, we might ask for one more day with those 51 students.  We might have changed a few details of a couple of things, but we’re already talking about a couple of fiber festivals that we might do next year.   After we catch up on our sleep and laundry.

We’re in the middle of two weeks of classes here in Window Rock, with one class leaving tomorrow and a our Camp Weave-A-Lot Advanced Seminar starting Monday.  I’ll catch you up on last week’s class starting on Monday.  I’ll leave with with a picture of Gilbert Begay, Hank Blair and Nathan Harry taken after the auction last Saturday night.    Thank you HGA for the opportunity to participate in this year’s Convergence!

From let, Gilbert Begay, Hank Blair and Nathan Harry after the Convergence 2010 Navajo Rug Auction

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Roy Kady will exhibit his work at the University of Denver, April 2-22, 2010. (Photo courtesy of University of Denver)

Denver, CO Navajo master weaver Roy Kady will show his work from April 2nd -22nd in an exhibit titled Na’ashjé’ii Biką’ Biyiin (Chant of the Male Spider). Roy is co-curating the exhibit with Teresa Montoya (Diné), a graduate student in the University of Denver’s Department of Anthropology.  Set within the context of Navajo weaving, Roy will share his personal stories, experiences, creative inspirations and work in an environment where visitors are invited to touch, smell and participate in the experience of weaving.

Roy is a truly engaging and inspirational person to meet and is generous in sharing his culture and work.  In the past, he has been a key participant in the Diné bé Iiná (Sheep is Life) organization and he is now the chapter president in his home community of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.  The chapter is the basic unit of Navajo tribal government and is roughly analogous to a hybrid of town and county, with each chapter a distinct legal unit with the right to form binding contracts.  As if being the chapter president and an active weaver weren’t enough, Roy also cares for his large flock of sheep and goats.  You can learn more about Roy and his family at his beautiful and informative web site, Dinewoven.com.

The exhibit opens on April 2nd at Sturm Hall on the University of Denver campus and runs through the 22nd of April.  The opening reception on April 2nd, from 5:30-8:00 PM, will feature a weaving demonstration with Roy, a discussion of the religious aspects of the weaving process by Anderson Hoskie, and a sampling of foods based on the traditional Navajo diet prepared by chef Freddie Bitsoie.  Foods will include Churro lamb, blue corn puree, butternut squash tarts and Navajo tea.

Click here for further details on the exhibit from our events calendar.

Roy is looking forward to seeing both new and old friends in Denver and is busy working to finish a Guardians weaving similar to the one that he’s holding in the picture below from last year’s Heard Museum Indian Market.

Roy Kady holds a Guardians weaving at the 2009 Heard Museum Indian Market.

Oh and one more thing!  Happy Birthday, Roy!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

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

Lynda Teller Pete demonstrates weaving at last year's Southwest Indian Art Fair

Tucson, AZ Just a quick post to let you know that the Desert Diamond Casino, owned by the Tohono O’odham tribe, has stepped in to reschedule and sponsor the previously cancelled Southwest Indian Art Fair.   Information on the event and artist applications are available by clicking here.  Thanks to Mary Weinzirl for letting me know!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Have looms, will travel. See you at Convergence 2010!

Registration for Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque, New Mexico has just opened up today and you’ll find Jennie Slick and I will be doing three seminars and a two-day workshop. Our schedule and the class numbers are below.

Thursday, July 22, 2010 (1:00-4:00) SS206 Navajo Warping and Weaving Demonstration:  Jennie do will a complete small warping and demonstrate weaving.  This will be a nice refresher or introduction for those interested in Navajo techniques.

Friday, July 23, 2010  (9:00-10:30) S308 Weavers and Traders: The Ganado Red Rug: An in-depth discussion of the development of the Ganado Red rug and the history of the Hubbell Trading Post.

Friday, July 23, 2010 (1:00-2:30) S409 Navajo Rug Reunion: Think you’ve got a national treasure like the First Phase Chief Blanket on the Antiques Road Show?  Bring it to the rug reunion and find out!  I’ll do a brief description and give you a high level appraisal

Saturday, July24, 2010 and Sunday, July 25, 2010 (9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00) WB219 Navajo Weaving Boot Camp The fastest and most intense Navajo weaving class west of the Pecos.

We’re very pleased to be included in the Convergence schedule and we’re looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. If you have any questions about any of the sessions, please contact me and I’ll try to answer them for you or I’ll find someone who can.  I’ve had questions from a couple of people regarding what process we would use to select the students and my answer to that is that if it’s up to us, it’s carbon based life forms on a first come, first warped basis!

See you in Albuquerque!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

The 2009 Gathering of Weavers attracted a large group of weaving enthusiasts. The 86 degree ideal weather didn't hurt either.

Phoenix, AZ The Heard Museum held their second annual Gathering of Weavers yesterday.  It’s a one day event dedicated to weaving and weavers held on the first Saturday in November.   The event is held outdoors in the museum’s courtyard and allows buyers to purchase rugs directly from the weaver.  The museum handles the sales through their shop, allowing the weavers to take credit cards, something that most of them do not do.   I can’t remember exactly what percentage the weaver receives, but I believe it is 80% or more and there was no charge for table space, a big help for the weavers.   Weavers at the event included well known names like Brenda Spencer, Lola Cody, D.Y. Begay and Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas, but newer and weavers who have not had as much public exposure like Monica Glasses, Nathan Harry and Loretta Tahe were also there.   I’ve culled a few pictures from my embarrassingly large assortment so that you can get an idea of the artists and their work.

Loretta Tahe shows her feather rug design.

Loretta Tahe of Hardrock, AZ weaves this distinctive pattern that she calls a Feather Rug.  Each feather has a different design.  Loretta usually sells her work at the Crownpoint Rug Auction and generally weaves one rug each month.   A detail of the expertly woven center feather area is below.

Here's a detail of ther center five feathers in Loretta's rug.

Gilbert Begay wears his handwoven vest.

Gilbert Begay of Crownpoint, NM is a familiar person to many of you who have visited the site before.  Gilbert is a prolific and creative weaver who often stops by when Jennie Slick and I are doing classes in Window Rock.  Although he works full time for Safeway in Farmington, NM, Gilbert spends a lot of his spare time weaving small format rugs and specialty bags like the one seen below.  The wool used in the bag is some that Gilbert and I dyed during our annual Cochineal Cookoff  in Window Rock this August.  Gilbert had used the yarn for the bag below and a small mat.  I purchased one of Gilbert’s bags at a recent auction and will be putting it in the Mercantile later today or in the morning.

One of Gilbert Begay's small bags. The wool in this weaving is dyed with cochineal.

Brenda Spencer shows her latest Wide Ruins design

Brenda Spencer of Dallas, TX and her sister Geneva Shabi of Sanders, AZ were just across the aisle from Gilbert.  Brenda has incorporated a unique wave pattern that is occasionally seen in very old textiles and that we’ve been working on duplicating for the last four years or so.   Brenda has incorporated this element masterfully into the Wide Ruins design that you see above and in a detail below.  The technique is an optical illusion of a curvilinear pattern created by careful manipulation of diagonal lines and weft counts.

Here's a detal of the wave design in Brenda Spencer's Wide Ruins rug.

Geneva Shabi with one of her prize-winning Wide Ruins rugs.

Geneva Shabi, Brenda’s sister also had rugs displaying her dazzling mastery of the Wide Ruins design idiom.  Geneva works for as a relief postmaster when she’s not weaving.  Although you can see that Brenda and Geneva share some influences in their work, Geneva’s take on the Wide Ruins design is very much her own.  You can see a detail from the striped section of her smaller weaving in the picture below.   Look at the immaculately clean lines, the virtuosity of the color choices and the arrangement of the lines to form an absolute symphony of elegance and beauty.  And these are the stripes.

A detail of a striped area in a Geneva Shabi Wide Ruins rug.

Let’s stop here for today, and wander further down the courtyard tomorrow.  I think I can see D.Y.  Begay, Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas and Lola Cody down there.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker