Weaving in Beauty

The 2010 calendar is ready for your inspection!  By collaging the pictures in several of the months, I’ve included many more photographs than I’ve been able to show in previous versions, which is a darn good thing since I was only down to 78 pictures when I got done selecting the ones I wanted. The calendar is available immediately from lulu.com if you can’t wait, but I you can also pre-order directly from Weaving in Beauty.  Pre-ordered calendars will be shipped after October 15.

Many thanks go to the weavers, traders and students whose work and places of business are featured.   Weavers Lynda Teller Pete, Jennie Slick, Shirley Brown, Rose Dedman, Kathy Strathearn and the Spider Rock Girls (Emily and Alyssa Malone, Rose Yazzie and Lavera, Laramie and Lariisa Blake) are featured.  Work by Gloria Begay of Crownpoint, NM and Pauline Glasses of Pinon, AZ was photographed at Richardson Trading in Gallup, NM.  Multiple photographs were taken at Toadlena Trading Post.   The Ye’i rugs were photographed at auctions run by R.B. Burnham and Co. Thanks also to Two Grey Hills Trading Post for the beautiful background seen in Shirley Brown’s picture.

Sales of the calendar help to support the operating costs for the reporting and reference aspects of Weaving in Beauty.  I really love putting the calendar together, and although it’s difficult to select the pictures from the several thousand that I take each year, as I’m doing it I realize how very privileged I am to be a part of this community of hózhó dóó nizhóní (harmony and beauty).

A preview of the calendar appears below.  You can click on any picture for a more detailed view.

2010 Calendar Cover
January (Weavings by Gloria Begay/Richardson Trading, Gallup)	February (Lynda Teller Pete/Southwest Indian Fair)	March (Weavings by Kathy Strathearn)
April: (Weaving by Daisy Taugelchee and family/Toadlena Trading Post)	May (The Spider Rock Girls and Friends)	June (Ye'i Collage/R.B. Burnham and Co. Native Auctions)
July (The sheep of Navajoland)	August (Natural dyes with Rose Dedman and her family)	September (Shirley Brown with her handcarded, handspun rug/Two Grey Hills Trading Post)
October (Ye'i Bi Chei pictorial by Pauline Glasses/Richardson Trading)	November (A collage of pictures from the Toadlena Trading Post)	December (Jennie Slick at home with her loom)

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Our May 2009 class learns about current weaving trends from trader Bill Malone at Shush Yaz in Gallup.

I have just posted our class schedule for next year.  Once again, we will have three sessions of our popular weaving class and tour.  The dates for those classes are

• May 2-9, 2010
• July 26-August 1, 2010
• October 2-9, 2010

You can find more information and a link to enroll on the class page.

We will also offer our Advanced Weaving Seminar (aka Camp Weave-Alot) August 2-7, 2010 (Monday-Saturday).  This class is an opportunity for concentrated study of advanced topics with two master weavers, Jennie Slick and Liz Munk.

Our class on Navajo vegetal dyeing, Natural Dyes the Navajo Way, will run August 2-4, 2010  (Monday afternoon-Wednesday evening).  This class can be combined with the Advanced Seminar for those interested.

Jennie Slick and I will also be teaching our Navajo Weaving Boot Camp workshop at the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Convergence 2010 conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The conference is scheduled to run from July 18-25, 2010, but the Boot Camp schedule is not yet final.  I’ll update you when it is.  Please let me know if you’re interested in attending and I’ll work with the HGA to expedite that.

I am also working on developing a new class with the Spider Rock Girls.  Tentiatively called the Spider Rock Girls Boarding School, it will be based in Chinle and part of the weaving time will be spent at Spider Rock.  Look for details on this class in the next few weeks, but it will be more expensive than our current classes because of the logistics involved in getting people and looms in and out of the canyon and the expense of accommodations in Chinle.   If you are interested in the class, please contact me and I’ll keep you updated as we progress with the planning.

2010 will be our 13th year of teaching weaving the Navajo way and our classes have grown from one per year to five plus.  Ahé’hee’  (thank you from the bottom of our hearts) for your participation and support.

Nellie Glasses (left) and Weaving in Beauty web master Mary Walker hold one of Nellie's weavings.

Nellie Glasses made the long trip from her home near Rough Rock, Arizona to the recent Pueblo Grande Rug auction in Phoenix.  Nellie’s work often includes hand carded and handspun yarns and is very traditional.  She occasionally does sandpainting and tufted rugs.  She sometimes uses native plant materials such as Navajo tea and wild carrot to dye her yarns.   Nellie learned to weave from her grandmother, who encouraged her by telling her that her weaving skills would ensure that she would never go hungry.  Nellie and her husband Ken have seven adult children, some of whom are weavers.

Nellie finds that her work sells best in auction venues and she frequently markets her pieces at the Crownpoint Rug Auction and the Friends of Hubbell Native Arts Auction.  The handsome generous saddleblanket sized rug that Nellie and web master Mary Walker are holding in the picture above includes well matched hand spun and commercial yarns, is very floor worthy and may be purchased from the Weaving in Beauty Mercantile at a price that reflects the fair trade acquisition price that was paid to Nellie at the auction.  (Note: this rug has been sold, but please contact me if you are interested in a weaving by Nellie.)

Mary Walker

This afternoon, I put the finishing touches on the Weaving in Beauty calendar for 2009.  Every year, I take umm, ah, about 2000 pictures of weavers, rugs, sheep and, yes, dyepots.  Now, I suppose it can be argued that one dyepot looks about like another dyepot, but in the Navajo way of looking at things, everything has a spirit that will go on as long as there’s anyone to remember it, so at least some people will think that dyepot shot is justified.  As for the sheep, there wouldn’t be any rugs without them, so I think they fit right in.   The hard part is getting down to only 12 pictures plus the cover.  I usually can narrow it down to about 100 candidates, but it’s difficult after that.

I’ve put together a composite of all of the pictures, and the calendar is available at lulu.com for 14.99 plus postage   Sales of the calendar help to pay the costs of the web site and allows me to keep it editorially independent and free of advertising.  The calendar includes the dates of major weaving events and Navajo Nation holidays.

Here’s a preview of the photographs for each of the months.

And here (drumroll) is the cover image.