Weaving in Beauty

Mary with loom set up for twill weaving

Window Rock, AZ Jennie Slick and I are starting to do a monthly weaving class for people who live in the area around Window Rock.  Many of  our local students are Navajo and know the weaving basics, but are interested in learning advanced techniques the their family members aren’t familiar with or that they haven’t had a chance to try before.  Tonight, one of our students wanted to learn a diamond point twill.  With twill, the standard pull shed and stick shed are replaced by a stick shed and three pull sheds, creating a four harness loom.  It had been awhile since I’d tried doing a twill,  but it all came together.  You can see our student, Mary, who lives in Round Rock, with the loom set up above and there’s a detail of the weaving below.  The twill pattern that we wove is detailed in Caroline Spurgeon’s Weaving the Navajo Way, How to Create Rugs, Miniatures and More.

Detail of diamond point twill on a Navajo style loom

Our next local class will be on Thursday, October 7 from 6 to 9 PM.  Please contact me if you would like to join us.  The cost for the class is $15 psr session and the classes are open to anyone.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

	Click on any picture to see it in full size
Emily Malone isnt sure what Pam Root's next weaving move should be...	Emily moves in to help, but Pam's wondering what she was thinking then she signed up for this....	All's well that weaves well, and with Emily's help, Pam decision is looking very wise!

Tempe, AZ The day after our visit to HGA’s Convergence 2010 ended, Jennie Slick and I started a week long class in Window Rock.  What lunatic schedules these class marathons?  Me, that’s who.  It seemed to make sense last year when I put it on the calendar, and thanks to a great group of students, it turned out to be another wonderful week of weaving on the Navajo Nation.  Our students came from as far away as Australia for this session.  We had our share of beautiful rainy weather that we dodged pretty successfully by taking our field trips in the morning and watching the weather reports.  We even made it into Canyon de Chelly on the last day before the weather closed the tours there down for a couple of weeks.

The Spider Rock Girls came by for a visit and so did Gilbert Begay, Nathan Harry, Herman and Lula Brown,  and the wonderful and encouraging members of the Navajo community who came through the classroom with stories about the ways that weaving has been part of their lives and still is.  You can see the impromptu consultation that Spider Rock Girl Emily Malone did with class member Pam Root in the triptych of pictures above.   Pam finished that rug by the end of the week, too.   Of course, there may be some magic in the yarn that we get at R.B. Burnham and Co.!

We had a wonderful visit with Mark Winter and Linda Larouche at the Toadlena Trading Post and with Shirley Brown at Two Grey Hills.  By the time that we all said good-bye on Sunday, two weavings had been completed, multiple weavings had been purchased (along with no small amount of jewelry) and we were reveling in the spirit of a class that to the Navajo way of thinking will go on as long as there is anyone to remember it.  You can see our class picture below, and you can click here to view the full picture gallery of 38 pictures.

Our July, 2011 class. From row from left are Mary Walker, Pam Anderson, Patricia Whitney, Pam Root and Jennie Slick. Back row from left, Teri Taylor (and Rowdy), Paula Pavlovic, Ana Pavlovic, Bonnie Rangel and Linda Marie Golier

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Rose Yazzie works with a traditional hip spindle during the Friends of Hubbell Native American Arts Auction

Window Rock, AZ All of the students from our May class have headed home and most of them are already there.  I’m still in Window Rock to take care of a few errands and I’ll be heading back to the Phoenix area today.  I’ll be writing about the class this week, but I wanted to say thank you to the students and to the many, many members of the Navajo Nation who dropped by to say hello while our class was in session.

Our class ended with a trip to the Friends of Hubbell Native American Arts Auction at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.  It’s one of the largest Native American auction events in the country and is held twice a year (the next auction will be on September 18, 2010).  Spider Rock Girl Rose Yazzie sat with our group and gave us a hip spindle demonstration as she watched the auction.   I thought that Roses’s picture would be a good one to leave with you as I head home.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Virginia Burnham holds a Wide Ruins rug by Myrtle Francis. Behind her is a Germantown Revivial by Rose Yazzie.

Window Rock, AZ The snow is gone!  Today, our class took a field trip to R.B. Burnham and Company Trading Post in Sanders, Arizona.  Burnham’s features yarns that are custom-spun for Navajo weaving, and it is always a favorite stop for our classes.  Virginia Burnham spent some time showing us some of the rugs currently in their gallery.  Above you can see her holding a spectacular Wide Ruins rug by Myrtle Francis.  The yarn in this rug is Brown Sheep sport weight yarn that is re-spun.  Behind Virginia, you can see part of a Germantown Revival rug woven by Rose Yazzie.

We made the 60 mile trip back to Window Rock via Indian Route 12, which boasts some of the most photogenic scenery on the Navajo Nation.  Below, you can see a picture of Teapot Rock.  Tomorrow, we’re scheduled to try our hand at the dyepot.   Let’s hope that it’s a good day to dye!

Teapot Rock is a sandstone formation the can be seen on Indian Route 12. It's about six miles north of Lupton, AZ.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

A snowy morning in May at the Quality Inn in Window Rock.

Window Rock, AZ Our May weaving class started off in a spring snow storm this morning.   It was still snowing this evening, but the temperature is expected to rise tomorrow and we’re hoping for a return to more springlike weather.  In the meantime, we had a chance to capture some out of season beauty with our cameras and we got our looms warped.  Weather permitting, we’ll visit R.B. Burnham and Co. in Sanders tomorrow.

Spring snow at the Window Rock

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker