A Finished Piece: The Social Dancers

16th November 2009

The Social Dancers

Tempe, AZ Here’s the latest piece that I’ve finished, a weaving called The Social Dancers. The yarn is Burnham’s Trading Post #2, which is about 325 yards to a four ounce skein. I dyed all of the yarn except for the black. The yellowish variegated yarn is aniline dyed, the pink and maroon are cochineal and the blues and greens are indigo, some overdyed with osage orange. The peach shades are madder and sandalwood over osage orange. You can click on the picture if you would like to see a larger image.

Social dances (often called song and dance) are events where people dress up, dance and have a good time. Sometimes they last all night! The YouTube video below features Chester Franklin of the Navajo Nation Swingers talking about social dance and shows three dances. As you’ll see, the ladies hold the shawls, but for my weaving, I thought it would be nice to show both shawls and blankets so I gave each male dancer a blanket. Beside, it’s cold this time of year, so the guys may need those blankets later. By the way, you can see three of the surviving code talkers in the video.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 9:55 am and is filed under It's All About the Rugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Feb 2012

1 On November 16th, 2009, Morris said:

Nice piece Mary!!! I don’t know who voted, but it’s definitely a 6 out of 5 stars for this piece! (Actually I made the mistake in voting as I didn’t and still don’t know how to vote correctly! Sorry!) Keep up the good work!!

posted on November 16th, 2009 at 3:15 pm

2 On November 16th, 2009, Mary Walker said:

The star rating is just there to give visitors a quick way to show what they like without having to take the time to leave a comment. Thanks for doing both, and thank you for the nice compliment on the rug. I haven’t decided what to do next!

posted on November 16th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

3 On November 16th, 2009, Sandy Gally said:

Absolutely stunning, Mary. How I would love to see this in person. How long did it take for the actual weaving?

posted on November 16th, 2009 at 10:11 pm

4 On November 17th, 2009, Mary Walker said:

I probably worked on it about 60 hours. I really don’t keep track.

posted on November 17th, 2009 at 5:42 am

5 On November 18th, 2009, Maida Tilchen said:

Wow, Mary, what a great rug. It has that effect like those trick pictures where you see two different things – like the one with the old woman and the young woman. I don’t know what those are called, I hope you know what I mean, but it’s kind of a trick optical effect. I like how the stairsteps shape is integrated into it so that my eye flips between that and the people. I also like the stars. I hope this makes sense! Somebody else might see it so differently, and that’s what so fun.

posted on November 18th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

6 On November 19th, 2009, sue dalton said:

Hi Mary. Your newly finished rug is so detailed and beautiful. I hope I will get to see it up close and personal before too long.

posted on November 19th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

7 On November 19th, 2009, Mary Walker said:

It would be great to see you! If you’re not coming here, maybe we could meet at the Putney Diner!

posted on November 19th, 2009 at 8:56 pm

8 On November 19th, 2009, Mary Walker said:

I know what you mean! Also, the time of day that it depicts is twilight, when the we can see many subtle and wonderful things.

posted on November 19th, 2009 at 8:57 pm

9 On November 20th, 2009, Katie Hickey said:

Hi Mary–

Your rug is just beautiful. I’m so excited to see how traditional designs are growing and being developed by artists like you and Jennie and others. I love all of DY Begay’s work, and Loretta Tahe’s feather rug is amazing. I’m inspired by you all. Be well!

Katie

posted on November 20th, 2009 at 6:45 am

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