Weaving in Beauty

This was a busy weekend in the Phoenix area for anyone interested in any kind of Native American art.  The first event on the schedule was the Scottsdale Art Walk, a monthly event in the Old Town area.  The Old Territorial Shop holds their annual Weaving Show during the Art Walk before the Heard Museum Fair and Indian Market, teaming with the Toadlena Trading Post’s Mark Winter and Linda Larouche to bring in a variety of Two Grey Hills weavings and hosting weaving and spinning demonstrations.  This year, Marie Yazzie and her daughter made the trip to Scottsdale and showed their craft to fascinated visitors on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Marie Yazzie of the Two Grey Hills area works at her loom set up at the Old Territorial Shop in Scottsdale, AZ

Although Marie was demonstrating a conventional rectangular weaving, she is noted for her round weavings, some incorporating sandpainting design elements.  You can see a selection of those in the picture below.   The figures in the largest rug represent Mother Earth (left) and Father Sky (right).   Round rugs are difficult to weave and the techniques for doing them is a closely guarded secret.

A selection of round weavings by Marie Yazzie at the Old Territorial Shop

One rug that caught my eye was a Storm Pattern by Faith Smith, a weaver in her thirties.  Faith had bordered the rug with Saltillo diamonds, the first rug I have seen with this treatment.  Old Territorial Shop owner Deb Neal held the rug up for a picture that you’ll see below.

Storm pattern with Saltillo diamond border by Faith Smith

Thursday was only the beginning, and I’ll leave you with these pictures today.  Tomorrow we’ll go on to the Heard Museum Guild Indian Market.   At the end of the week, I’ll post a link to the gallery of all the pictures from the weekend.

Mary Walker