Weaving in Beauty

The Navajos and The Amazing Cochineal Beetle, Part I

17th September 2008

The Navajos and The Amazing Cochineal Beetle, Part I

posted in It's All About the Rugs, Textile Analysis, Trading Posts, Weavers and Their Stories |

Jennie Slick and I are in Albuquerque on our way to do a three day workshop in Massachusetts.  Just before I left Phoenix, I washed and rinsed some custom yarns for the students to look at.  One group of them was dyed with cochineal.  There’s a picture of the grouping below.  Isn’t it amazing that one dyestuff can yield this many colors?   These are only a few of the results that you can get with these amazing critters, who are just stuffed with carminic acid.

Clockwise from lower left, high concentration dyebath with cream of tartar, late dyebath with tin mordant, ammonia afterbath, high percentage tin mordant

All cochineal! Clockwise from lower left, high concentration dyebath with cream of tartar, late dyebath with tin mordant, ammonia afterbath, high percentage tin mordant

Many authorities say that the Navajos didn’t dye with cochineal; that they only used raveled threads, sometimes recarding them.  Others, such as Kate Peck Kent and Joe Ben Wheat thought that they could identify Navajo handspun that had been dyed with cochineal.  I’m interested in following up on this to see if there’s a definitive answer, and I’ll fill you in on my results.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 6:20 am and is filed under It's All About the Rugs, Textile Analysis, Trading Posts, Weavers and Their Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 2 responses to “The Navajos and The Amazing Cochineal Beetle, Part I”

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  1. 1 On September 17th, 2008, linda said:

    what is the workshop you’ll be doing in massachusetts?

    posted on September 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am

  2. 2 On September 18th, 2008, linda said:

    thanks for your response. is it open to the public?

    posted on September 18th, 2008 at 7:14 am

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    Latest on Mon, 04:10 pm

    Raymon: I have a blanket simialr to the pink blanket. My dad's family had sheep. Every year they would gather the wool and take it to Utah Woolen mills and make beautiful wool blankets. Similar to Pendleton blankets, in many different colors. Love the turquoise jewlrey. My mom has a big beaded bag of it that I hope I get a few peices of (she's half Native American) She finds it kind of amusing that Native American prints etc. are "in" right now.

    Remigio: Way to go, Navajo Nation! Either cease-and-desist, or collect roiaetyls for the use of your name (only on quality products of which you approve, of course). Same with sports teams that use Native names as mascots. Until recently, the University of North Dakota was paying the Standing Rock Sioux annual roiaetyls to use the name Fighting Sioux , which was a win-win and a source of pride for both parties. Unfortunately for both the Tribe and the university, political correctness put an end to that.

    Ann Puzio: Hi Mary, Need to change to the waiting list for 9/13-20th. I hope this is possible.Also, going to see if I can sign up for the online class, need to check my computer. Thanks ann

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