Weaving in Beauty

Michael Ornelas with his framed miniatures.

Phoenix, AZ   Walking out of the F area tent and turning left will bring us to weavers Lola and Melissa Cody and the Ornelas family (Barbara, Michael and Sierra).  Michael was the only member of the Ornelas group in the booth when I dropped by, but he had four of his 100+ weft count framed miniatrues on the table and we talked about his design inspirations.  He calls the two pieces on the right his Pokemon designs.  The two on the left are inspired by his work on the database of historic Navajo textiles at Arizona State Museum in Tucson.   If you have never seen the work that Michael’s family is famous for, it is hard to believe how incredibly fine it is.  The weft (pattern) threads are literally like sewing thread and the patterns are absolutely perfect symmetrically, with row counts that are never off.   We’ll be back by the booth a little later when Michael’s mother, Barbara Ornelas, gets back from visiting with some friends.  

Lola Cody had a small loom set up in her booth and did a little weaving demonstration for you.  First you’ll see her with the rugs that she had for sale.  You’ll see that she’s got several smaller pieces so that her customers have a variety of items and patterns to choose from.    Hanging from left, you see a Wide Ruins, Single Diamond Burntwater and Double Diamond Two Grey Hills.   Other patterns, including a rare two-sided weaving are on the table and a fine Burntwater Pictorial is at the back of the booth.  And Lola works full time.  At another job. 

Lola Cody weaves in her booth

Lola let me shoot some pictures over her shoulder so that you could get an idea of the motion of her hands as she is weaving.  In the picture below at left, she is opening what is known as the pull shed.  Notice that the keeps her weaving comb in her hands in all of these pictures.  Weavers are encouraged to learn to weave without putting the comb down because it’s more efficient.  You can click on any of the pictures to see them in a larger size. 

Lola places the batten into the pull shed.	Lola works with the pattern threads.
Click on any picture for a closer view

Tomorrow, we’ll talk with Jason Harvey and you’ll see his interesting variation on outlining designs.  

P.S. Also at the Arizona State Museum’s web site, you can create your own simple rug design, which has nothing to do with the Indian Market but is a lot of fun.  Just don’t complain to me about how late you stayed up trying it out!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

The Spider Rock Girls: from left, Larissa Blake, Alyssa Malone, Emily Malone and Laramie Blake. Missing is LaVera Blake who had to return to school in Utah.

Phoenix, AZ   The 52nd Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Market concluded about 90 minutes ago.  The Market enjoyed the kind of weather that caused Major League Baseball to locate some of their spring training here and people were really taking advantage of the fabulous sunshine and 80+ degree temperatures.   La Niña winters are dry and warm and this particular year has been a classic.  We’re all rooting for the rains to show up, but it’s not a bad place to be while you’re waiting.   I have been working with the pictures that I took and trying to figure out how to frame the articles.   I don’t have any favorite weavings from the show; I have a pile of them.  I think that the best way to do this is just to see the pictures in the order that I saw and visited with the weavers until we’re done.  At the end of the week, I’ll put up a link to the entire gallery of pictures and you can go through the whole show as many times as you want to.  

I saw the Spider Rock Girls first because I had some things that they needed for their booth.  The “girls” are members of the extended Yazzie/Blake/Malone/Whitney family whose ancestral home is near Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly.  Emily Malone and her daughter Larissa are the instructors at the Spider Rock Girls Boarding School weaving class and one of Emily’s other daughters, Laramie is kind of my foster daughter while she attends college here in Phoenix.  Emily’s oldest daughter, LaVera, was at the show yesterday but had to leave to go back to college in Utah, where she’s finishing up a nursing degree.  Getting that many family members to a show and making it work financially is no small feat and Emily and family had woven several small pieces to help round out their inventory.  You’ll see that strategy used by several weavers as we go through the Market.   Like many weavers who are successful at this level, the family also has a pattern that is identified with them and gives their work a recognizable style.   The Spider Rock rug is their trademark pattern, but they also had both large and small Burntwater design rugs.  A Burntwater is a bordered single or double diamond pattern that is woven using wool that has been vegetally dyed.  

Emily said that they had sold several pieces and rumor has it that even nine year old Alyssa had sold a small rug to an appreciative Market attendee.  OK, the buyer was one of my friends and I saw it on Facebook.   I believe that this is third rug that Alyssa has woven.   

Spider Rock patterned rugs woven by Emily Malone

Detail of Burntwater pattern weaving next to Spider Rock rugs

I’m having breakfast with the girls tomorrow before Emily, Larissa and Alyssa head back home, so I’ll have information on any rugs that they have left over.  They will also be participating in the Smoki Museum Auction in Prescott, Arizona on March 17th.  The girls don’t sit around!  

Tomorrow, we’ll visit with Lola Cody, who will show you some weaving technique on the small loom that she had set up.  We might get a chance to say hello to Michael Ornelas too who has some interesting design inspirations to share.  

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Hover your mouse over the pictures for a closer look

Scottsdale, AZ  The Scottsdale Native Arts Walk, another event in the run up to this weekend’s Heard Museum Guild Indian Market, took place last night.  Galleries all over Old Town Scottsdale were open and many had invited special guests to bring their own expertise to the festivities.  I got there early in order to be able to get photographs without bruising people, but there were plenty of people there even at 6:30.   At the brand new Waddell Trading Co., Jackson Clarke II of Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango, Colorado was hosting a display of Burnham style weavings by the Begay/Barber/Charley family of Burnham, New Mexico.   Jackson had also brought along the absolutely stunning Teec Nos Pos weaving by Louisa Tom that you see above.  It took Louisa over a year to weave it and she hand-dyed many of the yarns, some of them with Concord grape jelly and peyote buds.  It is visually stunning and Louisa’s weaving skill is absolutely superlative.  The weaving carried a price tag of $30,000. 

The Burnham style rugs that Jackson had brought with him were also fantastic.  I’m a real Burnham style enthusiast and I love to see what Sandy Begay and the other members of her family have been weaving.  Burnham rugs are bordered rugs that have pictorial elements where you’d usually find geometric motifs.  There’s more to it, but if I told you I’d be writing all day.  Maybe I should do an online seminar on that and some other rare pictorial styles.  Sandy’s beautiful Burnham style adaptation of the Yei Bi Chei design is shown below and features handspun Navajo-Churro yarns that Sandy and her family have dyed themselves.  

Hover your mouse over the picture see the details close up.

 I also spent quite a bit of time at the Old Territorial Shop and had a great chat with their guest Tyrone Campbell about the idiosyncrasies in antique weaving (like why are there four different shades of red in one of the rugs below?).  Tyrone is an expert in antique Navajo, Pueblo and Hispanic textiles and is the author of several books.  Old Territorial Shop owners Deb and Alston Neal always have a wonderful grouping of older textiles and last night was no exception.  The two pieces below date back to the 1870′s and 1880′s, the period just after the Long Walk and are looking absolutely fabulous.  Nothing but the best. 

Hover your mouse over the pictures for a closer view

I’ll be back late on Sunday with pictures from the Market itself, but it will probably take me a few days to get through what will need to be written about the weavers and their work.   I’ll put up a new post each day until we’ve covered all of the weavers that I’m able to visit with at the Market.   See you Sunday!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Tempe, AZ  I couldn’t take you to the River Trading Post, so I thought that I should share the other pictures that I took there when I visited on Tuesday.   The Ye’i Bi Chei rug that I showed yesterday is a showstopper, but the other rugs in the collection are each remarkable in their own ways.  There are some great technique studies here for weavers.  In the first two pictures in the gallery, look at the way the weaver handles the kernels in the ear of corn.  The second picture is a close up study of it with a nice view of most of the chipmunk for your viewing pleasure.  Weavers should also note the Red Mesa Outline rug, which has very well executed outlined squash blossom motifs.

The owner of the collection, Larry Meyers, really appreciates bird pictorials and you can see that in his selections.  He also has great taste in wearing blankets and there are two stunning  examples for you to see, both from the late 19th century.

A remarkable Whirling Log Sandpainting rug is not shown below.  Although the whirling log motif used by Native Americans has nothing to do with the swastika, it looks like one and it’s offensive to many people.  There are also traditional Navajo people who do not believe that it is appropriate to display sandpaintings in any way other than in a traditional Navajo ceremony.  I have decided that rugs with this symbol won’t be on the front page of the site to avoid having people surprised by seeing something that they weren’t expecting so you’ll have to access another page of the site if you’d like to see the weaving.  If you study it, you’ll begin to appreciate the meaning that the whirling log has for Navajo people and you’ll see why weavers want to reclaim it.  The sandpainting is typically used in the sixth day of the Nightway ceremony and depicts an epic journey undertaken by a Navajo with assistance from the Holy People.  Click here to see the weaving.  

To see any picture from the gallery below in high resolution with a caption, just click on the thumbnail.  You may also view the gallery as a slide show by clicking that option in the brackets below.  

[Show as slideshow]

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.

Tempe, AZ  One day about 100 years ago, a Navajo weaver near Shiprock, New Mexico spent the better part of a year weaving the rug that you see above.  It’s woven with Navajo Churro yarn and the quality of the weaving and the design symmetry tell us that the weaver must have been a highly regarded and skilled artist who whose work in every respect meets the requirement that fine art be an object that is created as an expression of aesthetic excellence.  In Navajo culture, this is called hózhó, the beauty and harmony that surround the well-lived and balanced life.   It is an ethic that drove the weaver to eschew any effort to call attention to herself.  These weavings are not signed and except for a very few individuals, we don’t know who they were.  Their work was used in homes all over the world and an amazing amount of it still survives, although it isn’t often in the great condition that the rug shown above is in.   Today, it is recognized as the fine art that it is and this week it’s being celebrated at the River Trading Post in Scottsdale.  Collectors Larry and Deborah Meyers will have their textiles at the River until Friday, March 2, so this is an opportunity that won’t be around long.    

You can also see wonderful examples of textile art at the Old Territorial Shop just down the street and the Arts Walk tomorrow will start a weekend celebrating Native American fine arts that includes the Heard Museum Indian Market.  I’m going to one busy little rug geek for the next few days.  Hey, sleep is a crutch.  

Hover your mouse over the picture for a closer look.