Weaving in Beauty

Two young fair visitors try their hands at weaving.

Tucson, AZ I spent yesterday (2/21/2009) at the Southwest Indian Art Fair, held on the grounds of the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  The fair draws a large group of artists from the Southwest and beyond but is smaller and more accessible than the much larger Heard Museum Indian Market that will be coming up in two weeks.  The fair features a “Learn to Weave” demonstration tent that hosts several Navajo weavers and a group of volunteers and demonstrators from the Tucson Handweaver’s and Spinner’s Guild.   Visitors to the tent can try carding, spinning and weaving Navajo style.   For me, it’s a great reason to drive to Tucson, see old friends and meet some new ones.

Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas spins a fine yarn for her Two Grey Hills style weaving

Barbara smoothes the yarn and coaxes out any thick spots as she spins.

This year, Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas, her sister Lynda Teller Pete and their families were doing the weaving and spinning demonstrations.  Barbara’s using a wheelchair right now due to a nasty fall that left her with a broken ankle and 14 stitches in one of her knees.  That’s Barbara at left using a support spindle to do a final spin on some of the extremely fine yarn that is needed for the 100+ weft per inch Two Grey Hills tapestries that Barbara and her sister are famous for.   Here, she’s fully draws out the yarn and is getting ready to wind it on to the shaft of the spindle.   I suggested that we might try a spinning race, and she said “OK, but I’m going to win!”  She had a good point.  I’m not too bad at spinning for a bilagáana (white person), but you’ve got to know your limits.

At right, you can see Barbara working to smooth the yarn before she adds any additional twist that’s needed and winds it on to her spindle.   I should have taken another picture later in the day to show how much yarn she’d spun.  It was incredible how much she’d been able to do considering all the people who stopped by to chat and lean more about the process.

Barbara’s sister, Lynda Teller Pete, also attracted large groups of people to her loom (see picture below at right).  She is working on a very fine Two Grey Hills tapestry that has a weft count of over 100 per inch.

Lynda Teller Pete shows her weaving technique to some visitors to the weaving tent. That's Lynda's grand-neice weaving in the foreground.

Lynda Teller Pete manipulates the weft threads of her tapestry grade Two Grey Hills weaving.

Lynda uses a black back cloth to help her see the fine weft yarns and passes the threads through the warp with a sacking needle to avoid damage to the warp.   At left below, you can see a closer view of Lynda’s hands as she works on the tapestry.   Although it might look like Lynda’s nearly done with this weaving, she thought she would be working on it for several more weeks.

Also demonstrating was Barbara’s son, Michael Ornelas, who is a very active weaver in addition to being a full time student at the University of Arizona.    Michael is working on a tapestry grade red background piece that he hopes to have completed for the the Heard Museum show.  That’s an ambitious goal when combined with his academic load.  I didn’t get the dimensions of the weaving, but I think it’s about 18″ by 24″ and even an inch would take several hours to complete.  You can see the partially completed rug below at left.  At right, you can see one of Michael’s completed pieces, a Transitional Blanket design.

Michael Ornelas' tapestry in progress

A transitional style tapestry by Michael Ornelas.

The show was well attended and although the artists say the have certainly felt the effects of the economy, they are adjusting their offerings and working to maintain the quality of their work at a high level.

Mary Walker

Southern Arizona is blessed with glorious weather right now; the days are in the low 80’s and the nights are cool. It’s perfect weather for outdoor art markets (and spring training too, I guess). The Southwest Indian Art Fair was held last Saturday and Sunday on the grounds of the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. The Museum is on the University of Arizona campus in a beautiful building which also houses the Gloria F. Ross Tapestry Center. The Center coordinates with several weavers to create an area where people can see demonstrations and gain a greater appreciation of the work that goes into Navajo textiles. This year, Martha Schultz, Lola Cody, Melissa Cody and Michael Ornelas were demonstrating and there was also a contingent from Tucson Handweaver’s and Spinner’s Guild on hand each day to help teach weaving and spinning to anyone interested.

Although I was busy demonstrating the hip spindle, I did take some pictures. I was very pleased with the picture of Martha Schultz at the right. She was working on a beautiful vegetally dyed rug and it was one of those unposed moments that happen now and then. I did crop out a pizza box that was in the background. Martha and her family members wove the rugs that you can see behind her.

Martha’s daughter Lola Cody and her granddaughter Melissa Cody were also demonstrating. Lola was working on a handspun and handcarded rug and Melissa was doing a Germantown piece that she’s given herself a year to finish. Melissa said that she enjoys her job as a museum curator in Santa Fe, but it does cut into her weaving time, which is limited to mostly weekends. You can see Melissa at left chatting with some visitors as she works on her rug. It may be a little hard to see in the picture, but Melissa is superimposing geometric patterns over traditional Germantown Eyedazzler patterns. She graciously answered at least 100 questions about how in the world she was keeping the pattern straight.

Lola had just started on her rug, but you can see the pattern emerging in the picture at the right. Her beautiful handspun yarns are in the basket to her left. I’m always glad to see weavers still spinning their yarns, and I hope that collectors will see the added value in pieces like this.

While everyone else was starting a piece, Michael Ornelas, the handsome and affable son of Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas was patiently finsihing a piece with a weft count of (now sit down if you aren’t already doing so) about 114. The yarn was literally as fine as sewing thread. The pattern was a simple and elegant chief blanket variant that promised to advertise any small error, but I certainly couldn’t see any. Michael worked all day and finally decided to complete the last couple of rows at home because his eyes were refusing to focus after six hours of meticulous work. That’s Michael working on the finishing at the left.

To get an idea of how fine Michael’s piece is, take a look at the picture at right. The yarn that looks super chunky is fine warp thread. I’m hoping that Michael brings the completed piece to the Heard Museum Indian Market this weekend. He’ll be there with his mother, aunt Lynda Teller Pete and sister Sierra.

Not demonstrating but also at the show were The Spider Rock Girls (mom Emily Malone and her daughters LaVera, Larissa, Laramie and Alyssa), Isabel and Mark Deschinny and the Laughing family. I didn’t get to visit with the Laughings, but I’ll try to amend that next week at the Heard. It’s getting a little late, so I’ll catch you up on the Spider Rock Girls and the Deschinny’s tomorrow morning, but I’ve got to include a picture from each of them. At left, you’ll see Isabel in her booth, and at right are LaVera and Laramie Blake with some of their Burntwater designs.