Weaving in Beauty

A detail of a Late Classic raveled bayeta blanket at Turkey Mountain Traders in Scottsdale, AZ.

Tempe, AZ Navajo Germantowns were woven during two overlapping periods identified as the Late Classic (1865-1880) and Transitional (1868-1895).   Both periods are marked by increasing use of commercial materials and adaptation of designs from Rio Grande, Saltillo and other weaving traditions.  During both periods, Germantown yarns were sometimes combined with other available weaving materials, most famously with raveled bayeta.   Starting in the Late Classic period, the design geometries used extended from the wider than long Chief Blanket to the longer than wide serape more closely identified with the Hispanic cultures of the region.

The Late Classic weaving shown above is at Turkey Mountain Traders and clearly shows the influence of Rio Grande and Saltillo design.  The bright red background yarns are raveled bayeta which has been respun (and possibly recarded).  The pattern yarns are Germantowns.  In the detailed photo below, I hope that you’ll be able to see the difference in the texture between the bayeta and the Germantown yarn.   You’ll also see another aspect of Navajo weaving that was introduced during this period, a knotted finish at one end of the weaving, a departure from the traditional and time consuming closed warp finish that was deemed less important since the ends were covered by an added fringe, vestiges of which can be seen here.   The downside of this technique was that it was not as durable as the traditional method, so this particular weaving is all the more remarkable because the knotted end is in good condition.  Knotted finishes were largely abandoned as Navajo textiles began to be used as floorcoverings, but they’re still used to finish the modern Gallup throws that are woven for the tourist trade.

A detail of a Late Classic serape style weaving at Turkey Mountain Traders

When a gallery or museum professional is trying to authenticate or date a textile, the analysis of the materials provides crucial evidence that combined with the pattern, techniques and provenance determines the age and estimated value of the piece.  This weaving is an excellent case in point.  A visual examination shows what the background yarns are very clearly different from the plied pattern yarns, but are they Navajo-churro wool that’s been aniline dyed or are they the fabled raveled bayeta?  To definitively answer that question, we need to go into the lab and do some microscopic examination of the fibers and spectral analysis of the dye.   The shorter industrially processed wool fibers in bayeta are quite different from long staple crimpless hand-processed Churro wool and the carminic acid that produces the color in cochineal forms a distinctive fingerprint that immediately identifies the dye source.  For an interesting look at how this is done, you can check out the textile analysis pages at http://www.material-insight.com/NavajoBlanket.htm.

We have one more stop to make on our walk and we’ll be looking at a beautiful Wedge Weave from the Transitional Period at John C. Hill Antique Indian Art. Look for that installment on Sunday!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Window Rock, AZ Yesterday, our class took the afternoon off to visit Toadlena and Two Grey Hills, about 70 miles northeast of Window Rock.  We took one of my favorite routes: north on Indian Route 12, east on New Mexico 134 over Narbona Pass and then north on 491 before making a turn toward Toadlena and Two Grey Hills. At Toadlena, trader Mark Winter brought out three historic blankets that he’s acquired and allowed us to examine them.  One was a spectacular Chief Blanket dating from the time of the Civil War.  The red color is raveled bayeta and the blue is from indigo.  It was interesting to see the variations in the red color as the weaver worked to acquire enough yarn to complete her project.  You can see pictures of Mark modeling the blanket below.

Back view of Civil War era Chief Blanket.

Front view, modeled by Mark Winter of Toadlena Trading Post.

We also saw a woman’s manta wearing blanket from the same period.  It featured a point twill band at the beginning and end of the blanket that was just beautiful and something I haven’t seen before.  There’s a picture below:

The blanket in the top part of the picture is also raveled bayeta and features a unique twill band.

Finally, here’s a picture of Mark visiting with our group.

Mark Winter (left) and Linda Larouche (facing away) visit with our weavers. You can see Debi Ward (facing to the left) and Diana Frawley (right).

Before we returned to Window Rock we also stopped to visit Two Grey Hills Trading Post, where trader Les Wilson graciously opened  the store (closed for Columbus Day) and showed us his rug room and where lLes’ wife, Irma Henderson,  sold us some of her meticulously washed current year Navajo-Churro clip.  I’ve been spinning up some of the wool that I bought last week and I’ve been able to get some nice yarn even though I don’t have any carders with me!  Some of our current students are interested in spinning, so we may get some hip spindle lessons in before the end of the week.  I’ll include some pictures of the their project later today.

Mary Walker

Many people, especially people who read this site, are familiar with the $500,000 Chief Blanket that was featured on the Antiques Roadshow and occasionally I get an email from someone who really, really, really hopes that they own a similar treasure.  I haven’t found one so far, but I have gotten to see some really interesting pieces and I hope I’ve been able to help the owners understand better what they have even if it wasn’t a six figure 401k in disguise.  Determining the worth of a vintage textile is a calculus that involves fiber identification, dye analysis and examination of design geometry and motifs to build a picture of historic context.  One of the factors that comes into play with 19th century examples is the use of bayeta, which places a textile into the period before the 1880′s and also greatly increases the value because it is very rare and seldom seen on the market.

The source of red coloration usually seen in Navajo textiles is aniline dye, either used to dye commercial Germantown yarns or to dye wool hand spun by the weaver.   By the 1880′s these dyes had almost completely replaced the earlier source of red coloration used in Navajo textiles: bayeta, a red woolen flannel cloth that was raveled and usually respun.  The  red color in bayeta usually came from carminic acid derived from the Mesoamerican cochineal beetle but laccaic acid from the lac beetle found in Asia was sometimes used.  The blanket in the picture below allegedly is woven with some of these raveled yarns, but is this claim accurate?  Let’s see…..(click on any picture for a closer look)

Is the red color in this Third Phase Chief Blanket bayeta?

From a design perspective, the weaving is a Third Phase Chief Blanket.  This is the last and most complex of the Chief Blanket design geomeries and it consists of nine diamond and triangular design areas superimposed over a striped background.  Second phase blankets use square or rectangular design motifs and First Phase patterns are simple stripes.  Third Phase blankets emerged prior to the 1880′s and were woven during the period when bayeta was being used, so nothing about the design rules out the use of bayeta.  Now, let’s take a close look at the yarns.

A close view of the yarns used in the blanket

You can see that the yarns used are smooth plied yarns with a beautiful patina.  This particular close-up also shows a distinctive detail that I’ve never seen in a any other Navajo piece: a twill weave section that seems to be a sort of signature.  You can also see that the red matches the other yarns in terms of size and in another view below, you can also see how evenly the yarns are spun and that the colors of both the red and black are very even.  You can also see the plies in the red yarns and you can see how well they match.

A close view of the black and red threads

The plies themselves don’t rule out raveled bayeta.  Bayeta yarns usually are respun and have two to six plies, and black cloth could have just as easily have been raveled as red although I’ve never seen any references to this.  The even spin of the plied yarns suggests commercial yarns to me, but this is based on what textile analysts call the “experienced eye” technique for dye analysis.   Further corroboration is the appearance of the areas which look purplish because early blue aniline dyes often fade to these shades.  How to tell for sure?  We would need to submit a sample of the wool to a lab that does scientific analysis.  Here, a small sample of the wool would be spectrographically analyzed and compared to known samples.  This is a technique that is usually done by museums or when a determination will mean a significant increase in the appraised value of the textile.   That hadn’t been done in the case of this blanket, but absent that analysis my opinion is that this blanket was woven with commercial yarns and not with raveled bayeta.