Weaving in Beauty

Some of the rugs at Perry Null's Tobe Turpen Trading Post. In the foreground, you can see rugs by Wanda Tracey (lower left), and Abigail and Susie Smallcanyon.

Window Rock, AZ How can it be October already?  Eight students started our October Weaving in Beauty class and did their warps this morning.   Warping is hard work, so by this afternoon, we were ready for some shopping in Gallup, about 24 miles from here.  We started at Richardson’s Trading, where buyer Larry Fulbright is doing a wonderful job of acquiring high quality unique pieces.  We took a short walking tour of downtown Gallup, stopping by City Electric Shoe Shop for a look at their stock of moccasins, belts and Pendleton products.  We moved on from there to Navajo Spirit, Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger’s clothing company and Glenn’s Bakery (for the coffee of course, not the cookies).   We made a final stop at Perry Null’s Tobe Turpen Trading Post, where we particularly enjoyed seeing the large selection of Gallup throws and the Wide Ruins rugs by the Anna Clyde and several members of the Francis family.    We finished the day with dinner at Earl’s, where Native American vendors circulate among the diners with their wares.  It doesn’t get much better than this for people like us!

Tomorrow, we’ll get started with our weaving.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Jeanette Hicks guards her fetsh selections as Barry Oglesby discusses the artform with Luci Hicks and Sarah Morse

Tempe, AZ Since I’m getting ready to head back to Window Rock for another class, I wanted to get you caught up on the conclusion of our August classes.   I’ll start with the week-long class that ran from August 1st through the 8th.  On Thursday, we decided to head into Gallup for some shopping and dinner with trader Bruce Burnham.  We went to several of the trading posts that Jennie Slick and I like to visit, starting with Perry Null’s Tobe Turpen Trading Post.   Perry carry’s a full line of Native American arts and takes advantage of Gallup’s proximity to both the Zuni and Navajo communities.  As you can see above, several of our students enjoyed the selection of Zuni fetish carvings at Perry’s.   You can see some of the textile area there in the picture below.

A view of the rug display at Perry Null's in Gallup, NM.

Moving on from there, we went to Richardson’s Trading on Historic Route 66 in Gallup.  Richardson’s has been in business in Gallup since 1913 and their rug display spreads over five different rooms and a loft area.  It is one of the best places to examine different rug styles and rug buyer Larry Fulbright aims for both high quality and unique perspectives in the textiles that he brings in to Richardson’s.  The Germantown sampler by Veronica Six that you can see in the picture below is a good example of both.

A very contemporary Germantown Revival weaving by Veronica Six

It’s a difficult to communicate the size of Richardson’s textile area in a picture, but you can get some idea in the photo below.  In addition to textiles, Richardson’s also carries a  full selection of pottery, jewelry and other Native American artwork.

View of Richardson's main rug room from the loft area. Many of the rugs hanging from the ceiling are large than 4'x6'.

After a full afternoon of studying the textiles and other art, we were ready for dinner at the El Rancho Hotel.  Built in the 1930′s, the El Rancho was home to many of the movie stars who worked in Gallup when it was an active location area for movies and television.  It’s still an attraction for tourists, although the last time I stayed there, there rooms could have used some help and the plumbing seemed to be haunted by the Marx Brothers (who really did stay there).  The El Rancho restaurant, however, is top notch and has some of the best food in the area.  They also serve adult beverages, which we can’t have in Window Rock (alcohol is prohibited on the Navajo Nation).   Fourth generation trader Bruce Burnham joined us and fascinated us with his stories and his hopes for the success of downtown Gallup.

Bruce Burnham (blue shirt) discusses the trading business with the class at the El Rancho Hotel restaurant

The next day, we headed out to Toadlena and Two Grey Hills.  In this area, handspinning is still the standard and sheep culture is at some of the highest levels within the Navajo Nation.  Here, sheep are bred for signature colors and the fine weavings created are among the most expensive textiles in the world.

At Toadlena, trader Mark Winter has turned the trading post started by George Bloomfield in 1909 into a combination trading post and museum, converting the old vault area into a rotating exhibit.  The trading post is celebrating it’s centennial this area and weaver Esther Etcitty created the rug seen in the picture below in honor of the event.

Esther Etcitty created one of her signature rock art rugs in honor of the Toadlena Trading Post Museum

Moving on, we headed over to the Two Grey Hills Trading Post, established in 1897 by the Noel brothers.   Trader Les Wilson keeps a good selection of Two Grey Hills weavings as well as one of the best selections of folk art in the area (the smiling sheep figures are a class favorite).   Les’ wife Irma Henderson has a flock of Navajo-churro sheep which makes Two Grey Hills an excellent stop for those of us who spin our own yarn.   Two Grey Hills is one of my main sources of the authentic Navajo-churro wool that I use in rug restorations.  One of the master weavers of Two Grey Hills rugs, Shirley Brown, also works at the store, but she modestly will not mention it.  She’ll show you one of her magnificent weavings if coaxed.

A few of Irma Henderson's Navajo-churro sheep

After we returned to Window Rock we got back to work.  Luci Hicks finished her piece and Niccole Cerveny put the finishing touches on her work.  Completing a weaving Navajo style isn’t fast or easy, but it is very satisfying and when the textile is removed from the loom, there is very little in the way of finishing work that needs to be done.

Niccole Cerveny puts the finishing touches on her weaving

Luci Hicks and Jennie Slick with Luci's completed weaving. What a wonderful design!

Of course, we had to get together for a class picture.  I’d been trying to get everyone up to the Window Rock to do it all week, but we just didn’t get there and decided to go for a alternate location just outside the dining room at the hotel.  You’d think that we could have gotten everyone together, but we couldn’t and we ended up having to take two pictures.  I’m not that good with Photoshop, so I’ll show you both of them!

Front from left, Jennie Slick, Judi Semple, Tammy Denhard, Mary Walker. Back from left, Jeanette Hicks, Luci Hicks, Lorna Stone, Penny Jube, Niccole Cerveny

Front from left, Jennie Slick, Judi Semple, Sarah Morse, Lorna Stone. Back from left, Jeanette Hicks, Luci Hicks, Mary Walker, Niccole Cerveny, Penny Jube

Thanks to all of the students for a wonderful week and may you all weave in beauty!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Our May 2009 class learns about current weaving trends from trader Bill Malone at Shush Yaz in Gallup.

I have just posted our class schedule for next year.  Once again, we will have three sessions of our popular weaving class and tour.  The dates for those classes are

• May 2-9, 2010
• July 26-August 1, 2010
• October 2-9, 2010

You can find more information and a link to enroll on the class page.

We will also offer our Advanced Weaving Seminar (aka Camp Weave-Alot) August 2-7, 2010 (Monday-Saturday).  This class is an opportunity for concentrated study of advanced topics with two master weavers, Jennie Slick and Liz Munk.

Our class on Navajo vegetal dyeing, Natural Dyes the Navajo Way, will run August 2-4, 2010  (Monday afternoon-Wednesday evening).  This class can be combined with the Advanced Seminar for those interested.

Jennie Slick and I will also be teaching our Navajo Weaving Boot Camp workshop at the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Convergence 2010 conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The conference is scheduled to run from July 18-25, 2010, but the Boot Camp schedule is not yet final.  I’ll update you when it is.  Please let me know if you’re interested in attending and I’ll work with the HGA to expedite that.

I am also working on developing a new class with the Spider Rock Girls.  Tentiatively called the Spider Rock Girls Boarding School, it will be based in Chinle and part of the weaving time will be spent at Spider Rock.  Look for details on this class in the next few weeks, but it will be more expensive than our current classes because of the logistics involved in getting people and looms in and out of the canyon and the expense of accommodations in Chinle.   If you are interested in the class, please contact me and I’ll keep you updated as we progress with the planning.

2010 will be our 13th year of teaching weaving the Navajo way and our classes have grown from one per year to five plus.  Ahé’hee’  (thank you from the bottom of our hearts) for your participation and support.

Window Rock, AZ Two more of our first October class session students finished their rugs yesterday and our new class completed their loom warping and then went on a field trip to examine the rug styles (and jewelry) at Richardson’s Trading and Perry Null’s Tobe Turpen Trading Post.

First, have a look at the fabulous finished rugs!  Rosemary Morrill, below, completed a difficult outlined diagonal figure and did a great job with it.

Rosemary Morrill shows off her newly finished rug!

Nance Howsman also finished her rug, a great achievement for a first time weaver.  You can see Nance and her new rug posing with Jennie Slick below.

Nance Howsman (left) and Jennie show off Nance's newly finished rug.

Our group also enjoyed shopping in Gallup yesterday afternoon and you can see us at Perry Null’s below.

From left, Cindy Henry, Lissa Ward, Mary Walker, Diana Frawley, Ellen Nelsen and Debi Ward

Today, we were at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site where we enjoyed the rug room and trading post.  We visited with Geno Bahe, Maralyn Yazzie and Tina Lowe.  Tina did a wonderful tour of the Hubbell home for us.  That’s her below with Debi Ward at the conclusion of the tour.

Tina Lowe (left) discusses Hubbell Trading Post history with Debi Ward.

Finally, I hope you’ll enjoy seeing a Pauline Glasses Nightway Pictorial rug that we saw Saturday at Richardson’s Trading Post in Gallup.  The Yei Bi Chei dance season is fully underway here on the Navajo Nation at this time of year.

Nightway Pictorial by Pauline Glasses, courtesy of Richardson Trading Company, Gallup, NM

Mary Walker

Our class is making great progress on their weaving and today we made our way to R.B. Burnham and Company Trading Post in Sanders, Arizona and then went on the Gallup, New Mexico for a visit to Richardson’s Trading, which is home to the world’s largest Navajo rug room.

At Burnham’s, we enjoyed talking about rug designs and various types of wool that have been used in Navajo weaving.  That lead us into a discussion of the importance of sheep in traditional Navajo life and Virginia Burnham told us about her experiences in caring for her family’s sheep as a very young child.

Virginia Burnham talks about the role of sheep in Navajo culture with Gloria Thompson (left) and Rosemary Morrill (right) as Bruce Burnham looks on.

A visit with Bruce and Virgina is always interesting and we also enjoyed spending some time in their wool room.  Before we left, we took a group picture with Bruce and Virginia that you can see below.

From left, Mary Falzone, Jan Souders, Ann Enyart, Nance Howsman, Cheryl Griffin, Diane Craig, Gloria Thompson, Thomas Griffin, Rosemary Morrill, Bruce Burnham, Virginia Burnham at R.B. Burnham and Co. in Sanders, AZ.

Next we went to Jennie Slick’s home and she showed the class how large floor rugs are woven, demonstrating with a large Burntwater rug that she is working on for a client.   She hopes to finish it by the end of the year.

Jennie Slick weaves as Thomas Griffin looks on.

Our final stop for the day was at Richardson Trading in Gallup, New Mexico.  There we were allowed the privilege of exploring the world’s largest Navajo rug room on our own, and we even got Thomas to model a First Phase Chief Blanket dyed with cochineal and indigo.

Thomas models a First Phase Chief Blanket at Richardson's Trading in Gallup.

A visit to Gallup

Our field trip for today was a visit to several of the trading posts and businesses which cater to the Native American clientele in Gallup, New Mexico, about 24 miles from where we are holding our class.  We started our day at Glenn’s Bakery, which is strategically located across the street from Navajo Spirit, the Western fashion business owned by Navajo fashion designer Virginia Yazzie Ballenger.  Since we’re a large group of ten, we went to Virginia’s in shifts so as not to crowd the showroom.  From Navajo Spirit, we went to the largest Navajo rug room in the world at Richardson’s Trading Company.  A visit to Richardson’s is always inspiring and rug buyer Larry Fulbright pointed out several of the more unusual rugs in the room right now.  One of the interesting examples was a pictorial rug woven by Pauline Glasses of Chinle, AZ depicting a Native American church ceremony, the first I’ve ever seen with that subject matter.

This pictorial by Pauline Glasses depicts a Native American Church ceremony.

Larry also showed us some unique Tree of Life weavings including a very large one by Eva Begay of Round Rock, AZ.  This rug depicts not only birds but flowers and animals, which is a bit unusual in a Tree of Life weaving.  Note the realistic fawns and ducklings at the bottom of the weaving, a hallmark of pictorial weaving in the area of northern Arizona around Dennehotso and Kayenta.

This ornate Tree of Life by Eva Begay depicts a variety of birds and animals.

Leaving Richardson’s we walked to the Code Talker mural on Second St. in Gallup.  Gallup has a very active program of municipal art and the Code Talker mural is one of the largest of many murals in town.   I took a series of shots and used Photoshop to merge them into a panoramic view.

The Code Talker mural on Second St. in Gallup, NM.

Here is a view of the inscription on the mural. The turquoise script in Navajo is a bit hard to read due to some weathering on the mural.

The inscription on the Code Talker Mural

We also went to City Electric Shoes and some of us got belts, boots and moccasins to complement our Western garb.  Louis Boniguidi, the owner of City Electric, talked with some of about his work with the Inter-tribal Ceremonial.

We went on to Perry Null’s Tobe Turpen Trading Post for a look at the rugs there, which were also wonderful and then had lunch with more shopping at Earl’s Restaurant, which is favored by the Gallup and Native American communities.  Earl’s allows Native American vendors to sell their work to the diners and our group made some wonderful purchases. Ralph Richards, one of the members of the family that owns the restaurant, stopped by our table to talked about the development of the business and the vendor sales program.

After lunch, we stopped by Shush Yaz Trading and looked at more rugs, notably some beautiful vintage Crystal rugs.  Back in Window Rock, we worked on our weaving and I’ll close with a picture of Bob Rosen working to complete the design portion of his rug.  Bob expects to complete his rug tomorrow.   Our class closes on Sunday morning and we’ll be doing a lot of weaving tomorrow!

Bob Rosen nears completion on his rug.