Weaving in Beauty

First ever Spider Rock bag by Emily Malone

Cochineal dyed Ganodo red bag by Gilbert Begay

Tempe, AZ There are two new bags in the Mercantile as of this afternoon.  I purchased these at the Pueblo Grande auction last month, but haven’t had a chance to add them to the store until today.  One bag is by Emily Malone and it’s the first ever bag done in the Spider Rock design.  It’s priced at $250 because I had to do some big time bidding to get it.  Emily was thrilled when she heard how much attention it got at the auction.  I’m sure that she’ll be doing more of these, but having the first of it’s kind has a kind of cachet doesn’t it?

The second bag is by Gilbert Begay and is woven with hand-dyed (my hands) cochineal red yarn.  The yarn has a really nice aubrash (color variation) effect and of course, it’s beautifully woven.  Gilbert is a master weaver and has developed special techniques for the fringe he uses so that you can add beads and charms to the bag as well as pins.   This bag is priced at $150.

Please contact me if you’ve got questions on either of these pieces.  I do have other weavings for sale and I’m working on getting them added to the store as quickly as I can.  If there’s something that you’re particularly looking for, please let me know.   I might have it!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

The 2009 Gathering of Weavers attracted a large group of weaving enthusiasts. The 86 degree ideal weather didn't hurt either.

Phoenix, AZ The Heard Museum held their second annual Gathering of Weavers yesterday.  It’s a one day event dedicated to weaving and weavers held on the first Saturday in November.   The event is held outdoors in the museum’s courtyard and allows buyers to purchase rugs directly from the weaver.  The museum handles the sales through their shop, allowing the weavers to take credit cards, something that most of them do not do.   I can’t remember exactly what percentage the weaver receives, but I believe it is 80% or more and there was no charge for table space, a big help for the weavers.   Weavers at the event included well known names like Brenda Spencer, Lola Cody, D.Y. Begay and Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas, but newer and weavers who have not had as much public exposure like Monica Glasses, Nathan Harry and Loretta Tahe were also there.   I’ve culled a few pictures from my embarrassingly large assortment so that you can get an idea of the artists and their work.

Loretta Tahe shows her feather rug design.

Loretta Tahe of Hardrock, AZ weaves this distinctive pattern that she calls a Feather Rug.  Each feather has a different design.  Loretta usually sells her work at the Crownpoint Rug Auction and generally weaves one rug each month.   A detail of the expertly woven center feather area is below.

Here's a detail of ther center five feathers in Loretta's rug.

Gilbert Begay wears his handwoven vest.

Gilbert Begay of Crownpoint, NM is a familiar person to many of you who have visited the site before.  Gilbert is a prolific and creative weaver who often stops by when Jennie Slick and I are doing classes in Window Rock.  Although he works full time for Safeway in Farmington, NM, Gilbert spends a lot of his spare time weaving small format rugs and specialty bags like the one seen below.  The wool used in the bag is some that Gilbert and I dyed during our annual Cochineal Cookoff  in Window Rock this August.  Gilbert had used the yarn for the bag below and a small mat.  I purchased one of Gilbert’s bags at a recent auction and will be putting it in the Mercantile later today or in the morning.

One of Gilbert Begay's small bags. The wool in this weaving is dyed with cochineal.

Brenda Spencer shows her latest Wide Ruins design

Brenda Spencer of Dallas, TX and her sister Geneva Shabi of Sanders, AZ were just across the aisle from Gilbert.  Brenda has incorporated a unique wave pattern that is occasionally seen in very old textiles and that we’ve been working on duplicating for the last four years or so.   Brenda has incorporated this element masterfully into the Wide Ruins design that you see above and in a detail below.  The technique is an optical illusion of a curvilinear pattern created by careful manipulation of diagonal lines and weft counts.

Here's a detal of the wave design in Brenda Spencer's Wide Ruins rug.

Geneva Shabi with one of her prize-winning Wide Ruins rugs.

Geneva Shabi, Brenda’s sister also had rugs displaying her dazzling mastery of the Wide Ruins design idiom.  Geneva works for as a relief postmaster when she’s not weaving.  Although you can see that Brenda and Geneva share some influences in their work, Geneva’s take on the Wide Ruins design is very much her own.  You can see a detail from the striped section of her smaller weaving in the picture below.   Look at the immaculately clean lines, the virtuosity of the color choices and the arrangement of the lines to form an absolute symphony of elegance and beauty.  And these are the stripes.

A detail of a striped area in a Geneva Shabi Wide Ruins rug.

Let’s stop here for today, and wander further down the courtyard tomorrow.  I think I can see D.Y.  Begay, Barbara Jean Teller Ornelas and Lola Cody down there.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Click on any picture for a closer view

From left, Nicole Horseherder, Edith Simonson, Kathy M'Closky, Lorraine Herder and Bonnie Benally-Yazzie at the Weaver's Day symposium.

Tempe, AZ As I planned to, I attended last Friday’s Dinéjík’éhgo ‘Atło (Weaver’s Day) at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rcok.  I thought that I’d probably write an article on the event over the weekend, but it took me a couple of extra days to distill the event, organize my thoughts and sort through the issues raised,  particularly at the symposium and in Bennie Klain’s documentary, Weaving Worlds (which is well worth your time to watch, by the way).

Jennie Slick (left) and her mother Anna Ashley visit with Isabel Deschinny (right)

The agenda focused on the economic difficulties that weavers face in marketing their work.   Today, by my count, there are fewer than 10 places that are actually on the Navajo Nation where a weaver can sell textiles.  The trading post system has been replaced by convenience markets that do not deal in craft items of any kind.  Weavers must look to traders in the “border towns” of Gallup, Farmington, Flagstaff, Cortez and Durango, try their luck with rug auctions like Crownpoint and Friends of Hubbell or travel to Phoenix, Albuquerque or even Denver.  Internet alternatives like Ebay or an individual web site can present daunting technical and linguistic challenges.  A very fortunate few weavers have developed channels to sell their work directly.

The concentration of weaving in towns like Gallup works to depress prices by aggregating the supply, and as trader Perry Null observes in Weaving Worlds “I just can’t buy every rug that comes in”.   Many would argue that traders don’t pay enough for what they do buy.   Further frustrating several of the weavers in the documentary and symposium is the under-appreciation of  handspun and handcarded work and grossly unfair competition from “knock off” copies of Navajo designs woven in other countries.

Gilbert Begay puts the finishing touches a strap for one of his elegant bags.

Since the event lasted only one day, there was scant time to totally define problems, let alone talk about solutions.  Several weavers in the audience discussed the possibility of forming an organization on the order of a weaving guild that could pursue the interests of the weavers and help bring the Navajo weaving community more into the mainstream of other professional handweavers.  Kathy M’Closkey, author of Swept Under the Rug,  noted differences in Canadian versus U.S. copyright laws that would help to protect indigenous designs from appropriation if adopted in this country.  TahNiiBaa Naataanii eloquently made the case for a return to the use of Navajo textiles by Navajo people, noting the cultural pride and appreciation that she receives when she wears the shoulder blanket that she wove on a cold morning at the Shiprock Fair.  I can only hope that TahNiiBaa’s words were heard and appreciated by the groups of young people who were in the audience.

From my point of view, Weaver’s Day represented a real step forward in establishing a format for naalyéhé (work that results in progress).  Char Kruger of the Navajo Nation Museum is looking into the possibility of doing the event annually, noting the need ” to educate our children, our people and visitors in how beautiful our Dine culture is….and how much people are hungry for culture”.   I support Char in this goal and in the goal of bringing the whole weaving community, weavers, collectors, educators, traders and students together to identify problems, work on solutions and to celebrate the richness of Navajo weaving.

From left, Colleen Biakeddy, D.Y. Begay, TahNiiBaa Naataanii and Berdina Charley at Weaver's Day

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Phoenix, AZ I was out of town during the Gathering of Weavers on November 1 and Roberta Sauerwein graciously offered to write an article and take pictures of the event. I’ve heard heard that the event resulted in several sales for the weavers. I’ll be sure to let you know if it will be repeated next year. Here’s Roberta’s report followed by a gallery of the pictures that she took at the event.

Saturday, Nov. 1, was a lovely day for the Gathering of Weavers in the tree lined central courtyard at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ. The entire area was filled with weavers of all ages and tables covered with beautiful rugs of every style and colour imaginable. Gilbert Begay had several small rugs made from handspun, hand dyed yarns. He is also making small handbags from natural coloured yarn. Nathan Harry was weaving a round rug with natural handspun on a bicycle wheel. Marie Dedman had a beautiful Second Phase Chief’s Blanket and a Germantown Revival rug. Helen Edwards was demonstrating the hand spinning that is used to create lovely natural dyed rugs. She made it look so easy. Valerie Allen was demonstrating dyeing with walnuts. D Y Begay was demonstrating dyeing with Sandalwood and Navajo tea. She was getting a beautiful orange from the tea. There were also several of D Y’s beautiful rugs as examples of the range of colours that come from natural sources.

Just outside the courtyard is a newly finished mosaic mounted on the wall. It is a representation of a D Y Begay rug titled Floating Weft Mosaic.

[Show as slideshow]

All pictures are courtesy of Roberta Sauerwein.

Update on 11/07/08: If you’re looking for a broadcast time for Weaving Worlds, check with PBS at this link.

PBS will be showing Bennie Klain’s Weaving World’s documentary this November as part of their observance of Native American Heritage month.  The film was shown at this year’s Austin SXSW Film Festival and depicts the intricate interplay of art, cultutre and economics in Navajo weaving.  There is a trailer on YouTube and I found an extensive review by Chale Nafus of the Austin Film Society.  From what I’ve read, the film is well done and thought provoking.  I’m glad to see Navajo weaving coming to the media in a format that goes beyond a travelogue.   I haven’t had a chance to see the film, but two of my friends, Gilbert Begay and Perry Null, appear in the movie.   Below, you can see Gilbert with me in a picture taken back in May.   We were at a Mini Sheep is Life Celebration in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.  Gilbert wove the bag that I’m holding and one of the weaving classes that I coordinated bought the bag for me.