Weaving in Beauty

Isabel Deschinny’s mother, Mabel Burnside Meyers, developed the dye charts that depict native plants and the colors that are derived from them. Isabel and her family continue the tradition of producing them in a wide variety of sizes. Other people produce the charts, but Isabel’s have the advantage that she actually dyes all of the yarn used with the plants included. That’s not always the case with some other artists. You can see two of Isabel’s charts and some of her vegetally dyed yarns are in the foreground. The dark reddish yarns are dyed with prickly pear fruit, a process which takes weeks. Other plants used in the yarns in the picture are rabbitbrush and wild carrot. Just standing in Isabel’s booth at the Southwest Indian Fair made me look forward to summer.

You can also see some pictures of Mark Deschinny’s weaving tools just behind the yarns. Mark does a wonderful job with both his looms and tools and I recommend them highly. Mark will also have his tools at the Heard Museum Indian Market, so look for him there. You can always contact Mark and Isabel through their web site.

The Spider Rock Girls (Emily Malone and her daughters LaVera, Larissa, Laramie and Alyssa Blake) did their first show last weekend at the fair. They had worked hard to prepare for the show and had several of their signature Burntwater rugs in a variety of sizes. They enjoyed talking with collectors and sold two of the rugs that they brought with them. You can catch up with them at the Smoki Museum Auction in Prescott, AZ on March 8. The picture at right shows LaVera (right) and the buyer of one of her rugs. Be sure to check yesterday’s post to see some of the other pieces that they brought with withm.

This weekend, I’ll be at the Heard Museum Indian Market and the Ancient Nations Trunk Show. I’ll be visiting with more weavers and Bruce Burnham is bringing several of the top rugs from his trading post, so I’m expecting a busy week of blog entries and web page updates ahead.