On the Subject of Spirit Lines

I’ve got a meeting to get to tonight, so I’ll just do a brief follow up to the end of yesterday’s post on the Spiderwoman hole and its relationship to the spirit line.  There’s a school of thought that runs along the line that most aspects of Navajo weaving, including the use of a spirit…

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Early Development of the Storm Pattern Rug

Building on yesterday’s post on the Storm Pattern variant, the earliest illustration that shows what today we would call a Storm Pattern rug comes from J.B. Moore’s 1911 catalog.  The rug is plate XXIII and a reproduction of the color plate appears below. The illustration shows a Storm Pattern that is little different in design…

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Listen to a story…

Everyone says that you shouldn’t send people straight to other websites, but I think that you’ll really enjoy listening to Bruce Burnham tell you a short (1 minute and 13 seconds) story about the development of the Storm Pattern rug.  I do the Burnham’s web site and this discussion got started when Bruce said the…

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Is It Bayeta?

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…

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Back to the City: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Like a lot of people in Diné Bikeyah (the Navajo homeland), I have a job back in a city.   I do my rug repairs and appraisals in the Phoenix area.  I’m not Navajo, but I feel the pull of both cultures as I get ready to leave Window Rock and return to Phoenix.  I…

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