Weavers and Their Stories
The Navajos and The Amazing Cochineal Beetle, Part I
Jennie Slick and I are in Albuquerque on our way to do a three day workshop in Massachusetts. Just before I left Phoenix, I washed and rinsed some custom yarns for the students to look at. One group of them was dyed with cochineal. There’s a picture of the grouping below. Isn’t it amazing that…
Read MoreSpinning and Dyeing in the Shade House
Today, we concluded our advanced weaving seminar, which has been newly dubbed Camp Weave-A-Lot, and we started our Natural Dye Retreat. We met at Burnham’s Trading Post in Sanders, AZ and got a look at some of the vegetally dyed colors that Marie Begay is able to achieve. We were also treated to a weaving…
Read MoreA Weaving Completed, A Weaving Begun
One of the participants in our seminar completed her first rug today. Barbara Spelman is an accomplished fiber artist and a partner in Crone Craft Studios in Tucson, Arizona, which makes her a busy person. Once a year, Barbara comes to Window Rock to study Navajo techniques and has applied many of them to her…
Read MoreA Grandmother’s Visit
Late this evening as we were finishing a discussion of the Teec Nos Pos rug style, our class was honored with a visit by 98 year old weaver Helen Yazzie and her granddaughter Lynelle Begay who happened to be having dinner at the Diné Restaurant next to the meeting room we are using for class. …
Read MoreJennie Slick’s Weaving a Winner at Inter-tribal Ceremonial
I’ve just learned from a reliable source (the owner of the rug) that Jennie Slick’s Third Phase Chief Blanket weaving has won a second prize ribbon at the 87th Inter-tribal Ceremonial currently underway in Gallup, NM. I’ll be attending the Ceremonial this weekend, so I hope to have more reports on the weavers and weavings…
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