Rena Robertson's Summer Ceremonial Faces rug.

Tempe, AZ September’s Crownpoint Rug Auction was relatively small  (130 rugs) and was attended by about 45 buyers.   There are quite a few auctions at this time of year and they continue up to December with one of the major events being held at Hubbell Trading Post this coming weekend on September 18th.   Many of the weavers who did bring their work to Crownpoint in this month are doing very high quality weaving and some of it is very unique.  I am a real fan of Rena Robertson’s asymmetric pictorials and I was lucky enough to get two of her pieces.  One of them was a stunning Blue Canyon that is already sold, but the other is pictured above.  It’s one of her Faces series and is a montage of the summer nights in Diné Bikeyah (the Navajo homeland).  I also purchased two of Nellie Glasses’ pieces, a handspun small Two Grey Hills by Gilbert Begay and an immaculate and finely woven striped piece by Gloria Begay.   Gilbert and Gloria live in Crownpoint, but Rena and Nellie had each driven over 200 miles to the auction and were planning to return home that night.

I had a great time acquainting travel writer Neala Schwartzberg with the auction.  Neala covers offbeat travel destinations for New Mexico magazine and Examiner.com and she really gets into what she’s covering, or at least she did with the rug auction.  She talked with several of the weavers, some of the buyers and she even quoted me accurately! Maybe I can get her over to the Sheep is Life Celebration in Tsaile for another article (they do an auction too, Neala).  Neala’s got some great advice on previewing before you bid and she’s included some excellent pictures in the article that she wrote about the auction for Examiner.com .  It’s one of their features on things to do that are off the beaten path or in this case, 25 miles north of I-40.

A couple of detail sections of Rena’s rug appear below.  The rug is woven with both Brown Sheep and Burnham’s Trading Post yarns and measures 19.25″ x 27″.

One of the Mittens in Rena's weaving

A detail of the Face motif in Rena Robertson's rug

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker