Good-bye to Herman Brown, a Master Weaver and a Good Friend
A tribute to master Navajo weaver Herman Brown, who died on September 07, 2015. Herman was renowned for his American flag miniature Navajo rugs. Read about Herman.
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Gerard Begay’s Poncho: Returning to the Roots of Navajo Weaving
Most of us think of the rug as the quintessential product of Navajo weaving but pieces like Gerard Begay’s poncho, woven for the just concluded Santa Fe Indian Market, go back to the times when Navajo weaving was woven mainly for use by Navajo people. The rug as a floor-covering is a collaboration between traders…
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As the late Jimmie Rogers would say, I’m a hundred miles away from home waiting for a train. We’ve been retained by the Winslow Arts Trust to help them develop a conservation strategy for this beauty that Julia Joe and her family completed in 1937. Tressa Weidenaar and I have been at La Posada in Winslow studying the rug and have mapped it as a baseline for future inspections. Glad I made arrangements for the train because the roads are a mess this morning (please see illustration below).
Julia’s masterpiece is about 21 feet by 32 feet as we measured it yesterday. I have seen it reported as large as 26x36, but those are the measurements at the vertical and horizontal centers that we recorded yesterday. The Winslow Arts Trust plans to have it on permanent display at some time in the future, so you can stop by and see it when you’re (I have to put this in) standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
24 hours ago
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Weaving in BeautyI will attempt to answer all questions in the order asked. Right now, it’s stored in a canvas bag most of the time. And by that, I mean many days of the year. Being stored that way isn’t good for it, so the museum wants to set up a permanent display. There is one non-professional repair that was done to repair two broken warps. We found a couple of other broken warps and two breaks in the side cored that can be spliced. No chemicals. The rug has been analyzed and nothing toxic was found. We suspect that Lorenzo Hubbell provided the gray wool because it is so evenly carded and because getting that much black wool would have been hard. The rug weighs 356 pounds, and my guess is that 100 pounds of it is gray. The gray has aged differently than the red, black and most of the white. Towards the end of the rug, Julia seems to have run out of the original white wool and she switched to one on that was a slightly different color that has similar aging to the gray. She also had to substitute some gray where she possibly ran out of white. There is some pilling in the gray and white-2, but no felting. The complete analysis will be part of the exhibit.
16 hours ago · 41 Reply
Weaving in BeautyIt’s an amazing feat of weaving and engineering!
24 hours ago · 3Do you know where Winslow Art Trust will eventually putting it on display?
23 hours ago3 Replies
I went to see it today. It was beautiful but a bit disappointed that there was nothing between it and the floor. I didn’t see that there was anything controlling the temp or humidity in the room though.
16 hours ago2 Replies
Stay safe ... roads up on the Rim and eastward are bad/closed ... things will be better tomorrow (but very very cold!)
23 hours ago · 11 Reply
Teri Begay its finally up looks like like we've been waiting for 3 years for this
19 hours ago · 34 Replies
Jeanne Brako would have been good for this consultation working for both a university and museums for conservation.
22 hours ago · 1How many months of rest does it have and how many months of display and how often do they clean it or freeze it and does it have any repair work and what types of dye are used in the red. Are there any indication that the weaving exposed to formaldehyde or any other chemicals were used to preserve it? I am so curious. I’d be interested in fibers from different parts of the rug. Or was there any indication of felting?
16 hours agoBeautiful! Stay safe on your travels back home.
23 hours ago · 1Winslow made a very wise and perfect choice in retaining you to develop their conservation strategy. It couldn’t be in better hands!
23 hours ago · 2What a remarkable piece. I’d love to see it in person. Really beautiful.
23 hours ago · 1What an amazing work of woven art! You folks are the right team to conserve this piece of Navajo culture.
16 hours agoHow does the mind work this way? Amazing work!!!
17 hours agoThis is amazing, Mary. 😊 Thanks for sharing!
2 hours agoAmazing! I can’t even imagine how big her loom was!
21 hours ago1 Reply
Wow. I think I saw them taking this to the freezer for its annual treatment.
12 hours agoBeautiful!!!
23 hours ago · 1It is so beautiful!!
18 hours agoOutstandingly beautiful!
24 hours ago · 1Congratulations!
18 hours agoWOW!!!
23 hours ago · 1Awesome
22 hours ago · 1Donald Steffes Thomas Moniz...in Winslow AZ
22 hours ago · 2Comment on Facebook