Arlene Anderson (left) and Jennie Slick with Arlene's student weaving, a study in color reversal

Tempe, AZ Last year, Jennie Slick and I were honored to teach at the Handweavers Guild of America Covergence 2010 in Albuquerque, NM, a first for both of us.  We were thrilled to see several students who had attended our classes in Window Rock and one of them, Arlene Anderson, stopped by with the completion of the rug that she had started in a class a couple years earlier.  In an earlier version this Arlene had studied Navajo techniques as part of a group, so she was very familiar with the basics when she arrived in Window Rock.  Results not typical, your mileage may vary, this is an absolutely killer piece and not the first one she’d.  Arlene had already mastered the difficult smooth diagonal, so she was able to add the also challenging outline to the design elements.   Arlene was also adventurous in her design, combining traditional Navajo colors and design motifs with a very contemporary geometry and play of color.

If you’d like to, you can join Arlene in stopping by to see us at next year’s Convergence 2012, scheduled for July 15-22, 2012 in Long Beach, California.  We are fortunate enough to have been invited back and will be presenting a workshop and two seminars.  We’ll be doing our Navajo Weaving Boot Camp, a demonstration of traditional warping techniques and a seminar on the teaching high touch with high tech methodology we use for our online classes.   Now that we know that part of our schedule, I can work on developing our calendar for next year’s classes and I’ll be posting it soon.

Ahé’hee (thank you) to all of our students and to the Handweaver’s Guild of America for their support of our classes.

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker