Weavers’ First Resort: Navajo Weaving Class in Tempe, Arizona

Tempe Boot Camp Collage

(Most of) the students at the Weavers’ First Resort Boot Camp in Tempe, Arizona.   Top row left to right: Jan Mandernach, Jennie Slick, Michelle Grant, Pamela Raney, Sue Garber   Row 2: Rhonda Cubbon, Madeleine Jones, Lou Murphy, Mary Ann Conner, Liz Munk, Ellen Nelsen.  Row 2.5: Brad Kosch.  Bottom row: Mary Ryan, Jana Ewart, Gloria Kent, Nancy Beckert.    Missing is Lois Hartwig, who staged a quick getaway!  Click for a closer look.

Tempe, AZ  The good thing about a three day workshop is that it’s a short period of time that gives you a chance to really concentrate on the subject matter without any distractions.   The bad thing about a three day workshop is that it’s a short period of time that can leave you wanting more.   Last week’s boot camp in Tempe was a lot of both.  We started at eight in morning and turned the lights out at nine in the evening.  We had wonderful dinners, a fantastic tour of the Heard Museum (more on that in a later article), fun in Old Town Scottsdale at the Old Territorial Shop and the River Trading Post and a fabulous time at the Friends of Hubbell Native American Arts Auction on Saturday.   The students said they learned a lot and the students said that they wanted to learn more.  

Our class was divided into beginner and intermediate tracks with about half the students in each one.  Jennie Slick worked with the beginners in her patient and encouraging way and Liz Munk helped the intermediate students mix interlock and turned joins, explore the wonders of wedge weave and raised outline and to weave in sections as their weaving grows too large to reach across the loom efficiently.  By noon on the first day, we had started planning the Weavers’ Second Resort.   Tentative dates are February 5-8, 2014 and you can enter your email address below to be on the class interest list so the you’ll get more details on this and other classes.   Students in this year’s class get first dibs on next year’s seats but we always have room for a few more people.  If we can keep Jennie in the city long enough, we might even do two sessions!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

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