I have finally finished my Navajo style tapestry weaving class with a little bit of help. Ok, a lot of help at the end. That much sitting and weaving was very hard on my body. I usually do not weave for more than 1 hour in any 24 hour period. My hands were useless the day afterwards. I hurt down to the bone. My body is still not happy with me. If I ever under took making a second one, it would take at least a few weeks.
The reason I am calling it my Navajo Style Tapestry Weaving is that I am obviously not Navajo. You have to be a registered member of the Navajo Nation to make a genuine Navajo Tapestry Rug. This skill is handed down through the generations. The tapestries are definitely worth the price, with the amount of work that goes into even the smallest pieces. If someone claims that you don’t have to be Navajo to weave a Navajo rug just don’t believe them and move on. I personally feel that it is not ethical to profit off of someone Else’s culture and heritage.
I would also like to clear up another misunderstanding about Navajo fiber arts. The Navajo do not ply their yarn. That would add too much time to the project. They could also not compress the yarn as much as is required, please believe me there is a lot of pounding the yarn to compact it well. Also when rugs were made for the trading posts for sale, they were paid by the pound for rugs. It was a family affair with the children doing a lot of the carding of the fiber as per my friend Louise. They also took care of the sheep.
That being said I really enjoyed taking a class with world class instructors. I would recommend taking a class with Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete. By the way they have 2 books on Amazon or at Barnes and Nobel that are worth reading. You should be in very good physical condition to do this class. There are so many new skills that I learned. I am very grateful that Vicky and Michael Konecky of Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson Arizona made this class possible.
I am also grateful that my daughter and son in law gave me a portable hand massager. My hands would be much worse off. At least I can do non intricate work with my hands today. I even emptied the dishwasher without dropping any plates today. I also folded 3 loads of laundry too. Then it was seek, toss or put away. This was followed by a gourmet dinner of a duck egg omelette with mixed vegetables and fresh fruit. I even managed to flip a 4 egg omelette without breaking it to pieces.
My tapestry is below. Louise helped me pick the colors out. I picked out the design from a deck of patterns. The Teller sisters helped with the technical difficulties.
