How To Weave A Navajo Rug And Other Lessons From Spider Woman

Navajo blankets, rugs, and tapestries are the best-known, most-admired, and most-collected textiles in North America. There are scores of books about Navajo weaving, but no other book like this one. For the first time, master Navajo weavers themselves share the deep, inside story of how these textiles are created, and how their creation resonates in Navajo culture. Want to weave a high-quality, Navajo-style rug? This book has detailed how-to instructions, meticulously illustrated by a Navajo artist, from warping the loom to important finishing touches. Want to understand the deeper meaning? You'll learn why the fixed parts of the loom are male, and the working parts are female. You'll learn how weaving relates to the earth, the sky, and the sacred directions. You'll learn how the Navajo people were given their weaving tradition (and it wasn't borrowed from the Pueblos!), and how important a weaver's attitude and spirit are to creating successful rugs. You'll learn what it means to live in hózhó, the Beauty Way. Family stories from seven generations of weavers lend charm and special insights. Characteristic Native American humor is not in short supply. Their contribution to cultural understanding and the preservation of their craft is priceless.

This lively account of a pioneering anthropologist's experiences with a Navajo family grew out of the author's desire to learn to weave as a way of participating in Navajo culture rather than observing it from the outside. In 1930, when Gladys Reichard came to stay with the family of Red-Point, a well-known Navajo singer, it was unusual for an anthropologist to live with a family and become intimately connected with women's activities. First published in 1934 for a popular audience, Spider Woman is valued today not just for its information on Navajo culture but as an early example of the kind of personal, honest ethnography that presents actual experiences and conversations rather than generalizing the beliefs and behaviors of a whole culture. Readers interested in Navajo weaving will find it especially useful, but Spider Woman's picture of daily life goes far beyond rugs to describe trips to the trading post, tribal council meetings, curing ceremonies, and the deaths of family members.

Navajo rugs set the gold standard for handwoven textiles in the U.S. But what about the people who create these treasures? Spider Woman's Children is the inside story, told by two women who are both deeply embedded in their own culture and considered among the very most skillful and artistic of Navajo weavers today. Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete are fifth-generation weavers who grew up at the fabled Two Grey Hills trading post. Their family and clan connections give them rare insight, as this volume takes readers into traditional hogans, remote trading posts, reservation housing neighborhoods, and urban apartments to meet weavers who follow the paths of their ancestors, who innovate with new designs and techniques, and who uphold time-honored standards of excellence. Throughout the text are beautifully depicted examples of the finest, most mindful weaving this rich tradition has to offer.

"Provides clear, step-by-step instructions, along with illustrations, for weaving Navajo rugs and Hopi ceremonial sashes in exactly the same way as the craftsmen of these two neighboring tribes have woven them for generations"--Cover.

Debunks the romanticist stereotyping of Navajo weavers and Reservation traders and situates weavers within the economic history of the southwest.

This revision of the authors' Working with the wool, with much Navajo tradition and many photos added, is a guide to Navajo rug weaving, from carding & spinning through set up and weaving.

Spinning, carding, and dyeing yarns, constructing a loom, tension, and the weaving processes are discussed in this guide to the art of blanket and saddleblanket weaving

Award-winning author Lois Duncan and Navajo artist Shonto Begay collaborate in this enchanting Navajo teaching tale. Through the magic of Spider Woman, a young girl learns one of the most vital lessons of Navajo culture--the importance of leading a balanced life.