Our minds and hearts have been in the Navajo Nation in recent weeks, as we have put finishing touches on our new book, How To Weave a Navajo Rug and Other Lessons From Spider Woman (available in October). We’ve also worried and grieved as we hear news of how hard-hit the Navajos have been by […]
20
Mar
Mar
A few weeks ago, I wrote about authors Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas and their busy lives teaching, weaving, and writing. In that post, I mentioned that Lynda was teaching on Valentines day at Gauge Yarn shop in Austin,Texas. She sent us this wonderful follow-up story of time spent with one of her […]
21
Feb
Feb
In mid-December, we received a detailed narrative from Lynda Pete and her sister Barbara Ornelas (authors of Spider Woman’s Children: Navajo Weavers Today) about the consulting work they were doing at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York. It seems they were on hand to help prepare an interactive Navajo weaving exhibition at the Bard […]
07
Feb
Feb
From time to time, I have written posts about museums around the world that celebrate the voices and the work of indigenous textiles–from the Textile Center in Minneapolis and the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection in Wisconsin to the Kurdish Textile Museum in Kurdistan and the Textile Museum of Oaxaca. Perhaps no other museum echoes the mission of […]
20
Sep
Sep
Dear friends and business associates Barry Schacht and Jane Patrick of Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder have just celebrated 50 years in business. They did it with an all-day event of non-stop fun and fellowship, bringing together hundreds of old friends from all over the place. Weavers, spinners, equipment makers, retailers, sheep raisers, teachers, authors—quite […]
13
Sep
Sep
I first went to Bolivia in 1994 with my husband to view a total solar eclipse. It was a stunning experience, high in the Altiplano with the sky going dark, the donkeys and cattle bellowing, the birds flapping around in perplexity. The eclipse itself lasted only moments, but the memory overshadows everything else I experienced […]
12
Jul
Jul
As we make our way to the International Folk Art Market this week, enjoy this reprise of a favorite post. Join us next week for the update on our debut at the market and a gallery of photos. A few years ago, I read an article by Augusta Strand, a conservator at Uppsala University in […]
21
Sep
Sep
Watch Mary Louise Gould spin wool from her sheep, inch by inch, and you get a visceral idea of the patience and care and sheer time required to create a fine Navajo rug. No, really! Just click HERE and take a couple of minutes to see a real Navajo master weaver make her yarn. Actually, […]
10
Aug
Aug
I’ve been to some fascinating parts of the world in pursuit of indigenous textiles and artisans. Traveling to Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Laos, Afghanistan, China—seeking out people and far flung places where traditions are maintained and sometimes crafting a book to tell the stories—has been a joy and a privilege. But I had to […]
19
Jan
Jan
This is Fatima El Mennouny sitting on her flatwoven picture rug. She lives in a small village at the foot of Morocco’s Anti-Atlas mountains. She’s one artisan featured in Susan Schaefer Davis’s book, Women Artisans of Morocco. A book that is being loaded on a ship in Hong Kong as I write, bound for safe […]
