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ueaving is not considered an art form based on western culture but a true connection to the Navajos' relationship to harmony and balance based on ceremonial lifeways, Joyce Begay-Foss writes in the 2002 book Navajo Saddle Blankets: Textiles to Ride in the American West That connection explains the rich variety of textiles and the dedication to pains-weavcs with diagonal, diamond, and herringbone patterns Among the saddle blankets are examples with an empty (undecorated) center area, which was simply a preference of some people; some bearing different weaving designs on the Iront and back; and tufted blankets that incorporate goat hair “One of the technically most elaborate blankets in the show, from about 1910,taking, intricate loom work on view in They Wove for Horses: Dine Saddle Blankets, has a different pattern on each side: half is a checkerboard twill weave and half iswhich Begay-Foss curated at the Museum of Indian Arts Culture.The exhibition, which opens Sunday, March 25, features blankets that Dine weavers produced for riding horses, as w ell as silver-and-turquoise headstalls created by master silversmiths. “They did really high-level work in silver and turquoise on the bridles with the naja, the crescent moon,” Begay-Foss said during plain weave (two sheds) and the other for diamond twill (four sheds).tapestry, incorporating the two different loom techniques, two-shed and four-shed, on the same blanket,” Begay-Foss said.In Huy Wove Jot Horses, explanations of shed, warp, weft, heddles, and battens are easier to understand because the show includes actual looms. One is strung fora recent interview at the museum. “The Navajos learned the silverwork either from the Mexicans or the Spanish. Atsidi Sani was one of our earliest silversmiths, and he taught it to the Zunis. “1 try to research these things, but there is only so much. Our people were not really into the exact dates and limes when things happened. Instead we have a lot of oral history, and it’s very' complex.”The exhibitions more than 40 saddle blankets, dating from 1860, are arranged by weaving method: tapestry (plain) weave; two-faced double weave; and twillThe complex but elegant upright Navajo loom is designed for mobility. You could take your warp [vertically strung yarn into which the horizontal weft yarn is woven] and roll it up and take it to a sheep camp and tie it to a pole on the bottom and a branch on a tree, and then you just have to watch your tension,” Begay-Foss said “People in that time, my God, created amazing textiles withcontinued on Page 3654 March 23-29, 2012Paul Weideman I The New Mexican
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Santa Fe New Mexican
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Fri, Mar 16, 2012
Page 53
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