Some of you might remember this post... but then, it was clear back in January. Some ideas take a long while to come to fruition, but this weekend I was able to take a beginning weaving workshop with Marilyn Greaves and Mel Silva, in weaving in the Navajo tradition. Both of them have been weaving since 1995, and have taken workshops from Navajo weavers, but not being native Navajos themselves, do not bill their trainings as "Navajo weaving". With that disclaimer, we went on to learn many traditional techniques over the three days, all while warping the small looms they had built for us and weaving a sample mini-rug.
First, we started warping by flipping our looms over and using the warping pegs that can be inserted on the back side... a great way to multi-task a piece of equipment. What sounds so simple, and required only one sentence actually took most of the morning, and then adding selvedge cords and tying our warps onto the front of the looms took most of the rest of the afternoon! This is the part where I will have to refer back repeatedly to my notes in order to warp on my own. Marilyn is helping Roma with her warp spacing in the above photo. The towel on the table keeps the loom from slipping as we pull and tug to adjust our warps and later beat our weft into place. Who knew weaving was so violent?!
This close-up shows my completed selvedge on one end and how the weft has been tied on to the large dowel.
The warp ends up taut on the front of the loom, with small turnbuckles for tensioning at the top. I realized as I started assembling this post that I didn't get ONE good photo of the entire loom set up and in process, only photos showing my weaving updates... I will try and do that in the next few days, so you can get a better idea how this works.
Here's my weaving, at the end of day one... several of the bottom stripes completed. The stick with the loopy strings around it is the 'pull shed', and the loops are heddles catching every other thread. Navajo-style weaving is similar to tapestry weaving, in that it is completely weft-faced, meaning once the weaving is done, none of the warp threads show. Therefore, many design elements can be incorporated into the piece as you go along. The stripes set a base for a later design... which I was able to start by mid-morning on Saturday.
My stripes look a little wavy in this photo, but they really are straight... frequent measuring, both of length and width is necessary to assure that the sides aren't pulling in, and the piece stays consistent. We learned the "turned joint", meaning that when two colors meet, they turn to do the next row on the same warp. I loved this part, and the strings of weft hanging down reminded me of using bobbins in intarsia knitting (though less trouble), so I picked up speed. The three days of the workshop, the temps ranged in the mid-90s, and though we were in this wonderful, shaded structure, with overhead fans, and lots of ice water provided by our teachers, we were still sweltering by noon each day. Marilyn and Mel use this space, The Elegant Goat Ranch in Auburn, twice a year, and the spring workshop was just the opposite, held on a cold and rainy weekend!
Here's a peek inside our classroom, showing three of my fellow students hard at work, and one of Mel's small rugs folded in the foreground to the right. He frequently uses the
C Cactus mini and maxi looms to make small rugs of different styles, or using different techniques. I was sorely tempted to buy one and start a second project (I know, sounds just like a knitter, doesn't it?) but resisted and told myself I could consider it when I finished the first piece!
Intermediate students joined us the second day, spreading out to the upstairs deck and studio building. There were five beginners and seven intermediate weavers over the course of the weekend, making for a fun time. Anni Redding of Canyon Creek Colors joined us for lunch on Sunday, regaling us with tales and yarn samples of the many colors possible from natural dyes... she will be teaching a workshop in El Dorado Hills on October 23rd in case any of you are interested and close enough to attend. Mel will be teaching Navajo spindle spinning at
Lambtown next Saturday as well.
Both of our teachers were warm, nurturing and encouraging... in fact, I don't think I have ever gotten so much out of a fiber workshop! Here, Mel is showing Ray how to get started with the basketweave that forms the foundation of each weaving.
Now, I do have to reveal that I had prior experience with Navajo-style weaving... however, it was over thirty years ago! I took a class in the fall of 1976, and my roommate and I each set out to make two free-standing looms, in our garage... the first woman-powered woodworking project for either of us. I lived in Southern Oregon at the time, and had taken a natural dye class from the same teacher the previous spring. I had some funky handspuns of my own to use as weft, though I never got all that far on what was probably too large a piece for a beginner to tackle alone once the class was over. I have felt a connection with this style of weaving and with Navajo culture ever since, and even had the good fortune to view museum-quality pieces several times over the years, but hadn't set my own hands to a loom since.
By Saturday evening, I had completed a good part of the first half of my design feature.. a geometric representation of a squash blossom. I met my dear friend Laura for dinner before heading home and collapsing.
Getting up and heading back to the third day was a bit harder, as the heat and the long days were taking their toll. The workshop was about an hour and fifteen minutes away from home for me, but I had decided to commute each day to take care of our critters, as DH is away on a fire in Oregon. However, I was excited, as I knew my design was going to expand.... I also turned the loom 'upside down' and wove the basketweave and about a half inch of brown at the top end, so that completing the final inch or so will be easier... at least I won't be constantly whacking my hands on the top dowel. Those clever weavers who have preceded me!
While I was hard at work, my fellow students were too... here is Roma's weaving by the middle of Sunday... note the weaving comb in the left corner, used to beat down the wefts.
This rug was being woven by an intermediate student whose name I never learned...
I did manage to get to the middle of my design by the late afternoon, and will do several rows until truly at the half-way point, before reversing my design as I do the second half. I will post an update very soon!
