Navajo Rug Restoration, before and after

Sometimes the biggest challenge (after color matching) is in hiding the broken warp ends. Success on both fronts here:

Dyer Lynne visits New Mexico

Special thanks this Thanksgiving to Lynne Wallace for coming out to New Mexico to work with us on replenishing our yarn supplies. Lynne can get subtle and very specific shades of color that we would struggle with otherwise. She uses light- and wash-fast acid dyes, and can even dye mohair roving which we card into our restoration materials to get that sheen in certain weavings. A real dyed-in-the-wool artist! She can be contacted at dyerlynne@hotmail.com, and is currently based in western Massachusetts.

Restorative power at work

before

after

Moth damage repaired on a 19th century Caucasian Lenkoran rug.

The pictures speak for themselves. Work done by Liz Stevens at Textival.

The Care and Maintenance of Oriental and Navajo Rugs

Some basic information will help you care for your collections of rugs and textiles. Chubb Insurance's Collectors Newsletter asked us to put together a basic guide for their clients, which is now available online:

http://www.chubbcollectors.com/Vacnews/index.jsp?form=2&ArticleId=233

Toadlena, 100 Years of Weaving Excellence

Essential oils and traditional vessels...The modern world, on display (and for sale) at Toadlena Trading Post:
The old trading post roof in Toadlena, New Mexico, with Mark's Old Santa Fe Trail gallery sign incorporated into the scene:Mark Winter celebrated 100 years of rug trading at Toadlena on June 20th, honoring several families with master weavers in three successive generations. Credit goes to the weavers for their incredible work, but to Mark as well for helping to elevate the demand for the highest quality pieces. Say what you will about the long complex history of "Indian Traders" on the Rez (see Wilkins, "Patterns of Exchange", U. of Oklahoma Press, and M'Closkey, "Swept Under the Rug", UNM Press), Mark is going above and beyond the traditional role of the Trader and doing vital geneological, historical, cultural, and community work. And the appreciation from the community seems genuine and, as always, good-humoured.

Toadlena Trading Post has its feet firmly planted in the present, with eyes to both the past and the future. This makes it an invaluable resource for and expression of the local Navajo/Dine community. Young Master Weavers are fully engaged with their ancient and very local tradition, but are also fully mobile within modern American society.

Texas? Honoring the grandmothers at Toadlena's 100th anniversary celebration in June, 2009. Awards included classic Pendleton blankets

Mark Winter MCs the awards show; few Indian Art dealers have given back to the communities that support them as much as Mark has:

The brand-new old-fashioned youth of today; younger generations of Master Weavers honored along with their elders. We look forward to the new generation's innovations:

For info on events, artists, weavings, and directions to get there, visit them at:

http://www.toadlenatradingpost.com/

The New York Times online posted an audio/slideshow:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/12/travel/escapes/20090612-navajo-audio/index.html?scp=3&sq=navajo%20weaving&st=cse#

Color-run removal

Before-and-after washing; a cool little rug with something to say. Letters, numbers, images were treated as design elements that could be flipped, mirrored, or turned to create symmetry or balance. The weaver of this blanket/serape-style rug also turned the 'whirling log' swastika in the second medallion for an extra twist, and they seem like Tesla coils spilling over with electricity.

Fancy "Spirit Line" On a Fancy Double Saddle Blanket

We typically look for a "Spirit Line" or "weaver's pathway" in the upper right-hand corner of a Navajo weaving, and if we find one it is usually a line of weft from an inner field or inner border extending across borders to the edge of the weaving. Explanations of its meaning are as varied as the lines themselves, but they generally imply protection of the weaver's abilities to continue to create and make a living from weaving, and prevent the artist's spirit form being locked into the recently completed weaving.



Santa Fe-based rug restorer Laura Center has documented numerous examples of hidden spirit lines attached to the warp rather than the weft, and she interprets many intentional anamolies in a design as serving the same purpose as a spirit line. The saddle blanket shown here includes a 'decorative' purple weft that wraps around a warp add-in that connects the white border out to the selvedge.

For further discussion of spirit lines, see Noel Bennett's "The Weaver's Pathway" from Northland Press in Flagstaff AZ.