Hi there -

I have been weaving Navajo for 5 years.  It was the first weaving I had done in 50+ years (since I made pot holders out of cotton loops as a child).  Spider Woman and Navajo weaving have introduced me to a new chapter of my life.  So far, I have only woven wall hangings - the largest is 20 x 30 inches and I really like weaving small rugs.  I have completed 21.  I've considered eventually weaving rugs for purses and bags by adding Inkle or backstrap bands.

My designs aren't what I would call "traditional" Navajo but I do keep an element of symmetry.  I am passionate about using color.  The most exciting designs for me are the ones that I create as I weave with little pre-planning.

I live in a very rural area in northern CA where all my yarn, tools etc. must be ordered - mostly by Internet.  My husband has made my looms, some of my battens and my shed sticks out of scrap lumber.  I would be interested in any good sources of wool warp and weft yarn for Navajo weaving.  I am mostly looking for a variety of color in weft.

Thanks for being here.

J -

 

Comments

Mon, 07/06/2009 - 13:30

francorios (not verified)

Welcome to the group.

Would love to see some pictures of your looms and rugs.

Have a good day!

Franco Rios

Sacramento, CA

Mon, 07/06/2009 - 14:59

MaryWalker

Welcome to our group!  It would be great to see some of your weaving!  I use yarns from R.B. Burnham Trading in Sanders, Arizona.  They have a web site at rbburnhamrading.com and they are very fast on shipping. 

Mary Walker

Mon, 07/06/2009 - 17:17

bolivian warmi

Hi,I haven't done any Navajo style weaving in years. i had a loom in Chile when I was living there but had to abandon it when I moved up here to Bolivia and now there just isn't room for one-unless someone knows of a fold-away version that they could give me plans for........

I always thought Navajo weaving was just about making Navajo style rugs and that's all I did. I ordered warp and weft from a place in Arizona and they used to ship to me in Chile. Only since joining this goup have I realised that there is so much more especially after having seen Bonnie's work-on the other forum page. If you are looking for a variety of weft colors, Janh, you should see all the colors that Bonnie came up with from her garden!

So I made some rugs. I sold my Storm Pattern, which I now regret. The Two Grey Hills style is under glass on my brother's dining table, The Wide Ruins style (?) is in my living room,The saddle blanket is a cushion and the Mexican one still lives in Chile. Some pics....

The black and white design was supposed to be a diamond rather than a square but I didn't have enough weft to be able to weave the background on which to place the diamond. I was really scraping the bottom of my yarn basket at this stage.

They are all adaptations of rugs that I had seen in exhibits or in books. I never really got creative.

Laverne

Mon, 07/06/2009 - 19:29

claudia (not verified)

Hi Jan,

Glad you found the group.  do you have any pictures to share with us?  Would love to see what you have done.  If you need help figuring out how to load pictures, go here:  http://www.weavolution.com/node/1328

Claudia

Tue, 07/07/2009 - 04:01

Bonnie Datta (not verified)

Hi Everyone.  Laverne, your rugs and saddle blanket are fabuolous, just like all of the weaving I have seen you post.  I really wish I could see them closer or better yet, actually see them.  Did you chart the designs on graph paper?  They seem very precise.  I'm particularly interested in the oblique colour-change lines and how you keep track of where you are in the pattern.

Really nice work -- thanks for posting!

Bonnie.

 

Tue, 07/07/2009 - 17:31

bolivian warmi

Hi Bonnie,

Thanks for your comments. I didn't actually chart the patterns on graph paper but I did sit down with a calculator(!) figuring out the number of wefts per inch and how much space I would need to complete the design. I remember my boyfriend asking me with a smile if that was the way the Navajos did it! I work from sketches-no graph paper. I imagine you did the same for your house weaving.

You can see the Two Grey Hills design above has a ''stretched'' center where I found that the wool had packed down more than anticipated. The Storm Pattern one is probably the ''free-est''. I just made that one up as I went along borrowing from various examples and inventing some bits. It was just luck that the centers of all the diiferent elements ended up in the same place!

The pattern on the last one was borrowed from a book on Mexican tapestry weaving and, as I said, was meant to be woven as a diamond. That one took a lot of figuring out. I was thrilled when I went to a studio in New Mexico and saw the same design woven as a diamond on a gray background.

Laverne

 

 

 

 

Fri, 07/10/2009 - 04:26

janh (not verified)

 Hi there -

Here goes.  One of my latest Navajo rugs is called "Red".  It is 20" x 20".  If it comes out ok, i'll upload some of my other weavings to this group.  I do have photos of them on my Website at http://www.3kitty.org/kreations/navajo/index.html  Sorry the photos aren't the best.

 

J -

Fri, 07/10/2009 - 15:26

bolivian warmi

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!   A nd you say you have 21 of these!!!!! I am racing over to your website right now.

Laverne

Fri, 07/10/2009 - 21:43

janh (not verified)

 Hi there -

I have 3 Navajo looms - small, medium and large.  Two were made by my husband out of scrap lumber and I purchased the third.  The largest loom is about 5 feet tall.  The others can be used on a table.  They are not as sturdy as the larger loom, however.  I have "customized" my large loom with hooks for tool bags (actually they are wine bags) and lights for weaving at night.

J -

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 04:46

francorios (not verified)

Hey Jan,

Just wanted to say very nice gallery of work on your website!

Very inspiring!

Have a good day!

Franco Rios

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 06:09

janh (not verified)

 Hi there -

Thanks, Frank.  It isn't your traditional Navajo design but as my instructor and mentor, Jacquetta Nisbet, said, it is my weaving.  I actually have finished 2 more rugs since I uploaded the Website.  I'll post those photos when I have them.

Keep in touch.

J -

 

Tue, 07/28/2009 - 15:18

claudia (not verified)

OK.  Here are pictures of my current project.  Things are going crooked.  I guess it's time to do a little fill in, right?

I am open to suggestions.  I also included the book I am using.  It's very clear and easy, I have also read and own all of Noel Bennett's books.

Claudia

Tue, 07/28/2009 - 17:03

bolivian warmi

Hi Claudia,

I recommend ''Navajo and Hopi Weaving Techniques'' by Mary Pendleton-it was on sale on eBay last weekend-contact Caroline and she can give you the link. It has great trouble shooting parts for when things are going wrong and also a part for  analyzing your finished piece.

From my experience with Navajo weaving I would guess that the problem with the unevenness coud be due to uneven tension across the warps. I always used to put a tremendous amount of tension on my warp so much so that i had to use copper pipes instead of dowels because the dowels bent! More tension made it easier for me to beat in the wefts and keep a straight line. i never ound that I had to do fill-ins.

Are you using a rope to hitch up the upper loom bar?

Hope this helps-try and grab that book if you can.

Laverne

Tue, 07/28/2009 - 22:08

MaryWalker

In addtition to excellent suggestions from Laverne, you may want to take a look at the area where the hill is and see if the warps are closer together in that section.  It can happen very easily as you're warping and a lot people will actually pull the warps togther as they are weaving in an attempt to keep the surface smooth.  What actually happens is that there is not enough weft between the warps to hold the at the correct distance as as Scotty used to say on Star Trek, you "canna change the laws of physics".  The warps will move closer together. 

You definitely need to look at the tension of the warp.  If your batten is constantly flipping shut, it's a good sign that you need to tighten the warp.  Once you're sure that the tension is good, you need to address the problem, since it isn't going to get better on it's own.  There are three possible solutions that I've used. 

  1. It's not fun, but take out the weaving back to where the problem started.  As you do this, you may uncover the reason that it happened.  It's not so bad; think of it as "retro-weaving"!
  2. If you have a weaving fork with a nice point or a stiff knitting needle, go into the weaving about an inch or so below the weaving line and forcibly move the warps apart.  Be careful, or you'll get to be the poster group member for warp repair.  Once you've gotten the warps moved, go to the weaving line and "beat the hill out of it".  It may not totally correct the problem, but it should make things better.
  3. Tie strings to the sides of the warp about an inch below the weaving line and about an inch into the warp to bring the warp back to the proper width.  With this approach, you'll also want to beat the wefts down to remove the hill. 

I hope that helps Claudia! 

Mary

Sun, 08/02/2009 - 18:15

francorios (not verified)

Bravo!

Great looms!

I like the table top loom a lot!

Have a good day!

Sun, 08/02/2009 - 19:45

janh (not verified)

 Hi Frank -

 

The table top loom is a "Dovetail Student Navajo Loom".  It is available at a number of weaving suppliers.  One drawback that I have found is that by using Velcro straps on either end to tension the upper bar to the loom, the upper bar tends to bend in the middle.  I have to either put a third bar on (and tie up using the more traditional rope method all across its length) or use linen cord (threaded between the rug twining and the bar it attaches to) in the middle that ties to the top of the loom.  Using a third bar would significantly limit the length of the weaving so I've been trying the linen cord.  I'm not sure how well it is working as I can tell the tension is still uneven.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

J -

 

Wed, 08/05/2009 - 18:26

francorios (not verified)

There is a technique for putting the warp on the loom that can be described.as "over and under." This allows for weaving a piece that is longer than the front of the loom. I don't remember where I read about the technique.

You prepare your warp in the normal way to mount on the frame.

The top warp bar and the tension rope go over the top of the loom and are tied to a bar on the back of the loom.

Similarly, the bottom warp bar and tension rope go under the bottom of the frame and are tied to a bar on the back of the frame.

As you weave you can loosen and slide the piece up or down as needed, tying the tension rope where you need to.

I've done this technique on a frame loom. Top warp and bottom warp were long enough to almost touch each other in the back of the loom. So I tied the tension rope from the top warp bar to the bottom warp bar.

This made kind of a sleeve around the top and bottom bar of the frame loom. It was very easy to adjust the position of the piece as the weaving progressed.

I hope I described it clearly enough. When I get home  I will see if I have any pictures.

Have a good day!

Wed, 08/05/2009 - 21:28

janh (not verified)

 Hi Franco -

All I can say is, "Duh..."  Of course.  I never even thought to tie the warp over the top of the loom.  Needless to say I feel a little silly.

Thanks for the tip.  I'll try it the next time I warp that loom.  Right now I am finishing a weaving on my mid-size Navajo loom and have just started a rug on my large loom.  When I get a free day (and the energy), I'll put a new warp on the Dovetail.

J -

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 11:22

Cara (not verified)

I am so glad I joined this group.  It will give me the encouragement I need to get back to weaving Navajo style.

I have several books and a loom, all I'm missing is a few hours with nothing else to get doen  : )

Cara

Group Audience
Navajo Weaving Techniques