We stopped at one of the Navajo Trading Posts first thing this morning....as we headed to the South Rim. Terrie was thinking that the crafts are not really hand made by Navajo Indians.....that they're commercially produced in a foreign country.
As I worked my way to the back of the trading post, a very slight movement off to the side caught my perpheral vision. There was a lady sitting there very quietly weaving this huge blanket (wall covering? What is it? What do they call it?). I watched her for about fifteen minutes. She had a number of different colors of yarn that she was working at the same time. What I found most interesting is that she's able to carry of a conversation while she's weaving that pattern. Up till then, I assumed that they had to count each weave to get the pattern to be consistent.
I asked her how long she had to study weaving before she could just take off on her own and weave a full blanket without supervision. She told me that it's her culture and in her family since she can remember but that she was weaving and knitting intricate patterns by herself at about 17 yrs. old. That she'd done it all her life but that she started doing it full time (no other job) about eight years ago.
She told me the name of the pattern, how long it will take her to make that blanket (it was weeks, but I don't remember exactly how long she said) and that it was a custom ordered piece that was selling for $13,000.
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Topic: JCZ and Terrie's southwest journey (Read 42736 times)