the art of Morris Muskett

I finalized my offering of a traditional Navajo weaving class.  Here are the details.

WHEN: Oct. 25 to 29, 2010 (5 days)
WHERE: Quality Inn Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ
COSTS:  Students will be responsible for their own room reservations (about $82/night incl tax for single occupancy, about $93/night tax included for double occupancy).  Here’s the cost for the class for 5 days:  $650 includes use of my handmade Navajo looms (available for purchase) plus cost of wool and basic weaving tools.

I am limiting the class to 10 students.  I will be the only instructor so you will receive all of my attention. 
We will be spending time learning techniques for warping, making edging cords, selecting warp types, weaving, use of Navajo spindle, and how we Navajos treat our yarns and weaving space.  It will be part art class and Navajo culture, but it’s just weaving in Navajo thought. It will definitely be stimulating and you will learn traditional Navajo weaving. 

If you are interested in this class, please click on the PayPal link to pay a deposit of $300 to hold a spot in this class. The deadline for the deposit is July 30, 2010 due to availability of facilities at the Quality Inn in Window Rock. 

Please contact me if you have any questions.  If I do not have 10 students signed up for this class by June 30, I will cancel the class and refund deposits.

Here are some new pieces available for sale.  My crosses are one of my popular items so there are 2 new ones.  Check out this ring.  Doesn’t it look like fun to play with? I priced these pieces so they can move quickly.  If you wait, they may not be available for a long time.  I will be using the funds from these pieces to buy back vintage Navajo ceremonial paraphenalia so the money from these sales will be going to a worthwhile cause.  Thanks. 

Please contact me if you have any questions, comments or request for a special order.

	Navajo Dragonfly Cross Pendant    Handstamped dragonfly cross.  Heirloom quality and weight. Sterling silver. 24″ Silver chain. Price: $145 plus $6 shipping in the U.S.
	Navajo Sacred Heart Cross    Handstamped sterling silver cross.  Heirloom quality feel and weight. 22″ Chain. Price: $160 plus $7 shipping in the U.S.
	Turquoise Dangle Ring    Handmade sterling silver ring with turquoise dangle. Natural turquoise and sterling silver.  Size 6.  I will double check for you if you interested in purchasing. Price: $135 plus $6 shipping in the U.S.

Here are some new pieces that are specially priced and one-of-a-kind pieces.  Here’s a Corn Maiden Supermodel, a Navajo Yei Pendant and an chain bracelet with a piece of turquoise. Please contact me if you have any questions.  Thanks! Enjoy!

	Corn Maiden Supermodel Pendant   Hand-fabricated set with a piece of natural Morenci turquoise (face) and a piece of fossilized dinosaur bone (body). Sterling silver. Chain not included. Price: $250 plus $8 shipping in the U.S.
	Navajo Yei Pendant #2   Hand-fabricated set with a piece of natural red branch coral (face) and a piece of natural Tibetan turquoise (body). Sterling silver. Chain not included. Price $250 plus $8 shipping in the U.S.
	Chain bracelet with Turquoise   Handmade chain with a piece of natural turquoise with a brushed finish.  I don’t recall the exact mine, but the turquoise is natural. Sterling silver. L=7.5″. Price: $250 plus $8 shipping.

I have one more offering of Navajo weaving tools.  This handmade Navajo weaving batten is made from oak.  If you interested, I have included a Paypal link to purchase it.  If you are interested in purchasing and  live in Albuquerque or the Santa Fe area, I could meet you and not pay the shipping cost.  Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.  Thank you!

Handmade Navajo Weaving Batten Made of oak on the Navajo Reservation.  This is an authentic Navajo-made weaving tool for Navajo-style weaving. L=24″, W=1.5″. Price: $25 plus $8.50 shipping in the U.S.

I like to try different styles of jewelry in terms of shapes, embellishments and forms. I present to you 2 pieces that are experimental at a bargain price of $250 each plus $8 shipping.

I am a known artist both for weaving and jewelry-making in the Native art world.  Keep in mind that the “first” of a series or a new form will always be worth more in the long term if buyers want to re-sell my pieces in galleries or even donating these pieces to a museum.  Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.  Enjoy!

Navajo Yei Pendant #1   This piece is inspired by my Corn Maiden and Changing Woman series.  This is a series I am dedicating to all the medicine bundles and ceremonial paraphenalia out there in the world that are not in Navajoland.  Hand-fabricated set with natural red branch coral and a piece of natural Nevada’s Royston turquoise.  The contrast between the red coral and green Royston turquoise is quite striking!  Chain is not included.  Sterling silver. Price $250 plus $8 shipping in the U.S.

Experimental Pin #1   I was inspired by the brooches and pins from the 1920s and 1930s where they were “overdone”.  I handmade this piece with minimal stamping and set it with natural Emerald Valley turquoise.  I embellished this piece with handmade silver cones.  I made 7 cones and only these 3 survived.  This piece required about 3 different rounds of soldering to hand-fabricate the pieces and then put all the pieces together into one pin.  This is a bargin!!  W=2″, H=1″. The cones are 5/8″ long. Sterling silver. Price: $250 plus $8 shipping in the U.S.

I have posted advertisements for traditional Navajo weaving classes and Native art shopping experiences.  I have received few inquiries for these experiences to learn about Navajo culture and contemporary Navajo life. My traditional Navajo weaving class will have few shortcuts, and we will do our warping and weaving while sitting on the floor as if we were weaving 200 years ago.   My Native art shopping experiences will give you the opportunity to see in person the authentic way Navajo people live without all preconceived notions of how Navajos and other Native people live on the reservation.  No, Oprah didn’t get it when she visited Window Rock, the Navajo Nation capital.  Yes, the pow-wow culture is NOT a Navajo tradition.  Yes, Navajos do have TVs, computers, and internet. No, Navajos don’t live in teepees, never did.  Yes, we still wear feathers, but not everyday. See how much you learned already? 

I will take you to Santa Fe to meet weaver, artist, and author Noel Bennett.  Now how many weaving instructors or shopping guides can offer you to meet Noel Bennett and hear one of her stories of living on the Navajo Reservation in the 1960s?  For those of you who don’t know about Noel’s books, they include Working with the Wool, Halo of the Sun, Bighorse the Warrior (edited only), and Weaver’s Pathway.  Noel is my dear friend. These experiences will change your life, and how you think about yourself and others around you, but you have to be open to these experiences.

I will leave the opportunities open for a couple more weeks and then I may cancel my personally guided offerings.  I appreciate your time and attention in reading my blog updates.  Time is of the essence so I do need to move on to other projects and endeavors.  Thanks!  Hope to see you soon in my traditional Navajo weaving class or on a trip to Hubbell Trading Post or to Cameron Trading Post.  Please contact me if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments.

Morris 

I have been advocating for the return of Navajo medicine bundles, jish, memory aids for sandpaintings, vintage prayersticks and fetishes, ceremonial masks, ceremonial gourd rattles, and vintage medicine bags.  I search the internet regularly to search for these items.  Here’s what I found tonight.  I located 2 vintage Navajo memory aids for sandpaintings and one vintage Navajo medicine bag.

I often rely on the kindness of collectors who own these items to donate them to me. Yes, there are collectors who want to do what’s right with items they know they should not possess.  Ocassionally I purchase these items when I can find and afford these pieces.  Often vintage paraphenalia is beyond my budget.  I post my personal jewelry to raise money and use that money toward the purchase of these items.  I purchased some small pieces of paraphenalia this past weekend as I shopping on the Navajo Reservation.  I ask for your help with monetary donations, donation of ceremonial paraphenalia, and understanding of the return of these items.  I ask for these items because I want to restore the spiritual balance, hozhojii, and natural order in our world.  Navajo ceremonial paraphenalia were made for Navajos by Navajos in the Four Sacred Mountains. 

I appreciate your time and understanding in reading this post.  Please contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or comments.

I am officially on the Board of Trustees for the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, NM.  I am so grateful that members of the Board of the Wheelwright thought so highly of me to nominate and vote for me to become a new Board Member.  Thank you!

A couple of weeks ago I did a presentation at national conference for the WARP( Weave a Real Peace) Organization, in Carefree, AZ.  I met wonderful people at that conference who were doing wonderful things to organize, sustain (I mean really sustain), and market handmade items in countries in Africa, South and Central America.  Everyone was doing something absolutely wonderful and it got me thinking, “What have I done that is wonderful like what these people are doing?”

I consider myself an activist and ambassador for protection of Native intellectual property, cultural preservation, and recovery of Navajo spiritual paraphernalia.  In my Dine’ culture, I do not consciously think or promote myself as an activist nor an ambassador for Native people.  The reality is, I am an activist and an ambassador.  I will begin promoting my services to give presentations on Navajo weaving and culture, give Navajo weaving demonstrations, and promote understanding between Native and non-Native cultures.  The fact is we, as the human race, need to have mutual respect and cooperation between Native and non-Native cultures especially in this country.  I look forward to meeting you or corresponding with you, the reader of my blog posts. Thank you for your time and energy in reading this blog.  May you walk in beauty my friends.    Morris

I’m the cover model for the Wheelwright Museum’s Annual Live Auction during the Santa Fe Indian Market week in Santa Fe, NM.  I’ve come across my photos holding either a vintage Santo Domingo Pueblo water jar or a vintage Apache burden basket.  Here’s the latest photo of me in an ad for the Wheelwright’s Live Auction.   I am wearing my traditional jewelry, my Bluebird Flour sack shirt, and my Pendleton robe.

I will be helping with the auction again this year.  I hope to see you there supporting the Wheelwright Museum.  Thank you.

Morris

Spring is here.  Flower beds and gardens are already planted or will be planted soon.  In celebration of Spring, I want to offer my modern yet vintage styling of the squash blossom jewelry.  This is not the traditional squash blossom or pomogrante blossom necklaces.  The photo of the necklace off to the left here is the traditional pomogrante blossom necklace.  The beads are round and the blossoms are round with small blossoms. 

Here is one pair of squash blossom earrings and two single squash blossom pendants.  Remember all of my squash blossoms are hand-fabricated from sheet silver so no two are ever exactly the same.  All of these pieces are part of the squash blossom necklace legacy yet modern for today’s contemporary culture. Enjoy!

	Squash blossom earrings #1   These earrings are made in the style that they appear to be taken directly off of a squash blossom necklace and have handmade earring hooks soldered on.  The old, vintage earrings have their handmade earring hooks soldered on.  The handmade earring hooks add comfort to wearing these earrings that commerically made earring hooks cannot match.  Just ask my mom! Price: $225 for the pair plus $7 shipping.*
	Squash Blossom Pendant #1   These single squash blossom pendants are one of my most popular items.  I make only a few a year.  I include a small silver tag with my trademark stamp with the squash blossom.  The tag is stamped with the following, “MOE M, .925″.  The “.925″ designates the metal as sterling silver.  The pendant comes on a 22″ long chain. Price: $145 plus $7 shipping in the U.S.*
	Squash Blossom Pendant #2   These single squash blossom pendants are one of my most popular items.  I make only a few a year.  I include a small silver tag with my trademark stamp with the squash blossom.  The tag is stamped with the following, “MOE M, .925″.  The “.925″ designates the metal as sterling silver.  The pendant comes on a 22″ long chain. Price: $145 plus $7 shipping in the U.S.*

*Shipping cost is subject to change.