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 July 30, I will cancel the class and refund deposits.

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.

This is the first time I thought about offering a traditional Navajo weaving class and tour so I appreciate your patience and time in reading my posts.  I’m thinking aloud on my website.  So I am going to attempt answering a little more than where, when, type of class, and how much. 

I realize there are students out there who are not planning on coming out to the Southwest to learn Navajo weaving.  I would like to offer a week long course in Navajo weaving on the Navajo mini loom.  I am willing to travel to you and teach.  My rate for a group of students will definitely be more cost effective than individual, one-on-one private lessons.

For students close in the Southwest area, I will offer you the opportunity to meet legendary weaver & artist, Noel Bennett, and renowned Hopi weaver Ramona Sakiestewa.  I have known Noel Bennett and Ramona Sakiestewa when I first moved to Santa Fe in 2003.  It’s a surprise and unexpected to have met Noel Bennett the way I did.  I was sitting in an exercise class waiting for class to start.  Then this older Anglo woman sat next to me and began a conversation with me.  We began to talk about the Navajo Reservation then Navajo weaving.  Just before class started I learned it was the legendary Noel Bennett, who had spent time on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba City in the late 1960s-early1970s!!  Noel was in my class!!  I was quite honored and sweaty at the end of class.  It was unreal experience! 

Here’s a photo of Noel Bennett and I at the Live Auction at the Wheelwright Museum during the week of the famous Santa Fe Indian Market, August 2009.  I am posting with an antique Santo Domingo Pueblo water jar.  (I am posing for 3 different photographers so I’m only looking at photographer #1).

Here are the tentative details of my tentative Navajo weaving classes for 2010:

When:  May 22-29, 2010, ; June 19-26, 2010, Aug. 28-Sept. 4, 2010, and Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2010.

Where: Window Rock, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, or your city.  Student enrollment will determine location.

Class type:  I offer beginner, intermediate and advanced Navajo weaving classes. 

How much?:  Depends on number of students and location. 

I have so much to offer students about Navajo weaving and culture.  I hope you take advantage of this opportunity.  Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.  I will be waiting to hear from you.

I officially accepted a one-on-one weaving class with a student named Paul in Santa Fe, NM.  For me, teaching Navajo weaving requires an interest and deep respect for the art and the culture.  I’m about to immerse my student in Navajo culture as much as I can while still being in Santa Fe.  Here are some of my gifts I will share with him.  I am building him a loom, selecting for him reservation yarn to use, consulting with him on his rug design, and giving him a tour of Gallup and Navajo reservation area.    I will work closely with him to complete a small rug. 

I rarely make a Navajo loom for other weavers.  I have concluded to make them available for sale to students who study with me. 

Please contact me if you are interested in scheduling individual Navajo weaving lessons with me.  I will help you to become familiar with Navajo weaving techniques and the resources I have at my disposal.