I went on another shopping trip on the Navajo Reservation this past weekend.  I was looking for the elusive green turquoise jacla for my vintage green turquoise tab necklace.  I found wonderful treasures on this trip.  I am only posting a few of my treasures that you may find interesting. 

I found some authentic, REALLY handmade vintage Navajo weaving tools made from either juniper wood or oak.  I want to give you the opportunity to purchase these rare items.  These items are quite rare to find and even more rare to purchase.  These Navajo weaving tools show signs of wear and tear weaving wearing blankets, regional style rugs, and being accidentally dropped by the original unknown owners.

Please contact me if you have any questions about these weaving tools or my shopping trips.  I will be advertising my shopping trips for next year. 

	Vintage Navajo Weaving Battens   Handmade. Natural wood.  Both battens show file marks as a result of being hand-worked using files and no electronic sanders, etc. The top batten is a rug weaving batten and the one below is a sash weaving batten. L=24″ (top); L=20″ (bottom)Price: $ 150 each plus $25 shipping in U.S.
	Vintage Navajo Weaving Comb #1   This is an unsual vintage weaving comb.  The wood is naturally colored with these black streaks.  I thought it was a burnt comb, but it’s not charred nor does it smell.  The comb is structurally intact except for the the outer broken comb teeth. “RUBY” is written in red marker on both sides of this comb.  L=8″, W=1.75″. Price: $135 plus $8 shipping in U.S.
	Vintage Navajo Weaving Comb #2   Handmade Navajo weaving comb.  Natural wood.  L=11″, W=2.25″. The weaving comb teeth on this comb are just perfect!  It’s quite charming and would a great addition to any weaving  tool collection. Price: $165 plus $8 shipping in U.S.
	Vintage Navajo Weaving Comb #3   This is another charming old style Navajo weaving comb.  Natural wood. L=10.5″, W=1.25″. I knew this weaving comb will sell immediately and it did! SOLD

I am working on finishing my Chaning Woman series for 2010.  I have 3 remaining Changing Woman pendants for sale at $350 each.  I’m not sure if I will be posting them.

Other projects I have in the works are completing my Flying Critter series and making more handmade chains.  I will be slowing down in working with silver and I will concentrate on my weaving.  I plan on doing some experimental weaving this coming fall and winter. 

I am still offering my Navajo weaving class.  If you are intersted, please contact me and we will make arrangements.  I hope to hear from you.

I thank you for visiting my website and reading my blogs.  I hope you learn something from reading my blogs. Thank you.

Morris

I want to thank all of you who participated in Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque.  It was the first time I attended a Convergence conference.  What a wonderful time I had!! 

I taught the Navajo Weaving Bootcamp Class along with Rose Dedman, Jennie Slick and Mary Walker.  We had about 53 students in a huge space we called “the echo room”!  Actually, once we got started it was not a problem to be in that room.  I want to thank Rose, Jennie, Mary and Pat for helping me in with the first ever class I taught.  I also want to thank my students for being patient and having a sense of humor.  I enjoyed meeting all of you and look forward to doing it again next year. 

-Morris

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.

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 

Here’s another aspect of my weaving class, the supplies.  I’ve tried several types of warps, yarns, and weaving tools.  I can hand-select for you my favorites when it comes to weaving combs, battens, spindles, finishing tools, yarns, and types of warp. 

So the total package of taking my weaving class includes a handmade Navajo loom made by me, weaving lessons in warping and weaving, an opportunity to meet Noel Bennett and Ramona Sakiestewa, and hand-selected tools and supplies to start and finish your first Navajo weaving in my class.  Which other Navajo weaving instructor can offer you all the materials and inspiration to learn Navajo weaving?

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 am learning this year is an important year for Navajo weaving.  Convergence 2010: Ancient Paths is taking place July 18-25, 2010 in Albuquerque, NM.  I am part of the team that will be teaching Navajo Weaving Boot Camp with Jennie Slick, Rose Dedman and Mary Walker.  I am excited to be part of this wonderful team of weavers!!

In many Navajo weaving classes, the amount of time devoted to teach weavers Navajo weaving is not enough to go through all of the steps of traditional Navajo weaving.  Many students have been introduced to an abbreviated version of Navajo weaving.  I have been weaving professionally for about 10 years and I want to offer you an authentic Navajo weaving experience.  Yes, I want to share with you the hard work of warping on a warping frame you sit in, looking for plant dyes, gathering firewood for dyeing, handspinning raw wool, Navajo plying your yarn, and finishing a rug to the very last weft yarn thread.  I want to offer you a weaving education that will transform your way of thinking about Navajo weaving and the Dine’ world. A portal into the Dine’ world and Navajo weaving awaits you.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this experience I have to offer you.

Over the past year I’ve noticed collectors and students alike have been interested in Navajo weaving in aspect or another.  I’m certain it has been this way for years, but I’ve taken noticed again as I am exhibiting my weaving again.  I’m weaving again after taking a break for school.  I am also making looms again, but for my own use. Here’s my latest mini-loom (18″ high and 16″ wide)

I’m still offering Navajo weaving lessons whether you’re a beginner or have experience in Navajo weaving.  Why learn from me?  There are many reasons to take Navajo weaving lessons from me.  For one, I am Navajo and I known for fine technical weaving in Navajo, Pueblo and Pacific Northwest styles.  I also add the cultural element to weaving and you’ll understand why Navajo men were the first Navajo weavers.  I will also handbuild you a loom and hand-select for weaving tools and wool.  I will also share with you the source of my wool, weaving tools, and philosophy.  I will offer you an engaging weaving experience where you will really appreciate Navajo weaving and the work that goes into it.  Just ask my current student Paul from Santa Fe! 

Please contact me if you are interested in scheduling weaving lessons from me.  Thank you.