I will be participating in the activities at the Wheelwright Museum during the week of the infamous Santa Fe Indian Market.  How exciting, huh?  I will be participating in the roundtable discussion about Native art collecting on Thursday, August 19 and I’ll be demonstrating Navajo weaving on Friday morning from 8:30 to 10:30, August 20. 

Last year my dear friend and second mom (in the Navajo way), Noel Bennett, came to support and assist me in showing and talking about my jewelry and weaving to the visitors who came out on Friday just before the Indian Market weekend.  She enjoyed helping me out and she will be again coming out to help me.  This year she will be siging copies of her books she authored.  Please visit her website at www.noelbennett.com to see her publsihed works.  Here’s a photo of us at last year’s Wheelwright Live Auction.  We had several photographers taking our picture.  I was looking at one while Noel was looking at the right one at the right time.  Ha, ha, ha….. It was so much fun. Thank you so much Noel!   

Please contact me if you have any questions about the activities at the Wheelwright Museum on August 19 and 20.

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.