Textiles Styles

Priscilla Begay is the mother of five daughters who created a Navajo rug style by their rules. As young adults Anna Mae and Marie, (Anna being the oldest and Marie next in line) had the responsibility of raising their three younger sisters, Alice, Helen and Sandy, after their mother passed away. As young girls they realized the only way to remain on the reservation and make a decent living was to learn to weave. However, they did not want to follow the rules of traditional Navajo weaving.

The sisters take traditional weaving patterns and use them in non-traditional forms. Their patterns do not necessarily repeat or have borders. They experiment with several different patterns in one rug. They sometimes cover one pattern with another and sometimes create entirely new ones. They also use natural hand spun, Churro wool. They knew all of these elements would set them apart from other weavers.

Although the original sisters are the most sought after when it comes to Burnham weavings, the number of Burnham weavers has grown. Anna Mae's daughters, Laverne, Lorraine and Bessie, and Marie's daughters, Theresa and Julia, have now followed their parent's lead and weave Burnham style rugs.

Blue Canyon refers to a particularly innovative style of Navajo weaving created by the late Larry Yazzie and named in honor of his boyhood home. At loose ends after six years in the military, Larry, a trained artist, followed the suggestion of his sister, Wanda Begay, that he try weaving. The result was a perfect meeting of artistic talent, cultural awareness, and a deep desire to express the elemental connection he felt with his family, his ancestors, his gods and the land with which they were so inextricably connected. Blue Canyons combine the traditional alternating pinstripes and raised outline of Coal Mine Mesa patterns (the traditional pattern for the Blue Canyon area) with design elements from many older weaving styles. A Storm Pattern may join a Teec Nos Pos, a Chief Blanket a Yei and a corn plant in a powerful new expression of an ancient Navajo art form. Larry's family continues to express his vision in wonderfully original hand woven tapestries.

The Burntwater style is one of the newer Navajo rug styles. It evolved from the traditional Ganado and Two Grey Hill styles that feature bordered, geometric designs with central diamonds, but is woven in native vegetal and pastel colors. The style arose out of the Wide Ruins/Burntwater area south of Ganado, Arizona. A rich combination of earth tones and pastels distinguishes a Burntwater weaving.

Philomena Yazzie wove the first of this style in 1968. She lived in the Wide Ruins area and many believed this pattern wouldn't evolve, being so close to two trading posts with established styles and so many established weavers perfecting the Wide Ruins style. However, by the early 1970's the weavers in the area were weaving almost exclusively Burntwater designs. Although it has developed recently it is one of the most recognizable patterns today.

The Chinle pattern is one of three styles of banded, boarderless rugs. Trader Leon H. "Cozy" McSparron, his wife Inja and Mary C. Wheelwright are responsible for this style of weaving. Beginning in the 1930's they encouraged weavers to use vegetal dyes and the simple stripes and bands of the Classic Period.

Chinle, named for the town in Arizona near Canyon de Chelly where the style originated, is the most commonly woven banded style due to its simplicity and is now woven across the Navajo reservation. Typically, it has no border and is decorated with alternating plain color stripes and horizontal bands of geometric designs including diamonds, squash blossoms, and chevrons. Chinle weaves often times contain "railroad tracks," distinctive rows of thin, wavy lines.

In the beginning all of the colors were vegetal but synthetic dyes were later used to accentuate smaller designs. Colors are usually pastels or earth-tones in conjunction with white, natural gray, golds and greens but they can also be bright colors. Today's Chinle weavings continue to be of a banded style and use earth tones, but identification has become difficult because it shares many characteristics with the Wide Ruins and Crystal styles.

Eyedazzler rugs are just that: busy, eye dazzling weavings of any combination of colors. Usually, the design is a simple geometric shape outlined and repeated throughout the entire rug. They may or may not be bordered. The Eyedazzler pattern is one of the earliest styles of Navajo weaving, and was influenced by serape blankets worn in New Mexico. They became their own unique pattern in the 1870s, when traders began importing bright Germantown yarn. Weavers who had been limited to natural colors or vegetal dyes suddenly had a brilliant new range of colors to work with. Within ten years, the aniline dyes used to produce Germantown yarns were available directly to Navajo weavers and Navajo weaving exploded in a kaleidoscope of color and design. Though relatively rare now, Eyedazzlers still express the same sense of excitement they always have.

Sandpainting weavings depict elements of Navajo ceremonial sandpaintings used in healing ceremonies. Depending upon the ceremony for which the original sandpainting was made, these extraordinary weavings may show supernatural beings and their implements, the spirits of the earth and sky, powerful creatures and plants, etc. Common elements in sandpaintings include Yéis, whirling logs, snakes, feathers, water creatures, and Rainbow Yeis. Because sandpaintings are used in sacred ceremonies this type of pictorial is somewhat controversial and rather rare. The backgrounds are usually tan with brighter colors composing the intricate design.

Teec Nos Pos (meaning "circle of cottonwoods") is a settlement in Northeast Arizona, near the Four Corners. A trading post was first established here in 1905 by H.B. Noel. Many say this pattern is the "least Navajo" of all the designs. Teec Nos Pos weaving is characterized by a bold border with an almost dizzying array of diamonds, zigzags, stylized arrows, triangles and a myriad of other geometric shapes. The bold colors are often outlined with a contrasting color; there is no rule for colors although they must harmonize. The design work includes diagonal, hooked, and forked zigzag lines surrounded by a wide border.

The Bird Pictorial pattern, also referred to as the "Tree of Life", is a pictorial style that first appeared around the turn of the 20th century. Many variations in design from relatively simple to extremely complex can be found. The basic design depicts a corn plant in the center growing out of a Navajo ceremonial basket. There are birds of all colors surrounding the corn plant. The birds may be merely symbolic or may include actual species such as blue jays, cardinals, finches, hummingbirds or woodpeckers. Flowers, bees, butterflies, rabbits and squirrels may appear along with the birds. Occasionally, a weaver will substitute a tree for the corn plant. Alice Turquoise, a Navajo weaver, says that for her the pattern symbolizes the abundance of life all around her.

Traditionally, Two Grey Hills weavings are typically a single or double diamond pattern woven of natural handspun wool. The basic colors are white, black, grey and a variety of brown. However, commercially prepared wool yarn is becoming more common today and much, if not a majority, of the weaves are made with it. Shades of the basic colors are produced by carding the wool of different sheep together, that is carding colors together, such as black and white together to produce shades of gray.

The yarn in Two Grey Hill weavings is generally very fine and thus the resulting design is crisper. The design does not represent hills. Two Grey Hill weavings are named for a village in New Mexico. They tend to have a plain, dark border, but the patterns are often more complicated than those of a Ganado, Klagetoh or Burntwater. Like other styles with borders, many Two Grey Hills weavings have a spirit line.

Though the spelling may change, the pronunciation stays essentially the same: "yay beh chay." This style of weaving is a picture of dancing figures. They are always portrayed in profile rather than face forward as in the Yei weavings, and the figures are human dancers representing the Navajo deities rather than being the deities themselves.

The dancers in the Yei Bichai weavings are participants in the Nightway Chant, a 9 day Navajo healing ceremony. The figures, realistically portrayed as human, usually include a medicine man (Hitachi) facing a lead dancer (Yei Bichei), followed by 6-12 dancers who are followed by a clown who is known as a water sprinkler. The clown is usually dressed a little different and may be dancing on the wrong foot. Sometimes the medicine man tends to a patient who holds a ceremonial basket. The dancers are often shown with one knee bent and a foot raised showing the action of dance, and they may be all men or alternate with an equal number of women dancers. These weavings use realistic colors and much detail to portray the characters. They often times have a detailed border.

Perhaps the best known of all Navajo rug patterns, the Ganado style always has a red background with black, grey and white accents. A central design element, usually a single or double diamond is always present. Triangles, zigzags, and other geometric shapes fill each corner and a black or dark outer border is usually joined with a white or light colored inner border.

Juan Lorenzo Hubbell began trading with Navajos in the late 1870's and from his trading post at Ganado (named for his Navajo friend, Ganado Mucho) he encouraged the area's weavers to produce higher quality weaving. He insisted on the use of wool warp rather than cotton string warp to strengthen the weavings and discouraged the use of bright colors, preferring a deep aniline red and natural greys, whites and blacks. To obtain the deep crimson shade he preferred, Hubbell insisted his weavers use two red dye packets instead of just one. The deep red shade was called "Ganado Red" and the pattern soon became the Ganado Red pattern. Because of its long history and wide distribution, many consider Ganado a “classic” Navajo rug style. The rug can range from large, simple, bold designs to more intricate, sophisticated works.

The Storm Pattern design is thought to have originated at the Tonaleah Trading Post, which is located between Page and Kayenta in northern Arizona. It is the only style of weaving that originated in an area rather than being named for a trading post; they consider this pattern a "Western Reservation" pattern. The first color picture was in J. B. Moore’s 1911 catalog. It is the only Navajo weaving which is said to tell a story, but the story varies with each weaver. Most weavers agree that the four rectangles in each corner represent the four sacred mountains; the four sacred mountains are Mount Taylor in the South, Mount Blanca in the East, Mount Hesperus in the North and the San Francisco Peeks in the West. The four mountains guard the borders of “Dinetah” (the Navajo homeland). The jagged lines extending from these rectangles represent lightning. The central rectangle represents Dinetah or possibly the weaver’s home or (with some weavers) the center of the earth. The first Storm Patterns were red, black and grey, but today can be any color.

Klagetoh, which means "Hidden Springs”, is a small community located between Ganado and Wide Ruins in the southeastern corner of the Navajo Reservation. The post was owned at one time by Lorenzo Hubbell and the pattern shows a strong Ganado influence. Some consider this style to be a subtype of the Ganado pattern. Klagetoh weaving is characterized by an elongated central diamond on a grey background with red, black and white accents.

Pictorial weavings first appeared in the 1840's as accents on wearing blankets. The Cheyenne Chief, White Antelope, who was killed at the "Sand Creek" Massacre in 1864, was wearing a Navajo blanket that had four small accent birds on it. A photo from 1873 shows a Navajo weaving a U.S. flag-design. By the 1880s, textiles with trains, animals, people and words started to appear. At first these were usually accent design elements but soon the pictorial pattern became the main focus of the weaving.

Many pictorials are landscapes with scenes of every day life on the reservation. The landscape usually includes rock formations, trees, ponds, clouds, a Hogan, a corral, a woman in a long skirt, sheep, cattle, and horses. Railroad trains, panel trucks emblazoned with soft drinks logos, and even aircraft show up in pictorials. Many Pictorials are still woven without perspective or shading, but some weavers are producing surprisingly realistic pictures, considering the medium.

Perhaps the most admired of early blanket types from this classic period (1800-1870), Chief pattern blankets were developed for trade with Pueblo and Plains tribes. Although the pattern seems rather plain in design it is rather complex. When the four corners are folded in to meet in the middle they repeat the pattern you see when it is unfolded. The pattern has evolved over time in four phases, although the patterns overlap in time and continued in use during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

First Phase (1800-1850) Simple weft bands in black and white alternating with bands of dark blue and sometimes red.

Second Phase (1850-1870) Bands are still the prominent design with rectangles added as design elements. At first the broken lines were small, later the rectangles are larger and often create grid like effects.

Third Phase (1865-1875) The most popular of the four phases is the Third Phase. This pattern is depicted by rectangles modified into small diamonds, which give way in later times to diamond shapes that dominate the pattern.

Fourth Phase (1870-1900) Increasingly elaborate shoulder blanket designs of the Transition Period. Sometimes the diamonds in such pieces are so large that the once dominant black and white bands become background. Serrate patterns replace classic terraced designs. Elaborations such as pictorial motifs or continuous (edge to edge) motifs are sometimes woven into these blankets.

Today Chief revival or re-creations of classic chief blankets are actively being produced. The basic elements of classic Chief blankets are the same but many of the modern weavings have more detailed patterns and color.

Yei (YEH-ee) figures first appeared on rugs shortly before the turn of the 20th century. A Yei is a Navajo holy person or deity. At first all Navajos considered weaving Yei's as a designs taboo. Near the turn of the century Navajo weaver, Yanapah, married Richard Simpson, a trader near Farmington, NM. Simpson encouraged his wife to weave large, single and double-figure Yei's. Yei rugs developed in other regions a few years after the turn of the century. At Shiprock, NM, trader Will Evans helped develop multiple-figure Yei weavings in the 1920's. They usually had white or light-colored backgrounds with several figures positioned horizontally across the weaving. They had a multitude of bright, aniline-dyed colors and frequently used a great deal of commercial yarn. These intriguing weavings are a strong representation of the Navajo culture. The majority of these weavings are still woven on the southwestern part of the reservation. Although this style of weaving is slowly becoming more widely accepted, many of the more traditional weavers still consider them taboo.

The original Crystal pattern was woven with all natural wool; weavers gradually added red aniline yarn over time. J.B. Moore encouraged this pattern and used it as a staple design in his mail order catalog. In the last three generations this design has undergone a complete change. Crystal is now recognized as one of three styles of banded rugs without boarders. The Crystal pattern is distinctive because of "wavy" lines. This design element is created by alternating weft threads of two or three different colors. This pattern was developed in the Western New Mexico area of Crystal in the late 1930's. It was promoted by Don Jensen when he took over the Trading Post in 1944. The colors are usually muted earth tones, but may include pastels, pinks, or yellows.

Of the three banded patterns, the Wide Ruins pattern of Navajo Weaving is the most complex in design and color (Chinle and Crystal are the other two banded styles). This pattern evolved from the Chinle style after 1938, when William and Sallie Lippincott bought the Wide Ruins Trading Post. The extensive use of vegetal dyes made a huge pallet of colors that these weavers blended and matched to make exquisite pieces of art. As evidence by their product, Wide Ruins weavers practice their craft with the utmost diligence, always striving for the best quality of weaving.

The Wide Ruins pattern covers a broad spectrum of colors, but there is a tendency for the weavings to be in the pastel family of pinks and naturals. One of the characteristics that set this pattern of weaving apart from the other banded styles is the "beading" design; it looks like beads on a string. While many of the other banded styles are being lost or their design elements are being combined with other patterns the Wide Ruins patterns is continuing to evolve and is one of the most sought after patterns today.

1. Flip the textile over periodically so there will be even distribution of fading and wear on both sides of the rug.
2. Have your Navajo textiles and other wool area rugs treated regularly for moths and carpet beetles.
3. Inspect the weaving periodically for insect damage or signs of infestation.
4. Vacuum your textiles moderately using a hose vacuum without the "beater bar."
5. Clean spills immediately.
6. House train your dog or cat. Urine stains usually cannot be removed.
7. Do not allow the weavings to get wet. If they do get wet, make sure that you dry it in the shortest possible time. A "wet vacuum" and a fan can help.
8. Do not allow any prolonged moisture to penetrate the rug. An example would be setting a flower pot on the textile, thereby causing dry rot or mildew damage.
9. Do not have your Navajo weavings "dry-cleaned", "steam cleaned" or cleaned by any automated means.
10. Have any fraying tears or other damage repaired immediately. If a torn or damaged area is allowed to continue fraying, it can greatly decrease the beauty and value of your textile. Remember that quality restoration can save many dollars in future repair costs and also serves to retain the beauty and value of your Navajo weaving.

The most simple and effective way to hang a textile is to Velcro the rug to an inch-and-a half wide strip of wood. The other side would be the side that you would attach to the wall. This doesn’t ruin the rug and is easy to take off and clean. Another option is to use plywood commercial carpet attach strip. The only thing that you need to watch out for is that the nails and very small and very sharp. This may cause to get caught in the weaving and tear it. If your Navajo textiles are on the floor, use carpet cushions (pads). There is no question that a carpet pad prolongs the life of a Navajo weaving.