Spider Woman's Children: Navajo Weavers Today

An inside look at the skills and artisans of Navajo weaving today.

Navajo rugs set the gold standard for handwoven textiles in the US. Their history and value to collectors is unparalleled. But what about the people who create these treasures? You might be surprised. Spider Woman’s Children is the inside story, told by two women who are both deeply embedded in their own culture, and considered among the very most skillful and artistic of Navajo weavers today.

Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete are fifth-generation weavers who grew up at the fabled Two Grey Hills trading post. Their family and clan connections give them rare insight into where the craft has been and where it is going. They take you into traditional hogans, remote trading posts, reservation housing neighborhoods, and urban apartments to meet weavers who follow the paths of their ancestors, who innovate with new designs and techniques, and who uphold time-honored standards of excellence.

You’ll meet men who learned to weave from their grandmothers; women who weave alongside their aging moms; a young woman who incorporates contemporary images into skillful, highly collectible tapestries. You’ll walk with elderly women over their sheep pastures and cornfields in search of natural dyestuffs. You’ll see how well made, simple weaving tools from generations past take a place of pride in every home. And throughout, you’ll see examples of the finest, most mindful weaving this rich tradition has to offer.

“This is the book I have been wishing someone would write. Interviews with weavers and their families form a moving statement of the place that weaving has at the heart of those families.” —Ann Marshall PhD, Director of Research, Heard Museum

“An exquisite book conceived and written by expert Diné weavers who explore ‘the breadth and complexity of who we are!’ The authors’ richly detailed profiles honor their elders and Spider Woman and validate a vital future for Navajo weaving.” —Ann Lane Hedland, retired director, The Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry Studies, Arizona State Museum, Tucson

© 2024 Schiffer (E-bog): 9781507302507

Release date

E-bog: 2. juli 2024