Navaho Technique for Weaving Rugs

The Loom

• A Navajo loom is an upright frame loom with the warp, or long fibers, stretched in a continuous close zigzag from the bottom to the top of the frame across its width. Weft threads are then woven across the warp. The weaver uses a shuttle to pull the wool through the warp threads; a batten -- a stick nearly as wide as the loom -- holds alternate warp threads apart so the weft can be inserted. A comb is used to push down the weft tightly and to compress individual sections of weaving as the rug progresses.

The Wool

• It takes the wool from at least two sheep to make a small area rug, about 3 x 5 feet. Sheared wool is washed and laid out to dry. Then it is carded -- wound around a piece of cardboard to straighten out the kinks. Once the carding is complete, the weaver can begin the process of spinning thread. This is accomplished by twirling strands of wool on a spindle. Very tightly spun threads are used for the warp on a loom because it holds so much tension. After spinning, the wool is dyed with vegetable or commercial dyes.

Symmetry

• The weaver takes two measurements to plan her strategy. Often a pattern exists only in the weaver's head, but achieving a perfectly symmetrical design requires some calculation. A string as long as the finished rug will be is folded in half to determine the vertical center of the rug. The warp threads are counted and then divided in half to determine the horizontal center of the rug. As the design progresses, a weaver can check the number of threads in each section to make sure the pattern stays symmetrical, even when two different objects or shapes are woven on either side of the rug or below and above the mid-point.

The Patterns

• Navajo patterns are geometric, symmetrical, well-defined and influenced by both tradition and the zeitgeist. A weaver will rely on a pattern handed down from ancestors but add her own touches and imaginative adaptations of the things that attract her attention. Common designs include wide bands of contrasting colors; central diamonds with geometric borders; a "storm" pattern of zigzags connecting a central rectangle to corner rectangles; tree-of-life designs with stylized corn stalks and birds; pictorial rugs with images of horses, trains, tractors, cliffs, sky and clouds; and people. Yei rugs depict stylized, godlike Navajo holy people, but rugs might also show the kachina figures from the Hopi tribes. Learning the idiosyncratic patterns of the Navajo rug weavers would probably take as long as learning to weave a fine rug.