Rug Show 2013 - Weaving Demonstrations

by John Aldrich

The Elders come to the show primarily to sell their rugs and crafts. But they also spend time sharing their unique skills and creative vision with the audience. Prior to the show opening to the public there are demonstrations for school children, and during the show, there are several opportunities for people to see the weavers at work and to hear the stories of the rugs.

Most of the weavers still have their own sheep, and many still prepare their own wool for weaving. This is a time-intensive and laborious process which is little practiced by the younger generations of weavers who find that commercial yarn is much more convenient.

While other weavers work at their looms, a few of the oldest Elders show portions of the process that leads to finished wool that can be used in weaving rugs. Elsie Shay demonstrates carding where fine-toothed combs separate the wool into strands.

The raw wool is then worked into loose coils in preparation for spinning. These are the hands of Ruth Benally.

Using a hip spindle, May Shay is working the wool into a finer strand that can be used for weaving.

Katie Furcap shows a simple but effective way to coil and uncoil the wool.

The first weaving demonstrations take place on Thursday and Friday for over 600 school children before the show opens to the public. Rena Robertson works at her loom in front of a sea of fascinated young faces.

Elizabeth Clah is working on a twill pattern. This is a more complicated technique of weaving than traditional rug patterns.

During the weaving demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, Elsie Benale and Ella Benally present and describe a rug from each of the weavers.

Lena Cowboy's hands work instinctively as she adds new lines of weft to her rug.

Anna Jackson's rug is a conventional pattern. It is remarkable that weavers in their 80's and 90's can still weave so beautifully.

Louise Reed worked on this Yei rug during the various demonstrations throughout the show. It remained unfinished on Sunday and will be completed later.

Rug Show 2013 - The Auction

The Friday night gala opening for the rug show features a live auction as the main attraction of the evening. This event serves as the principal fund-raiser for ANE during the show, helping to defray the cost of bringing the Elders to Park City and staging the event at the Snow Park Lodge.

An auction has been a part of the show for many years, but this year was unique for the quality and appeal of the various packages that were offered.

Pauline Blanchard was the moving force behind the auction this year. A great deal of work takes place throughout the year to line up the various packages, and Pauline did an outstanding job.

We use bidding paddles to make the auction run more efficiently. KC Hale helped guests register  which entered them into a raffle drawing as well.

Pauline had a team of assistants who helped the auction run smoothly.

By the time the auction got underway, a good crowd had gathered.

The auction packages were presented to the audience by several Navajo girls in traditional dress.

Richard O'Keefe was once again our auctioneer. His style is fast-paced and very entertaining, so even those who weren't bidding had a good time at the event.

Winning bidders not only won their chosen package but were presented with  a white rose.

One of the packages featured a variety of items created by talented ANE volunteers. This beautiful watercolor by Sandy Sleeper was one of the items.

During a brief break in the bidding, the audience was treated to cookies.

The most impressive auction package of the evening was a Grand Canyon white water rafting trip for two. Fientje Allis facillitated this donation through Marty Mathis the owner of Grand Canyon Expeditions in Kanab, UT. Marty received a Navajo rug in honor of his generosity. The trip drew a high bid of $6000.

Lacee Harris and his wife had fun bidding and came away with several of the packages.

Perhaps the most unique thing at the auction was a package that provided a traditional Navajo meal cooked at the winner's home for ten guests. Along with the food the package included an evening of Navajo winter stories. The Eichingers won this package but live in Texas. They will fly Beverly Benally and her husband Howard to Texas this winter to provide the food and stories to their family.

When it was all over everyone felt rewarded with an enjoyable event and ANE benefited from the most successful auction ever.

Rug Show School Programs Produce A Volunteer

by John Aldrich

On Thursday and Friday, prior to the rug show opening to the public, we have a series of programs for school children. Over 600 students from a variety of schools attended these sessions this year. The purpose is to provide an opportunity for young people to become acquainted with Navajo culture and people.

The ages of the students range from pre-school to high school with most being in the earlier grades.

I have often wondered what sort of impact this experience might have on these youngsters, especially the youngest ones.

That question was answered in a clear way when I met Isabella Canada at this year's show.

Isabella started coming to our school programs when she was in first grade at her Montessori school and has been to every rug show since. Now a freshman at Park City High School, she came for the first time as a volunteer, working shifts both Saturday and Sunday.

When she was in third grade she received the gift of a necklace from Ruth Benally. She wore this necklace this year and was happy to have a chance to get reacquainted with Ruth.

Isabella spent most of her time working at the station where show guests can buy bundles of yarn to give to weavers of their choice. Since there was a chair handy, this provided a perch for Isabella to get a glimpse of the action at the pow wow.

We hope to see this wonderful young woman at many more shows and hope that many other students at the school programs will follow in her footsteps.

Addendum:

In a subsequent email exchange with Isabella, I learned that she was attending the Colby School in 2008 when she gave Ruth a rug she had made which resulted in Ruth giving Isabella the necklace she was wearing in the photo above.

Looking back at photos from the 2008 rug show I identified her in the following picture:

This was taken just after she had presented her gift to Ruth.

What an unexpected continuum this photograph has added to the story.