What are the Navajo famous for weaving?

Navajo rugs and blankets (Navajo: diyogí) are textiles produced by Navajo people of the Four Corners area of the United States. Navajo textiles are highly regarded and have been sought after as trade items for over 150 years.

What do the Navajo dye their wool with?

NAVAJO WEAVING AND DYEING The process of dyeing yarn has been practiced by Navajo weavers for hundreds of years. Dyes can be made with many natural materials like leaves, stems, flowers, roots, mushrooms, clay, ashes, cacti and even bugs.

How did the Navajos make different colors of wool?

The colors in Navajo weaving can come from a variety of sources. In the 1700-1800s the wool was often dyed with indigo dye (blue) and cochineal (red). The cochineal came in the form of a cloth called bayeta which the Navajo then unraveled and respun to be used for blankets and clothing.

What are Navajo textiles made of?

Before 1800, Navajo blankets were largely made of natural-coloured wool—black, white, and a mixture of the two that produced gray; a limited amount of dyeing was done, with roots, herbs, and minerals from the rich soil of the area, primarily producing dark colours, like those of the Hopi.

Where did the Navajo get Indigo?

The dye became a popular export from Mexico. The Old Spanish Trail – sometimes referred to as the Indigo Trail – begins in what is now Mexico City and goes all the way to Taos, New Mexico. In the 1700s Mexican traders worked all the way up and down the trail, bringing Indigo to the Navajo weavers.

How did the Navajo learn to weave?

Navajo people tell us they learned to weave from Spider Woman and that the first loom was of sky and earth cords, with weaving tools of sunlight, lightning, white shell, and crystal. Anthropologists speculate Navajos learned to weave from Pueblo people by 1650.

Which basic weave is strongest?

Interlaced weft (horizontal) and warp (vertical) yarns cross each other in a pattern of one over and one under. Because of the high number of (perpendicular) crossings, each intersecting thread gives maximum support to the adjacent threads. Plain weave is stronger and firmer than any other ordinary weave.