Two Grey Hills

Two Grey Hills rugs and tapestries are the “precious gems” in contemporary collections. Rugs are generally 6 x 4 feet and larger and seldom exceed 90 weft threads per inch. On a weft threads per inch standard Two Grey Hills tapestries (approximately 3 x 5 feet) represent the finest, most expensive and most sought after specimens of Navajo weaving art. A less than 3 x 5 feet tapestry of twelve natural colors, finest hand spun wool, woven 115 weft threads per inch can bring up to five thousand dollars from a proud and discerning collector who will display it under glass. The five thousand dollar figure is not an out-of-this-world price when we know that the weaver cannot produce more than one such specimen in any nine to twelve month period. The basic Two Grey Hills patterns are of geometric figures and symbols.

Distinguishing colors are natural (undyed) blacks, whites, greys and shades of browns. For certain greys, black and white are carded together. Tans are made from browns and whites combined. Black borders are generally standard on Two Grey Hills rugs and tapestries. For intense blacks aniline dyes are used with natural wools. This is now an accepted practice throughout the reservation.

Daisy Taugelchee is the “Grand Dame” of Two Grey Hills weavers. As pacesetter of the tapestry medium Daisy's looms have produced more top award winners than any other weaver. The attrition of age and cataracts may cause an involuntary abdication of Two Grey Hills longest lived queen. The area is especially noted for the number of superior weavers, with Julia Jumbo currently setting the pace.

MORE TWO GREY HILLS TOP TO BOTTOM:

WE-33 Right, by Mary Louise Gould, from the Richard A. Voit Collection. FREDERICK T. SHARP WE-34 Mary Joe Gould, from the Richard A. Voit Collection. FREDERICK T. SHARP WE-35 By Mildred Natoni, from the Ray Gwilliam Collection. ARIZONA PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES WE-36 By Daisy Tauglechee, from Russell Foutz Indian Room. RAY MANLEY

WE-37 Right, by Elizabeth

Mute, from

the Richard

Spivey Collection.

ROBERT

NUGENT

WE-38 Right, by Stella Todacheenie, from a private collection. At 8' x

11' This is an

unusually large rug.

RAY MANLEY

TOP TO BOTTOM:

WE-39 Left, by Julia Jumbo, from the Richard A. Voit Collection. FREDERICK T. SHARP WE-40 By Mrs. Amos Tom, from the Richard A. Voit Collection. FREDERICK T. SHARP WE-41 By Priscilla Tauglechee, from the Ray Gwilliam Collection. ARIZONA PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES WE-42 By Ramon Curley, from the Richard A. Voit Collection. This rug is 4' x 6'. FREDERICK T. SHARP

NAVAJO WEAVING from page 13

The Navajo were weaving and wearing garments after the Pueblo fashion.

In 1680, the Pueblos revolted and drove the Spanish from New Mexico. Twelve years later the Spanish returned, and many Pueblos fled to the Navajo. It is widely believed that the Navajo learned to weave at that time. There is some evidence, however, that the Navajo had learned to weave before that. At any rate, by 1706 the Navajo were weaving cloth for themselves and for exchange.

By the late 1700s, the Navajo were obtaining a coarsely woven woolen cloth, dyed crimson or scarlet, with cochineal. This cloth, known in the Southwest as bayeta, was woven in England, shipped to Spain, thence to Mexico, then overland to distant New Mexico. Because the Navajo had no good red dye of their own, they were soon raveling bayeta and reweav-ing the yarns into their own garments.

The Navajos now had white and black natural wool, used plain or carded together; indigo blue dye from Mexico; yellow, orange, green, reddish-brown, and black native vegetal dyes, and the warm crimson from raveled bayeta. For design, they had inherited from their Pueblo teachers simple stripes in brown or blue, compound stripes of one color edged by another or by short vertical blocks called beading, made by alternating pairs of different colored weft yarns. Sometimes several stripes were grouped into zones separated by undecorated areas. Not content with such simple decorative motifs, however, the Navajo began to break stripes into stepped or terraced zigzag figures similar to those woven in their baskets.By 1800 the Navajo were masters of their craft. Their loom work was superior to any other in the Southwest, and even though they still made numerous fabrics of Pueblo cast, they had begun to move away from the Pueblo tradition, to create their own rich patterns and styles in fine tapestry. In the Pueblo tradition, the Navajo still wove a few garments wider than long. Mainly, these were the men's shoulder blankets that later came to be known as Chief's blankets. At first, these were decorated only with wide alternating stripes of black and white, but soon the end and center stripes were widened and narrow stripes of blue were added to the end and center bands. About 1850, rectangular blocks of red were introduced at the ends and center of the blue stripes, making the so-called "Second Phase" Chief blankets. By 1860, these "spots" of color had been changed in shape to diamonds or parts of diamonds, and were enlarged until they began to encroach into the black and white striped areas. Later Chief's blankets became very elaborate. Women's blankets were woven with narrower alternating stripes of black and gray, and generally simple end and center patterns.

From 1800 on, however, the principal woman's garment was the dress. The one-piece Pueblo style dress gave way to a two-piece dress woven as two small, identical blankets with black center and blue striped ends. After the Navajo got bayeta, they made the end panels red, with simple stripes, terraced zigzags, or open step-sided diamonds in indigo blue.

In 1821 Mexico won independence from Spain, and New Mexico's borders were opened to trade with the United States. By the 1830s almost all commercial cloth, including bayeta, came across the Santa Fé Trail, and a fine, silky, 3-plied commercial yarn, called Saxony, was introduced. After the Americans occupied New Mexico, Arizona, and California in 1846, the flow of goods across the Santa Fé Trail became a flood.

The middle 1800s are known as the Classic Period of Navajo weaving. Dresses, shoulder blankets, and such, were