Have You Heard About Wedding Blankets?
Big news! I got married earlier this month, so today I’m going to tell you about the Frazada de Boda, or, in English: the wedding blanket. I’ll forever remember the scratchy material on my bare shoulders as my father and father-in-law wrapped a blanket around me my now-husband. The sun was beating down on our heads and I closed my eyes to take everything in. It may have been a hot summer day, but my heart was warm from emotion. My dad had spent a month weaving our very own frazada for us, and only now were we allowed to see it. My dad...
What Makes a Winner
Friday, July 27th, 2018, Sun beams burst through grey skies, majestically illuminating the New Mexico landscape below. I had picked up my mom from my parents’ house in Chimayo and we were driving to Santa Fe through the desert landscape; my dad following close behind in his white Subaru. We were eagerly driving to the 2018 Spanish Market Preview night. My dad, Irvin Trujillo, is always the star of the weaving division. Mom and I were joking with each other: “what award did dad win this year?” “Someday he’ll give someone else a chance to be the superstar.” We started...
Rinsing Yarn: a Childhood Treasure
Hello! My name is Emily Trujillo and I’m starting to write for this blog. This is my first blog post for this page. Some of you might know me, and others don’t. I’m an 8th generation weaver and daughter of Irvin and Lisa Trujillo, master weavers and owners of Centinela Traditional Arts. I came back to Centinela Traditional Arts three years ago when I graduated from UNM with a double major in Ethnology and Psychology. I’m now 27 years old. My blog posts will be stories from my childhood and growing up with spinning, dying, weaving, tradition, culture and family....
Emily’s Triforce
Hello, everyone, My name is Emily Trujillo and I’m a 24 year-old 8th generation Weaver. I’m also the daughter of master weavers Irvin and Lisa Trujillo. It took me so long to start this because I had what I like to call a ’24 year teenage rebellion.’ You see, I grew up being asked if I was a tapestry artist by almost everyone, and I resented it (irrational, I know). Out of angst and a need to rebel, I played around with almost every other art medium: from jewelry to watercolors, tape sculptures to Photoshop. Though the day finally...
Notes on demonstrating spinning at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
We were honored to be invited to participate in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall in Washington DC. We shipped a loom out for Irvin to weave on, but they borrowed a wheel for me that is just like the one I use at home. I also brought a couple of scoured churro fleeces to spin during the weekend we were there. Most folks don’t seem to know what spinning is, what weaving is, or what a spinning wheel or loom is. People thought I was making thread, or maybe rope, working...
On Planning Things Out
The topic of sketching and planning our pieces comes up on a regular basis as I weave under the watchful eyes of our customers. The philosophy that Jake Trujillo passed on to us regarding this was pretty clear. Design at the loom and make each piece a unique work of art. So I don’t often sketch things out before I weave. This comes from a long history of not liking pieces that I have thought through too much in advance. I find that basing my work on something I have drawn out on paper as opposed to basing it on...