Lisa Trujillo·
Vallero
The Vallero is the first design within our tradition that actually develops here in Northern New Mexico. It’s named after the beautiful mountain town of El Valle, where there were a number of weavers who had the respected skill of being able to weave these distinctive textiles. The oldest of these use commercial plied yarns, and tend to be more detailed than later Valleros. The majority of Valleros were dyed with the early synthetic dyes, but are handspun wool. Those woven before about the 1920’s are woven in two pieces with a seam down the center. This is a simple...

Lisa Trujillo·
The Art is the Cloth
We are honored to be participants in an exhibit called “The Art is the Cloth”. The opening at the New Hampshire Institute of Art was attended by 20 of the artists in the exhibit, whose smiling faces you can see in the above picture. It is a tapestry show meant to explore that central reality of tapestry, that we aren’t manipulating a piece of cloth to create our art, we are creating the cloth as we create our art form. There are a few other components of the art form that are pretty much a given, i.e. warp and...
Lisa Trujillo·
Dyed in the Wool – New Mexico Magazine article
https://issuu.com/henrylopez07/docs/dyed-in-the-wool

Lisa Trujillo·
Sheep and Wool
The breed of sheep brought by the Spanish to New Mexico is called Navajo-Churro or Churro. It is a hardy breed, well suited to the extremes of our local climate and terrain. It is common for churro to bear twins, which would certainly be advantageous from the point of view of hungry sheep owners. Its wool is not as greasy as most breeds, requiring less precious water and shorter preparation time for the spinner. Churro wool has a luster that, in a lot of old pieces, has an almost silky look. Its fleece also has what is commonly described as...

Lisa Trujillo·
Finishing Pieces
Spinning is really relaxing. Weaving can be all kinds of things; exciting, tiring, frustrating, and, at its most fun, an intellectually challenging puzzle. Because the weaving process is often incredibly long I rarely think about the finishing work that will be necessary when I get through weaving. But the finishing work brings crucial qualities to the final piece, mainly what it looks like and how it feels to the human touch. The finishing process is especially challenging with my handspun churro pieces. Churro pieces, whether handspun or millspun, tend to be fuzzy looking things. My personal take is that I...

Emily Trujillo·
Spanish Market 2014
We have participated in Spanish Market for a very long time. Irvin’s first Market was in 1976, and Lisa started in 1982. It was under the two portals, at the Palace of the Governors and on the east side of the Plaza, on Old Santa Fe Trail. There are only a handful of us who go back that far. What it means, more than anything, is that Spanish Market has become a blur in our memories. We remember people we meet there kind of vaguely, even if we spent time engaged in fascinating conversation with them. I wish I could...