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I like to think that each piece I weave has its own set of rules to follow and its own set of challenges to overcome.  But the kinds of rules I set for the piece, and the kinds of challenges I’ll face, are related to the kind of weaving I’m working on.  So I thought it would be an interesting idea to look at what I call “style thinking”.  At least it’s interesting for me… When I am deciding on what I am planning to weave, I tend to make our decisions based on yarns and considering whatever time constraints...

(This may be heavy on hyperbole, but it’s hard not to hit the high notes when talking about something this good!) 1) There is a proud history to Rio Grande weaving.  There once were a lot of people here in New Mexico weaving blankets for trade to far away places.  And that was over a period of hundreds of years.  At any one time at least some of those weavers were trying new things – designs and techniques – and their legacy remains for us to explore. 2) The old pieces are things of beauty.  The time we get to...

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...

  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...

https://issuu.com/henrylopez07/docs/dyed-in-the-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...