Navajo Large Red Mesa Outline Rug - Lucy Yazzie (#005)

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...The pattern is one of the most intricate of the regional designs.  Not many weavers will attempt such a complex pattern, because it is too easy to become confounded and confused with the details.  Red Mesa is the area of Navajo land where the Hero Twins first met-up with the female gender.  Thinking these too were monsters, the boys attempted to destroy it.  The Twins were soundly defeated, and sent home to mama.  Changing Woman informed her busted up boys that the female gender could not be overcome, and anyway what red-blooded son of the Sun would want to anyway.  The Hero Twins would experience those "Monsters" at a later and more personal date and time.  There is a season for all things.  At any rate because of this action and reaction Red Mesa weavings are also often referred to as personifications of female energy.  Practice love not war boys!

Red Mesa Rugs:
Red Mesa rug history begins in the late 1800’s when Navajo wearing blankets were transitioning to Navajo rugs.  Sharply moving away from the simplicity of Navajo chief blanket weavings during the Classic Period (1650’s to 1870’s), the introduction of an almost endless palette of commercial dyes and pre-dyed yarn colors laid the foundation for bold new expressions in Navajo weaving in general and Red Mesa rugs in particular.

The Transitional Period (1860’s to 1910) represents the movement away from the Navajo wearing blanket to the Navajo rug, an item no longer to be worn but rather to adorn walls, floors and furniture in Anglo homes.    Inspired by the eye-dazzling designs on Mexican Saltillo and New Mexican Hispanic serapes, the breadth and application of color in Navajo weavings literally exploded into a variety of exotic representations.

Most typically, the Red Mesa weaving design consists of a line of chevrons running down the vertical middle of the weaving surrounded by radiating serrated diamonds.  The most extreme eyedazzler effect is created by laying a line of contrasting color against a lighter or darker color.  The border of Red Mesa rugs will appear to come in from each of the vertical sides to meet the outward radiating pattern.

Your best Red Mesa rugs amply demonstrate Navajo weaving virtuosity.  The control of color and pattern while threading one shade after another through the standing warp threads represents a visual testament to a Navajo weaver’s patience and artistry.

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Related legends:

Weaving
After the medicine woman told the people about the prayersticks she told them that there was a place in the underworld where two rivers crossed. It was called ni tqin'kae tsosi, fine fiber cotton (Indian hemp). There were two persons who brought the seed of that plant, they were spiders. They said that the people were to use the plant instead of skins for their clothing. So this seed was planted in the earth? More about this legend

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