Скачать или смотреть What you need to know about Navajo rug and blanket terminology to speak like an expert.

How much do you know about Navajo textile terminology? Dr. Mark Sublette reviews key concepts in Navajo weavings, including warp, weft, selvage, and lazy lines. Understanding the terminology of Navajo blankets and rugs will allow you to be able to identify the important elements that make up Navajo textiles. This includes how to spot continuous warps and lazy lines which are essential for avoiding mistakes when buying Navajo rugs and blankets. Learn how to avoid fake Navajo rugs and blankets by understanding the anatomy of Navajo weaving and you took can have the expertise of a Native American Art dealer.

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I’d like to talk to you today about just terminology. This is simple stuff but it’s important if you're going to be able to understand how a Navajo weaving or blanket is made and if you’re going to talk to a dealer or somebody who’s trying to sell it, you need to understand what you’re looking for, right? So when these Navajo blankets or rugs (or Diné) pieces are made, they're made on a vertical loom (sometimes called an aboriginal loom) but a vertical loom, not a horizontal loom so they’re set up on a continuous warp. That means the warp is done all the way, continuously, it’s one round-trip all the way around.

You also have selvedge on the sides and the selvedge tells you things, it can tell you depending on how many warps there are, it could be a Pueblo piece or you know you also have Mexican pieces, you have Saltillos (early pieces). You also have copies of Navajo textiles - and often these copies will have multiple warps on the sides and the warps are the foundation threads of the weaving.
The wefts, which go horizontally, are the pattern, they make the design of the textile. So its important: selvedge, weft, warp, and if it’s a continuous loop, it's probably not Navajo, though sometimes, in the early 1890s - 1900s, some of the Germantown and some of these blankets often that were made for tourist trade they may cut them off and then do a knotting of the top of the textiles themselves.
So, the other thing that you want to look for and I have explain this to people all the time, is these diagonal lines that are kind at a 45-degree angle and they're like, “What is this, is this a something, a problem with the rug, is there, you know, is it needing repair?” And the reality is, that is the diagnostic characteristic of early Navajo textiles. And so when and they it a “lazy line” and basically what it is when the weaver is sitting at the textile they weave one section, and then they move over and another section it leaves this beautiful line and often these lazy lines as they’re called would be used in many different fashions to make a design so you really want to see these vertical lines that are done at a 45-degree angle. If you see those that’s a good thing that helps you identify this is probably a Navajo textile.
So, most of the things that you need to know about weavings are, can be found on my videos and you can look at different textiles but it's really important to know those just simple terminology of selvedge, warp, weft, continuous warp, and lazy lines. If you know those kind of things, you’re ready to go.

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