Homespun: Northern New Mexico Spinning and Weaving Techniques A Home Lands lecture-demonstration

Join members of the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center as they demonstrate Pueblo, Navajo and Spanish weaving techniques in the Palace Courtyard. “Homespun: Northern New Mexico Spinning and Weaving Techniques” is part of the exhibit Home Lands: How Women Made the West. The event is free with museum admission. Sundays free to NM residents and children 16 and under.

Among the things you'll see:

Spinning: String made from plant or animal fibers serves as the basis for many of New Mexico’s fiber art forms.  Pueblo people used drop spindles to spin cotton or yucca fibers, which they later wove into cloth.  Spanish settlers  in the 17th century introduced both the upright spinning wheel and Churro wool.  Churro – with its long stapled fibers – became the predominant textile fiber in all three preexisting weaving traditions: the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish.   

Visitors will be given the chance to transform Churro wool roving into yarn with master spinners using both the huso or malacate (or drop spindle) and the torno ahilado (the upright spinning wheel).  The Española Valley Fiber Arts Center will provide a variety of drop spindles, spinning wheels, roving, and examples, and help visitors experiment with this highly tactile activity. 

Weaving: Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish weaving traditions exist side-by-side here in Northern New Mexico, and often intermingle.  Historically, Pueblo people used back-strap looms to make sashes and belts and vertical weighted looms for larger fabrics, blankets, shirts, and dresses.  The Navajo have historically used Navajo style or frame looms.  And the Spanish relied primarily on the European treadle loom, which has since been incorporated into all three traditions.  These looms have served as a vehicle for tradition and personal expression, as is evinced in the diversity of motifs present in northern New Mexico weaving.

Participants will be given the chance to examine a variety of loom types (including backstrap, Navajo style, and jack loom), and try their hand at weaving.  Contemporary weaving will be on display.  The Center will provide looms, yarn, and weaving instruction. 

Home Lands: How Women Made the West, June 19-Sept. 11, is the centerpiece of the History Museum's exploration of women this summer. Originally organized by the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, it features additional materials from the History Museum’s collections. The largest of the summer’s four exhibits, it sweeps across the centuries in three regions: the Rio Arriba of northern New Mexico; Colorado’s Front Rage; and the Puget Sound.

Download high-resolution photos from the Home Lands exhibit by clicking on "Go to related images" at the bottom of this page.

Other summer exhibitions at the History Museum celebrating the unsung heroes of the West:

Ranch Women of New Mexico, April 15-Oct. 30 in the Mezzanine Gallery, highlights 11 women in this excerpt from an exhibit originally prepared by photographer Ann Bromberg and writer Sharon Niederman.

New Mexico’s African American Legacy: Visible, Vital and Valuable, May 15-Oct. 9 in the second-floor Gathering Space, tells the stories of the families who planted their roots and created a home in the Land of Enchantment following the Civil War.

Heart of the Home, May 27-Nov. 20 in La Ventana Gallery, spotlights historic kitchen items from the History Museum’s collections.

The full schedule of lectures and workshops supporting these exhibitions; all are free and in the History Museum auditorium unless other noted:

Sunday, June 12, 2-4 pm: Symposium on “The Journey of the African American North,” including stories from Santa Fe and Española.

Sunday, June 26, 2 pm: “Captive Women in the Slave System of the Southwest Borderland.” Lecture by James F. Brooks, president of the School for Advanced Research and prize-winning author of Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands.

Sunday, July 10, 2 pm: “Fabiola Cabeza de Baca and The Good Life.” Lecture by Tey Diana Rebolledo, regents professor at the University of New Mexico.

Sunday, July 17, 2 pm: “Moving Around to Settle In: Women of the Plains and Range.” Lecture by Virginia Scharff, co-curator of Home Lands and director of UNM’s Center for the Southwest.

Monday, July 25, 9 am to 4:30 pm, and Tuesday, July 26, 9 am to 12 pm: "Planting Seeds:  Home, Healing and Horticulture." Conference in collaboration with the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. $25.

Sunday, Aug. 7, 2-4 pm: “Homespun: Northern New Mexico Spinning and Weaving Techniques.” Members of the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center demonstrate Pueblo, Navajo and Spanish techniques in the Palace Courtyard.

Friday, Aug. 12, 6 pm: “Through Her Eyes: An American Indian Woman’s Perspective.” Lecture by Eunice Petramala, park ranger at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

Sunday, Sept. 25, 2-4 pm: Symposium on “Entrepreneurship in the African American Community,” from barbers to caterers, mechanics to artists.

Download high-resolution photos from the Home Lands exhibit by clicking on "Go to related images" at the bottom of this page.

Home Lands is generously supported by Cam and Peter Starret, Ernst & Young, Eastman Kodak Company, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Unified Grocers, Wells Fargo, KCET and the Friends of the Autry. Local support is provided by Stanley S. and Karen Hubbard, the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, the Palace Guard and the Montezuma Ball.