CHAPTER 5 MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES:

Only weaving techniques used to produce textiles displayed in the subject exhibition are presented here. There are a number of others, of which several were common during the prehistoric period but for which examples from the historic period have not been found.

Vertical Loom:

As mentioned previously, the vertical loom appears to be a Southwestern Pueblo innovation that originated about 650 BC by peoples living in the Four Corners region. This loom allows for the production of relatively large plain weave blankets known as mantas that serve a number of purposes. Within plain weave fabrics the warp and the weft are aligned so that they form a simple crisscross pattern, with each being equally visible. A burlap bag shows a coarse version of this weave.

The color/pattern of a Dinè and Pueblo blanket and rug weaving is produced by a tapestry weave that is carried by the weft threads. In contrast, with the float warp weave, the color/pattern is controlled by warp threads. The weft which holds the weaving together is almost invisible being since it’s formed of fine black or white thread. Narrow fabrics, including belts, garters and headbands are produced in this way on a belt loom. Some weavers work solely with their fingers, while others use a slender stick and/or supplementary heddles. As work proceeds the finished work is pulled around rollers so that there is always an unworked section facing the weaver. With a tapestry weave the result is weft-faced in that the warp threads are hidden in the completed work and all design and color is carried by the weft.

Twill Weave:

This weave is produced by various over/under combinations of warps across combinations of weft in that the weft does not pass over every other warp, but rather over every two or more wefts. Twill weaving can produce diamond shapes, diagonal patterns and herringbone or V-shapes. A number of the fabrics highlighted in the book use the distinctive technique.

Horizontal Loom:

The Pueblos may also have used a wood frame horizontal loom, similar to the type introduced by the Spanish, essentially a vertical loom laid flat with side supports. Such looms are found in Mexico and were used as early as the 11th Century in the Mogollon region of southern New Mexico where a depiction of one is seen on a Mimbres pottery vessel. Their use by the Rio Grande and Hopi Pueblos is not well understood and such looms, may have been eclipsed by the vertical loom in pre-contact times.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-diagram-of-a-weaving-loom

Backstrap and Belt Loom:

From prehistoric times to the present, the Pueblo people have woven belts. Backstrap looms were used for belts and sashes in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Today they are made on a simple belt loom, by which the warp is attached at the top to a wooden roller instead of a rod, as with a vertical loom. Up until the early 20th Century its other end is held in place by a band passing around the back of the weaver, while today it is most often fixed in a small rectangular wooden frame. Belt warps, heddle manipulation and designs are quite complicated. They are also made on a small fixed small version of a vertical loom.

Braiding and Sashes:

Three and four strand braiding goes back thousands of years; primarily used for rope and cordage for belts, socks, sandals, nets and bags. Today these techniques are usually used to make plain white sashes commonly referred to as Rain Sashes or Wedding Sashes described in the following section.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-representation-

Knitting and Crocheting:

These techniques are used primarily for leggings and appear to have been introduced by the Spaniards. They are the only European methods of manufacture to have replaced pre-contact techniques in early historic times. Fabrics recovered from Hopi that date from the Seventeenth Century include both cotton looping, as well as wool knitting. This suggests that an introduced technique was associated with an introduced fiber, i.e. knitting for work with wool and looping reserved for native cotton.

Figure 13: Knitting vs Crocheting

Source: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/differences-between-knitting-and-crochet-4077447.

CHAPTER 6 THE TEXTILES in the EXHIBIT

The textile traditions presented in this exhibition each include many features that are distinctive their individual cultural expression, while at the same time overlapping in style and technique. This is a result of the commonality of weaving techniques, all of which lend themselves more to straight and angular designs, rather than curvilineal designs, as well as to a shared geography and close association through trade, family ties, and exploitation, e.g. the use of European style horizontal looms by Pueblo weavers for the production of tribute textiles the Spanish sent to Mexico.

The three primary traditions described presented here have a general chronological hierarchy. First and oldest is that of the Pueblos. This is by far the most complex with many prehistoric antecedents. Many techniques used today have been used since time immemorial, with others lost in time. Secondly are Dinè weavings. Archaeology shows that the Dinè, who speak a language that is distinct from Puebloan languages, (as different as English is from Japanese) first appear in the Southwest sometime in the early sixteenth century, not all that long before the arrival of Europeans. While they undoubtedly had their own textile traditions, once in contact with the Pueblos they adopted many of their neighbors weaving methods and with the establishment of Anglo run trading posts, each looking for a unique outside market niche, developed a series of regionally specific designs conventions, that are instantly recognizable as Dinè. The third tradition present here is that of Spanish American weaving as described in Chapter 3.

Pueblo Textiles

Mantas - Plain, Twill Weave and White Wedding Mantas:

Although Navajo blankets of similar age (Late Classic Period 1850-1868 and Transition Period 1868-1890) are well documented, Pueblo mantas have received little attention by comparison, despite the high quality of manta weavings in incredibly detailed patterns; timeless, elegant and understated in black. Traditionally, woman would wear a Spanish style simple white blouse underneath the manta, and often with their prized jewelry.

Manta is the Spanish words for blanket and cape. They are rectangular fabrics, either decorated or undecorated, with the larger about six by five feet and the smaller about five by four feet, as well as made in a variety of other sizes and proportions. Today, mantas are typically made from commercial fabrics, in prehistoric and into the historic period the fabric would have been of native cotton woven on a vertical loom. In the historic period the warp is often commercial cotton string. Plain white undecorated mantas rubbed with a fine white clay were, and still are, used as wedding robes. The only decoration these mantas have are elaborate tassels. After their use for a wedding such mantas may be embroidered for use as ceremonial regalia. The customs and designs, from one Pueblo group to the another are not standardized and can be quite complicated. In the seventeenth century the plain-weave Pueblo-woven manta was a universal medium of exchange.

The traditional clothing for women during the early historic period and well into the 20th century was a black dress/manta with an indigo blue diamond twill bottom and top panel. These were worn as a wraparound dress held at the waist with the traditional, primarily red, woven belt. The fabric would be connected over the wearers right shoulder, with the left shoulder left bare. The dyed diamond twill portions of the fabric resulted in a subtle contrast between the black center of the textile and the indigo blue ends. After around 1900, commercial blue dye began to replace indigo dye. Such dresses clearly have prehistoric antecedents. Examples are seen on kiva murals of black fabric, which were undoubtedly dyed cotton; however all historic examples are of wool. Solid color black cloth fabrics, with some measure of embroidered and/or applied decoration are often seen worn by female dancers on Pueblo Feast days.

Black Mantas:

These mantas are mostly woven from handspun churro wool yarn in hues of brown and black and often with indigo (blue plant) dyed end panels. The twill weave was one of the most technically difficult techniques in weaving that required true virtuosity of the weavers. There are a variety of "twill" weaves with end panels of various diamond twill, diagonal, herringbone, and birds-eye patterns. The simpler central panels of "diagonal twill" seem to be predominant.

Four by nine inch manta end panels are often indigo but have had overdying of pinon through the years Black pinon dye was created by crushing roasted pine nut shells that may than be mixed with charcoal. In many garments you can see the brown or indigo blue remnants or the color radiating through the black overdye. After 1900, aniline black dye was utilized to refresh black color of these manta garments.

Tewa Weavers and others: Tewa Weavers was a commercial operation which employed only Native Americans, providing work for the unemployed/underemployed primarily from Isleta Pueblo from just before WWII up through the 1970s (with a short break because of the war). Tewa Weavers it was a notably altruistic measure by the founders, who also ran the Post Office at Isleta Pueblo and had resided at the Pueblo since about 1906. They primarily supplied tourist “trading-posts” along Route 66 with hand loomed goods such as shawls and neckties. However, they also supplied mantas for the Pueblo ceremonial market. Mantas, and other textiles, were woven on large horizontal treadle-looms and supplied to Pueblos across the Southwest. These fabrics can still be seen at Pueblo Feast Day dances. Such mantas could be produced much more inexpensively, quickly and in greater quantity than those made on vertical looms. But an unintended consequence of these mantas may well have been a drastic reduction in the production of locally made fabrics. It should be noted that small shops in the Rio Grande region also produced fabric for the Pueblo market. In some cases, such as the treadle loom(s) operated at the Okay Owingeh Crafts Cooperative, they were established by, and used by, Native Americans. This Co-op was an outgrowth of the San Juan Pueblo Day School and opened in 1969.

Other Pueblo Textiles

The Pueblos of the Southwest have, since time immemorial, made a multiplicity of textiles. Many of these traditional textiles are today limited to being worn on special occasions and as ritual regalia. At many Pueblos wearing such items is restricted to a ritual context, they are not included in this book. Such textiles include sashes of several types, elaborately decorated kilts, breech cloths, banners, leggings, belts, mantas with special designs, and ritual shirts. While today many such textiles are made much as they were made in prehistoric times, new techniques and materials are also being used. The best place to see such regalia is at public Feist Days; check with specific Pueblos for dates of such events.

Pueblo Mantas with Designs

White Wedding Mantas

Large white mantas for brides are the largest articles made of cotton. While once ubiquitous throughout the Pueblo world, by the 20th Century they were restricted to the Hopi in both manufacture and use. As is the case with many modern cotton pieces of all types the warp is often commercial string. These wedding robes are in two sizes. The larger is about 5 x 6 feet and the smaller about 5 x 4 feet The proportions and sizes vary considerably. Both are plain white without pattern. They are rubbed with fine white clay and have elaborate tassels in the lower corners

Sometime after the wedding either of these plain robes may be embroidered. Some Hopi villages decorate the larger size and some the smaller. Customs are not standardized and the whole subject is complicated. After they have been embroidered the robes are used as ceremonial regalia