About this project
Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land (www.blackmesaweavers.org) has had nine successful years organizing a community-run wool-buy on the Navajo Nation in NE Arizona. Over two days each June, a minimum of 2000 lbs of wool from the legendary Navajo-Churro breed is purchased directly from the family producers, at fair prices, and sold to fiber artisans on the national market. This year, as an addition to the wool-buy, we seek to develop this event as a stronghold of traditional arts and crafts by supporting Navajo women to research, practice, and teach plant dying within their home communities, particularly to youth. We will produce a small booklet of the dye plants and recipes for free distribution within the community. We will also host workshops on other traditional fiber arts and ecological knowledge, including land management and livestock care.
This money will pay for the time of these women to research and connect with the knowledge base within their communities, gather and prepare materials, and offer workshops during the wool-buy. It will also pay for the compiling, copying, and distribution of the booklet of plant dye recipes and traditional ecological knowledge. It will also support the organization and outreach for this event.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 3, 2011.
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Name on the Sponsor page of the Hardrock Community website.
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Above, plus CD of photos from the event and the region
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Above, plus choice of 1) booklet of dye plants and recipes, 2) 2 oz handspun Navajo-Churro yarn, or 3) 2 oz plant dyed wool.
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Above, but with a choice between 1) dye booklet AND 2 oz handspun yarn, or 2) dye booklet AND 2 oz plant dyed yarn
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Name on sponsor page, bi-lingual thank-you letter, CD of photos from the event, Navajo-made artisan item
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Name on sponsor page, bi-lingual thank-you letter, CD of photos from the event, Navajo-made artisan item
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Name on sponsor page, bi-lingual thank-you letter, CD of photos from the event, Navajo-made artisan item
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Name on sponsor page, bi-lingual thank-you letter, CD of photos from the event, Navajo-made artisan item
Project By
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Katharine Jolda is the artisan behind Felt the Sun, a collection of felt apparel made from Navajo and Bay Area wool, and understands her felt practice as a creative form of "direct action" that builds reciprocal and honorable relationships to serve practical needs. She spent six years working on the Navajo Nation in health education, farming, and sheepherding. Having recently returned to her homeland in the California Bay Area, she continues to develop relationships among fiber artisans from all realms, urban and rural, cosmopolitan and indigenous. Katharine holds a BS in Political Economy and is a graduate of the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, an awareness which she applies to traditional artisanry and youth education.
