If you haven’t been to Garland’s Navajo Rugs in Sedona, it is something to put on your list. At Toh-Atin, we specialize in quality Navajo weaving, as does Dan. Dan’s father, Bill, and my father shared a love for the art form of weaving and the culture of the Native people of the Southwest, and they passed that love down to us.

Gilbert Maxwell, a Farmington, New Mexico trader, wrote the first book I read on Navajo weaving. Not only was he a trader, but he and his wife were avid collectors, and he was constantly searching for more information about the history of Navajo weaving.

Over the years, we have seen Navajo weaving evolve from wearing blankets to the transitional and Germantown weavings, the early floor rugs, and the regional styles. I’ve been thinking about where we are today and would like to share some thoughts.

Prior to 1983, when we still operated our Navajo rug business out of the front office of our father’s Pepsi Cola business in Durango, it was a common sight to have a pickup truck pull up in front of the bottling plant and see an older Navajo woman emerge with a Navajo weaving rolled up in a Blue Bird flour sack.

When a weaver walked into my Dad’s office, everything else stopped. He would get everyone in the group a Pepsi and they would catch up on the family stories.

Many of you saw our Facebook posts, on May 23rd, about the two large Ganado Red weavings that were created by famed weaver, Mae Jim, in the 1980’s.

We took these two amazing weavings down to Ganado High School, where one of Mae Jim's nephews was graduating, and they were used as the backdrop for the graduation exercises.