Beginning in the 1970s and continuing until just a few years ago, we had the pleasure of working with a group of sisters from Fort Defiance. Until the 1980s, they spent their summers in the Lukachuki Mountains near Narbona Pass (Crystal, NM) with their sheep.
Their sheep camps were located near the post where J.B. Moore and the weavers he worked with created the original Crystal style at the turn of the 20th century. A new style began to evolve when Don Jensen purchased the Crystal Trading Post in 1944. It had changed hands several times since Moore sold it in 1911. Jensen was the first to encourage weavers to break out of the traditional geometric styles that Moore had so successfully promoted.
It was a new era, and customers were seeking something unique. Jensen realized what Sallie Lippincott had done at Wide Runs Trading Post by guiding weavers to create banded weavings colored with vegetal dyes. Jensen followed her lead, and, as a signature of the new Crystal weaving, he asked weavers to include alternating single threads creating thin, small wavy lines in the banded designs.
Crystal weavers quickly adopted the new style and, by the 1950s and 1960s, were weaving beautiful floor rugs with these designs. Moving forward, a group of these women began to weave finer pieces with higher thread counts that were more suitable for wall hangings. They began experimenting with different plants to create various colors.
Among the leaders of this effort were four sisters, Mildred Begay, Florence Gale, Ella Rose Perry, and Margaret Kee. They were all excellent weavers of the contemporary Crystal Style. Some of my best experiences were with Ella and Margaret, as Mildred and Florence were quite a bit older and I didn’t know them as long. Margaret and her daughter, Anita, did several weaving demonstrations with me. One of the best times was in Taos for San Geronimo Days, when Charles Eagle Plume showed up with a frozen buffalo carcass in the trunk of his car, which was cooked in a hole in the ground lined with hot coals for the people who came to Carl’s Trading Post. Margaret thought that was pretty cool.
Ella traveled to Midland, Texas, with my father to conduct demonstrations, and also accompanied us to the Utah Museum of Natural History when the Durango Collection of Navajo and Southwestern Textiles had its first showing. She arrived at the Museum with a trunk full of different plants that she had gathered along the way to experiment with making dyes. Ella worked as an aide at the Crystal Boarding School.
These were not only great friends but also amazing artists, and they taught me a great deal about Navajo culture and weaving. They are all gone now, even Margaret’s daughter, Anita, who tragically passed before her time.
So, I was surprised when a young Navajo man came into the gallery with a weaving by Margaret that he wanted to sell. It turns out it was her grandson. I asked him why he wanted to sell the piece, and he told me that he had another one and that he would rather have the money to help him buy a house. He said he brought it to us because his mother trusted us and he wanted it to go to someone who would take care of it.
I tried to talk him out of it, but it became clear that he was going to sell it to someone else if I didn’t buy it. So, I made him a deal and told him that I would hold onto it for a year in case he changed his mind. I was hopeful that he would, as he was doing well and had a good job. Hopefully, selling the weaving would help him afford the home he wanted.
It’s been three years now, and it is time to pass it on to a new owner. It’s a wonderful piece, woven with hand-spun wool and vegetal dyes by one of the artists responsible for taking the Crystal rug from the floor to the wall.
We offer a wide selection of both classic and contemporary Crystal styles.
