Pauline Tsosie

MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE:
Planning begins with inventory analysis, designing on graph paper, warp counting, and checking yarn with a color wheel. I re-spin commercially processed wool-mohair blend or use self- prepared wool. Continuous warping, a vertical loom and other Navajo tools used by my late mother are used. Plain weaving is integrated with cross weft technique in two images. Commercially processed yarn ensures uniformity of size, essential for continuous selvage to selvage weaving similar to the twill technique. Designs and adaptations of cross weft are my own, developed over several years. Initially, I found this method very design limited, unlike the Navajo Raised Outline. My subsequent work proves otherwise. New techniques occasionally come via dreams or sleepless nights. Traditional Navajo world view, Episcopalian beliefs, advance degrees that required study of philosophy, science, and other disciplines, in addition to psychology as my major, and spirituality--these are woven together in my work.