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Trips to Toadlena, home
of her paternal grandparents, where TahNibaa played
with her "lady nalli Sarah's" (paternal
grandmother's) red wool are fondly recalled, "my
grandmother encouraged me to know the wool." And
know it she did, since she would card endless wool
"roll logs" for her mother in the evenings. "I did
this primarily because fragments of wool would
stick to my skirt and I could go outside and twirl
and twirl to get it off. I just loved twirling that
skirt." One day, at age seven, TahNibaa returned
home from school and a loom was set up for her. It
was time to learn to weave. Under protest, TahNibaa
began what was to become one of the most important
lessons of her young life. She learned to weave
from practicing at the loom and the only thing her
mother would let her weave were stripes and
occasionally a diamond and rectangle because "it
was important to learn process first." She sold her
first rug at the age of ten and discovered she
learned she loved to work with her hands.
TahNibaa's weaving
continued through high school, but at times she
found it difficult to live in both the biligaana
and diné'e worlds.
Recently discarding a
prestigious position as a bio-scientist, she is
currently pursuing weaving full-time. She weaves
regional designs from the Crystal, Two Gray Hills,
Burntwater, and Wide Ruins areas of the Navajo
reservation. Experimentation with creating historic
second and third phase chief-style men's and
women's shoulder blankets and re-instituting the
wedge weave technique helps to ground her work in
the past traditions of her people. Always eclectic
and creative, TahNibaa also weaves pictorials and
manipulates a six-heddle warped loom to create the
twill-style float weaves. Her rugs and tapestries
are recognized at such shows as the Heard Museum
Fair, Eight Northern Pueblo Arts and Craft Fair,
the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial, and the Santa Fe
Fiber Art Show where she has won several
awards.
Images:
Portrait by Mark Nohl
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