Tres Culturas at Centinela Traditional Arts

Our SchoolArts/CRIZMAC Tres Culturas group spent a day in Chimayo, New Mexico. We always stop at Centinela Traditional Arts for a talk from Irvin and Lisa Trujillo, master weavers who usually take the top awards at Spanish Market in Santa Fe. Irvin is a 2007 National Heritage Fellow and a seventh generation weaver, learning from his father and grandfather.

Irvin shares the history of weaving in Chimayo through woven examples.

A peek into a workroom. Yarn is dyed here before being used for weaving.

You can see quite a few weavings in the showroom. You can also buy weavings online.

A blue ribbon winner from Lisa. Unless it is a purchase prize, winners get a cash prize and get to keep the weaving.

And a blue ribbon winner from Irvin.

There are a number of large looms on the premises. The wider the loom, the wider the weaving can be. Many pieces are woven on the warp before they are cut free.

The largest loom.

The shop also sells works by other weavers. Here is what their website says about them:

Our business represents Chimayo weavers of great talent and skill. Our weavings are personal expression of ourselves, even while they are expressions of our traditions and techniques. Our contract weavers and consignment artists work with us regularly, and live near enough to our shop in Chimayo to make that possible. Most of these pieces are woven in the weavers homes, on their own home-made looms. You'll see that everybody has their own approach to color, design, and tradition. Some weavers have a variety of different sized looms and work at different widths, while others only work on one size of weaving. Some weavers try out different parts of the tradition and others stay focused on one or two styles. Some of the weavers represented produce or procure their own yarns, while others are supplied with yarns from the shop. Each weaver brings their own skills and talents to bear. Some of these folks come from families with many generations of weavers. Some people learned to weave as children, others learned later in life. Most importantly though, each weaver brings their own aesthetic to the process, and their own life history. And they sign their pieces with these marks.