How to recognize a Navajo weaving
Navajo weavings are wool, tapestry‑woven on an upright loom, with the warps continuous (no cut fringe) and wrapped selvedge cords along all four sides, often with small corner tassels. Regional styles include Two Grey Hills, Ganado, Crystal, Teec Nos Pos, Burntwater, Wide Ruins, chief blankets, eye‑dazzlers and pictorials; natural undyed wool in white, brown, grey and black is combined with red, and later many other dyed colors. Mexican and imported imitations have a cut fringe and lack the four‑selvedge structure.
Long Island Navajo pieces are collector and family items in Roslyn, Sea Cliff, Huntington, Stony Brook, Sag Harbor and Shelter Island, and they arrive with instructions to be careful. We are.
- Origin
- Navajo Nation, Arizona and New Mexico
- Construction
- Weft‑faced tapestry weave, continuous warps, cord selvedges
- Fiber
- Wool, handspun on older pieces
- Dyes
- Natural and aniline; older reds may run
- Never
- Immersion for long, centrifuge, hanging wet, hot water
- Our method
- Dye test → hand dusting → cold flat hand wash, brief → hand rinse → blot → flat dry under tension
