Early Crystalsused aniline dyes and were richly designed. They were bordered rugs with acentral design woven of natural colors, maybe with a touch of red. After themid-1940s, the borderless, vegetal-dyed designs came into being. The difference between the Crystal and the Wide Ruins and Chinle banded design rugs is that bthebands in the Crystal are bordered horizontally by wavy lines which are produced by alternating 2 or 3 different colors of weft stands (side to side foundation cords). Also, the vegetal dyes allow for more extensive use of the natural wool colors.
A Navajo Rug made with hand-spun wool will cost you more than one made from mass-produced yarn. Because the wool is thicker and more smooth, you will pay more. Tapestries are rugs with more than 80 threads per inch. A well-made rug will have even edges and a balanced design. The rug will not be uniform as weavers can add imperfections to their work. Prices of Navajo rugs vary depending on their size, age, provenance, and origin. A small rug might cost about $100 while a larger rug, which is more expensive, can run up to $41,600. A large rug can take up to three years to make. It is more expensive to buy antique rugs than modern rugs. As a matter fact, the price of a Navajo rug is likely to rise as its provenance grows.
Navajo rugs are unique and beautiful high-quality rugs with a rich history. It's no wonder that they have become so popular within the past century. You can now enjoy the beauty of a Navajo as well, by buying one, as mentioned earlier. These rugs are ideal for decorating your home and bringing some authentic Navajo culture into your life. With them being highly popular today, there are plenty to choose from, no matter what your budget. Enjoy these unique and highly-prized rugs just as others have over the course of their 500-year existence.
Generally known as Modern Crystal rugs, these borderless patterns often combine vegetal and aniline colors in shades of brown, yellow, and terra cotta with natural greys and whites. This is accomplished by alternating weft threads of two contrasting colors and tightly “battening” or packing them together, giving the effect of a thin, undulating line. Starting in the 1940s, Sally and William Lippincott, owners of the trading post at Wide Ruins, Arizona worked with the weavers in their area to develop highly detailed banded patterns rendered in vegetal dyes. Most Wide Ruins rugs are characterized by very fine, tightly-spun yarns and a flat, even weave. They feature the full range of new vegetal colors including soft green, mauve, terra cotta, and pale purple, pink and blue as well as the more common yellow, gold, brown, and tan.
Here’s a brief history of Navajo weaving that will help you sort out the most common terms, and give you a head start when you venture out to shop for these fascinating examples of Native American art. The Navajo (Dine [dih-NEH] in their own language) are Athabascan-speaking people who migrated to the Southwest from Canada in about the 15th century. Navajo women learned weaving in the mid-1600s from their Pueblo Indian neighbors who had been growing and weaving cotton since about 800 AD. Spanish settlers had brought their Churro sheep to the region in the early 1600s and introduced the Navajo to wool.
Dr. J. Mark Sublette discusses the best way to care authentic Navajo rugs. This video is a must-see for anyone interested in authentic Navajo rugs, blankets, and rugs. Dr. J. Mark Sublette discusses the pitfalls of the process and condenses his 25-years of experience into a single tutorial video.
Designs his weavers developed before 1911 were still being made, virtually unchanged, as late as the 1950s. These oriental-influenced patterns are now known as Early Crystal rugs. Those made at the beginning of the century typically featured aniline red with natural whites, browns and greys, while rugs made from the 1920s on tended to rely even more heavily on a wide range of natural wool colors. One of the most popular designs that likely resulted from Moore’s work at Crystal was the Storm Pattern. It is generally defined as a central rectangle connected by zig-zag lines to smaller rectangles in each corner. The storm pattern often is said to have symbolic meaning: the zig-zags are lighting, the corner rectangles are the four sacred mountains of the Navajo or the four directions or the four winds, etc. Nevertheless, the great variety of interpretations suggests that meanings were assigned by traders and collectors, not by the Navajo themselves.