Southwest Trading Post
On a trip to Tucson, Arizona, right before we were all isolated because of COVID. I met with a group of college classmates for a mini reunion. While at the Arizona State Museum gift shop, I spotted a kit for a miniature Yei rug. I had never done counted cross stitch and thought it would be fun to try it with a subject that had always interested me.
BOOM. Isolated because of COVID, I was suddenly at home very much alone, (my husband had passed away three months earlier), I started working on the kit, discovering that I really enjoyed counted cross stitch. So much so I ordered two more rug kits and a chief's blanket kit. With this supply of rugs, I decided the best way to exhibit the Yei rug was as the back wall of a Southwest Tranding Post.
The Yei, Holy People in Navajo, were originally depicted in sand paintings, which were destroyed after the Holy People had accomplished what they had been summoned for. When they appear in rugs, they do not have the Holy powers. The female Yei is recognizable by its square head, the traditional triangular skirt, hands in an upright position, and figures separated by corn stalks. The “Rainbow Guardian Yei,” figure serves as side and bottom borders.
The other two rugs, with pillows, and the beautifully colored chief's blanket in black, white, red, blue and green in the left corner.
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The challenge for this disiplay was how to mount clear shelves (acrylic) onto the walls. I ended up flattening one side of clear push pins. Which with careful balancing, worked perfectly.
On the same trip, we visited the Ted DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun. I had always loved the illustrations of his works in the issues of Arizona Highways that I had had a subscription to in the 1950's. The top right painting in these photos is a Ted DeGrazia painting. Another outing our group made was to Kitt Peak National Observatory, home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world. We were treated to a rewarding program there at night and I ended up in their tiny gift shop where I found three tiny, handmade horsehair baskets. ( At either end of the lower shelf. My replica bolo ties with turquoise, the turquoise necklace and the two poncho belts are typical of the trading posts I have been in.
On the right hand wall are shelves with a drum, Squash blossom neckliace and the third
horsehair basket. Indian pottery tops the framed sculpture of a road runner next to a Jack rabbit ceramic. The colorful cattle skull was a gift. Three other ceramic gifts fill the middle of the scene.
