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Mable Burnside-Myers participated in the creation of the Fort Wingate High School's historic "Navajo Native Dyes" by Nonabah Bryant and Stella Young, the very first Navajo dye book. It was at this time of Mary Wheelwright's vegetal dye revival that new techniques were introduced to the Navajo of which Mable added to her own family recipes. Later as a nationally touring master weaver, Mable Burnside-Myers created the internationally known Navajo Dye Chart in the 1950's with her children, Melvin, Isabel, Wilbur, Vera and James Jr. Later Mable Burnside-Myers taught Navajo weaving at schools throughout the Navajo Indian Reservation and was later picked by Ruth Roessel as the first Navajo weaving instructor for Dine College, formerly known as Navajo Community College, in Rough Rock, Many Farms and later in Tsaile, AZ. Under Mabel's tenure, students learned about the weaving cultures, single-face weaving, double weaving, sashbelt weaving and of course Navajo dyeing techniques. Her impact on hundreds and possibly thousands of future Navajo weavers can be accounted for where I meet these individuals every once in a while when I am demonstrating, presenting and/or selling my weaving equipment.
Apprenticing under her mother, Isabel Myers-Deschinny demonstrated Navajo weaving at the Smithsonian and other District of Columbia institutions and events during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Isabel later assisted her mother at private workshops in the Pine Springs, AZ area. Isabel assisted the Dine College museum under than director, Harry Walters, with it's weaving collections. Later, Mrs. Deschinny continued the family artwork of the Navajo Dye Chart of which she became famous. Like her mother, she taught Navajo Weaving at Dine College in Window Rock, AZ. Currently, she teaches Navajo Weaving at the University of New Mexico at the Gallup, NM branch, where she has taught since 1993. Recently, she has focused on large weavings as oppose to her dye charts. Creating tapestries using 100% Navajo dyed weft cords and intermingling various techniques in one weaving, Isabel Deschinny's weavings stand-out fromother weavings of which she has created her know tapestry, "Storytelling of a Weaver." |
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