Portal:Textile Arts/Selected article/4
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Navajo rugs and blankets are textiles produced by Navajo people (Navajo: Diné) of the Four Corners area of the United States of America (U.S.). Navajo textiles are highly regarded and have been sought after as trade items for over 150 years. Commercial production of handwoven blankets and rugs have been an important element of the Navajo economy. As one expert expresses it, "Classic Navajo serapes at their finest equal the delicacy and sophistication of any pre-mechanical loom-woven textile in the world." Navajo textiles were originally utilitarian blankets for use as cloaks, dresses, saddle blankets, and similar purposes. Weavers began to make rugs at the close of the nineteenth century for tourism and export. Typical Navajo textiles have strong geometric patterns. They are a flat tapestry-woven textile produced in a fashion similar to kilims of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Traders from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century encouraged adoption of some kilim motifs into Navajo designs.
