Navajo Storm

Navajo Spider Woman Storm by Rena Mountain. Woven hole in center. 38” x 28 ½”. Done by a Rena Mountain weaver. Tapestry quality. A trunk piece, never used. Purchased from the Deer Dancer Gallery for $2650. The Legend of Spider Woman is that Spider Woman instructed the Navjo women how to weave on a loom which Spider Man told them how to make. The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the heddles of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The batten was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. There were four spindles - one stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal, one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise, a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone, a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was a white shell.