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Wedding Basket with Seven Petal Start in Negative Design

Navajo

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About The Artwork

The "Navajo wedding basket", as it is commonly called even though often they were fashioned by the Pauites for the Navajo people is also an important ritual vessel for many other types of ceremonials. The traditional red and black pattern on neutral ground is consistent with all "wedding baskets". Its spiritual symbolism is difficult to translate-both, into words from feeling and into English from Dine culture. The red open circle is like a naja-symbol of the womb and source of life. It is bordered by black, stepped peaks inside and out. These peaks are home, motherearth, the sacred places. Just as the red and black are tied together in one design, the Dine (the People) are one with the earth that gives them sustenance. During ceremonials the basket is filled with the appropriate corn meal mixture--from which each participant takes a portion to eat. As the basket is passed from person to person, the design opening is kept facing the east--direction of sunrise, new beginnings, new life. For weddings, blue corn meal, ashes and water are used to make a gruel or "mush" which is consumed by the wedding participants in ritual "communion". Corn is the most important single food element in traditional Dine culture. It is a gift from the Creator and mother earth to maintain life and has come to represent life itself and Dine connection with the earth. For this reason, a basket with traces of cornmeal in the weaving is very desirable. It has been "blessed" with ritual use. A properly wall mounted wedding basket should always be hung with the design opening toward heaven--to catch the Creator's blessings. This information was relayed by a Dine gentleman and his wife.

About The Artist

The Navajo were the first of the Native Americans of the Southwest to learn silversmithing from the Spanish. Most Navajo jewelry emphasizes silver, with turquoise stones used as an accent. Some pieces are cast in sand or tufa molds, while others are hammered, using a male stamp and a female die.

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