Isabel Myers-Deschinny

 

From the small Navajo community of Pine Springs, AZ or locally known as T'iis 'Ii'ahi, Isabel Myers-Deschinny learned weaving and dyeing from her mother, Mabel Burnside-Myers, a re-knowned weaver.  Isabel continues her family tradition through teaching and her artwork, the Navajo Dye Chart and Navajo rugs.

 

Graduating from Northern Arizona University, Isabel is the current Navajo Weaving instructor for the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Gallup, NM, where she has taught since 1992.  She teaches fundamental weaving, advance weaving and dyeing.  Before teaching at UNM, Isabel taught Navajo Weaving at Dine College, the Navajo Nation's tribal college, in Window Rock, AZ.  For 5 years as a certified elementary ed teacher, she taught elementary grades at the Window Rock Elementary School.  

 

While she is not teaching in academic institutions, she is providing workshops, demonstrations and presentations for various entities.  She has worked with the Smithsonian, Heard Museum, Museum of Indian Arts Culture, Wool Festival of Taos, Sheep Is Life Celebration and many other institutions.  She has taught weaving for after-school enrichment programs and tribal youth programs.  Despite her travels, she prefers workshops at home during the summer time.

 

Between teaching at UNM, workshops and demonstrations, Isabel produces her internationally known Navajo Dye Charts and 100% Navajo-dyed rugs.  Navajo dyeing is the foundation of her artwork.  The Navajo Dyeing is a holistic and natural process using local plants and local minerals.  Passed down from many generations, Navajo dyeing demonstrates the many unique hues and colors Isabel Deschinny uses to create her Navajo Dye Charts and 100% Navajo-Dyed rugs.  It is this continuance of tradition and knowledge of using indigenous plants for dyeing that makes Isabel's artwork cherished.