Irene Lomayaktewa
ARTISAN DETAILS
TRIBE:
Hopi
STYLE:
Coil Baskets
FIRST YEAR MAKING ART:
1965
ARTISAN INTERVIEW
How long have you been making baskets?
My mother taught me when I was very young. The first basket I completed on my own was when I was in 6th grade.
Do you still have the basket?
No, I finished it in the summer time and sold it for five dollars. That would have been in the 1960s.
Do you remember the basket?
Yes, it was small and had the head of a mudhead on it.
So you have been making baskets ever since?
My mother told me it was something I could always do if I didn’t have another job, and at the same time help out when I was doing something else.
Has basket making always been your fulltime job?
No, after graduating from high school in the early 1970s I went to the Indian School in Albuquerque for two years and became an LPN. Then I went to work and Phoenix as a nurse.
So how long have you been back in Hopi?
I returned in the 1990s and have been doing basket weaving fulltime since then.
Do you like being back in Hopi and doing baskets?
Yes, I work when I want and have family around me.
Each Mesa does something different, which Mesa do you live on?
The Second Mesa, that is where the coil baskets come from. Polacca does pottery and the 3rd Mesa makes the wicker baskets. I am married to a man from the 3rd Mesa, but can only work on my baskets here, on the 2nd Mesa.
What are the traditional Hopi coil baskets made from?
We make the coil basket from straw and yucca that we pick from areas around Hopi. Many of the colors are from the yucca plant, yellow comes from yucca being harvested in winter, the white is summer, and the green can be picked aany time of the year. Also, we will use sunflower for the black and Hopi Tea (hohocy) for the red.
How do you decide what figures you are going to put on the basket?
When I dream about the baskets I will draw the visions and use that to decorate the baskets.
Irene Lomayakewa (interview), Hopi Coil Basket, Corn Maiden, 10" x 6 1/2"
- Regular price
- $1,200
- Sale price
- $1,200
- Unit price
- per
Irene Lomayaktewa (interview), Hopi Coil Basket, Kachine, Crow heads, 7 1/2" x 10"
- Regular price
- $1,315
- Sale price
- $1,315
- Unit price
- per
Irene Lomayaktewa (interview), Hopi Coil Basket, Mudheads w/ Kachina Head, 8 1/4" x 6 1/2"
- Regular price
- $970
- Sale price
- $970
- Unit price
- per
Irene Lomayaktewa (interview), Hopi Coil, Duck Basket, 6" x 6 1/4"
- Regular price
- $745
- Sale price
- $745
- Unit price
- per