A long-time weaver for Tierra Wools, Janet Rivera Switzer embodies everything we love about modern New Mexico weaving. The wide variety of weavings she sells at Tierra Wools are always popular with customers for their appealing color schemes and intricate designs, striking the perfect balance between respect for traditions and creative innovation. This month, we sat down with Janet to learn more about her weaving career and what inspires her appealing creations.
How did you become a weaver?
It happened the moment I stepped into one of Rachel Brown's shops in Taos and saw a young woman weaving on a Rio Grande loom. Having grown up with sewing, knitting, going to fabric stores, and using a potholder loom at a young age, I knew how a loom worked and working with fiber was second nature. Here in Rachel's shop, though, it was not so much the product as the thumping sound of the loom that hooked me. Shortly after this, a neighbor started a little weaving group – typical of the post-Vietnam crafts movement – and I began to learn weaving on a soon-outgrown table loom. Eventually the need to work for a living forced weaving out of my life, but thankfully it has returned.
“Fabiola is available at Tierra Wools and was designed in the manner of a Transitional Rio Grande blanket.”
How did you become connected with Tierra Wools?
Of course, I'd known about Tierra Wools for a long time. At some point I realized I'd have to sell my work if I wanted to keep weaving, so, as I recall, I gathered up my courage and by email asked Molly if I could consign some pieces. I was quite astonished, really, when she said yes.
What inspires your weavings?
Although I am genetically mostly northern European and Scandinavian, I don't relate very much to the types of weaving done there. That's not where my experience comes from. It most emphatically comes from New Mexico, and in particular one Second Phase Chief style blanket that was displayed in another of Rachel's shops. These days I realize that particular blanket would be considered a form of cultural appropriation. Clearly it was a copy of a historic Navajo-woven blanket, but it was woven recently on a European-type loom. I won't copy, and certainly I wouldn't use a fraught motif like the Whirling Logs which the Navajo people are just now reclaiming, but the Navajo sense of strong graphics and color is a huge force.
“Arachne is currently available at Tierra Wools. It's an example of a Navajo-inspired design.”
After looking at Navajo blankets in books and online, I close all those sources and just design from my head. I've had a couple of Navajo teachers – Lynda Teller Pete and Nikyle Begay – and I feel comfortable weaving motifs that they've taught me. Classic Rio Grande weaving is my second inspiration source. It's astonishing what can be achieved with no tapestry elements, just stripes and variations on stripes. Tres Estrellas Gallery in Taos has some first-rate examples of Classic and Transitional Rio Grande blankets, and most, if not all, are on their website. I'll stare at several pieces for quite a while, then, having internalized some of the ideas, I'll work out a scheme that doesn't copy but would not be out of place in a late-19th or early-20th century setting. There are several other good websites for viewing historical "Rios" and Navajo blankets, including James Compton Gallery, Shiprock Santa Fe, and RB Ravens Gallery. Chimayo Trading del Norte in Ranchos de Taos has some awesome pieces not on display – you have to ask to see them but Gabe, the owner, will gladly accommodate you if he's available.
What’s your favorite part of weaving?
It might be that the design phase (which I do in CorelDRAW software) is my favorite part of weaving. Warping the loom is my least favorite part because after all this time I am still learning how to do it without creating problems for myself. This may sound silly, but I can't rule out, as a high favorite part of weaving, the sense of going back in time to a pre-Anglo New Mexico.
“This is the CorelDRAW plan for Benito. At the moment it is about half woven.”
What are you weaving right now?
Currently I am weaving a short, narrow piece to be called Benito, using up the last of a 15-inch wide warp on my Dave Baber walking loom. Warp yarn is too expensive to waste. I'm not sure what will come next. I would like to weave some jerga with natural black and natural white yarn, but I'd prefer to use churro yarn thinner than blanket weight and I'm having trouble locating some. Another project I really want to do is a Rio Grande blanket at least 48 inches wide, a traditional size. This would be done on a big Finnish loom that has been converted to a walking loom. All of my looms are of the walking, or Rio Grande, type.
What new skills are you currently working on?
Doing a better job of measuring a warp, preferably on a large warping board such as the one in Tierra Wools' studio. Fighting with an uncooperative warp wastes so much time.
What’s special about Tierra Wools to you?
Tierra Wools exudes beauty, peace and safety. That was true back in the Los Ojos shop as well. If I lived nearby, I would be on the doorstep begging for a job!