NAAXEIN • NAAXIIN • GWISHALAAYT • CHILKAT WEAVING

Pattern Board

Designing a Chilkat robe was historically a collaboration between female and male artists. A male artist, familiar with a distinctive technique of surface decoration called Formline, was engaged to paint a pattern board, which was used by a female weaver to help translate the painted design into weaving. The new technique allowed curved patterns to be closely followed by weaving back and forth in different colored sections. Outlining the shapes with surface braiding refined the forms and added three-dimensionality to the woven surface. To support these techniques, the mountain goat warps were spun with a core of shredded yellow cedar bark.