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Check out the fiber-arts industry in the Land of Enchantment.
Even if you can’t make the Taos Wool Festival in October, the state arts agency makes it possible to experience firsthand the state’s burgeoning fiber-arts industry year-round on the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails, three regional loops that take you on a self-guided tour of up to 55 stops. All sites offer work for sale; some have classes or workshops and supplies. You’ll even find fiber-producing animals at stops like Victory Ranch Alpacas in the majestic Mora Valley.
Stops along the trails include everything from the artisan-centered Tapestry Gallery in an 80-year-old adobe in the once-abandoned coal mining town of Madrid to the Ramah Navajo Weavers Association in an eight-sided hogan in the heart of Navajo ponderosa pine country. In historic downtown Silver City, you can visit the Thunder Creek Quilt Company, where the beads rival the quilt fabric, and The Common Thread, where members from New Mexico and Arizona display their handmade fine fiber art.
Plan your stops ahead of time and get in touch before you set out, advises New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails project manager Carol Cooper. “It’s a rural area, so you can’t always count on it being totally smooth sailing,” she says. “It can be adventuresome.” And if the exploration gets a little woolly at times, it’s all in the weave of the West.
To download a free 64-page guide or a brochure from the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails, visit www.nmfiberarts.org. Call 505.827.6490 to request a printed version.
• Read about the Wool Festival at Taos in C&I’s October issue.
• Check out wool festivals across the West.
• Learn the history of Navajo-Churro sheep.
