Click on any picture for a closer view.

Hank Blair explains details of a vintage Shiprock Ye'i

Prescott, Arizona Over 70 enthusiastic bidders made our first auction of 2009 successful and fun.   Vintage and Ye’i weavings were popular today, but the audience also took home their share of contemporary pieces as well.   Spider Rock Girls Emily Malone, Lavera Blake, Laramie Blake, Alyssa Malone and Rose Yazzie attended the auction.  Laramie is now a high school senior who is adept at combining an ambitious weaving schedule with her school work.    In the picture at right, she’s holding a Spider Rock rug woven by her sister Larissa.

Laramie Blake displays one of her sister Larissa's Spider Rock rugs.

We’re putting together a gallery of pictures from the auction and we’ll have it ready in the next few days.   The next auction on our schedule is on April 5th at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles.

This 1890's Chief Blanket was one of several Chief Blanket styles in today's auction.

When a Yei rug comes up for sale at one of our auctions, we sometimes introduce the weaving with the phrase “Everybody say Yei!”.  It seemed like a good idea for a t-shirt, and we’ve just added it to our online store.  One of Sharie Monsam’s weaving classes at the Fiber Factory in Mesa, Arizona was kind enough to model the shirt for us.  It’s a 100% cotton short-sleeved shirt and is available in adult sizes in beige and navy blue. Check out the video below and get ready to say “Yei” with Sharie Monsam (left) and Niccole Cerveny (right)!

Join Virginia Burnham in Phoenix this weekend and see a selection of our offereings from the finest in Native American art.  Virginia will be at the High Noon Western Americana Show at the Phoenix Convention Center on Saturday, February 7 and Sunday, February 8.   You’ll find the show in Exhibit Halls F and G.  The Convention Center is located at 33 S. 3rd St. in Phoenix.  Show hours are 9 AM ro 4:30 PM on Saturday and 9:30 AM to 4 PM on Sunday.  Admission is $10 per day or $15 for both days.  Although there is an auction connected with the show, this is not an R.B. Burnham and Company rug auction.

We’ve put together a gallery of pictures from the Pueblo Grande Museum auction in Phoenix that we hope you’ll enjoy.  The auction was held on November 22 and drew a great audience, many of whom were first-time auction attendees.

We have two auctions remaining in 2008, one on behalf of Habitat for Humanity in Gallup, New Mexico on December 6 and on December 13 at Flagstaff Cultural Partners in Flagstaff, Arizona.  Please join us for one or both!  We’ll be posting our 2009 auction schedule soon.

Above: This Kari King geometric study was a popular weaving with the audience at Pueblo Grande

We are happy to report that despite all the turmoil in the financial markets, weather that was reminiscent of a nor’easter and an hour less daylight, the Friends of Hubbell Native American Arts Auction held on October, 4, 2008 paid out $109,000 to Native American artists.  We have just posted a photo gallery page and we’re working on a brief video.

We got a nice picture of Bruce with six year old Alyssa Malone as she was presenting a small Two Grey Hills rug for sale at the auction. We hope you’ll enjoy it too!

Bruce Burnham with Alyssa Malone as they sell a small Two Grey Hills style weaving.

We’ve edited a selection of pictures from last weekend’s Southwest Traders Rendezvous and here’s a group picture of the traders and their families.  How many can you identify?  Click on the picture and you’ll see a caption identifying everyone that we could! We have also added a permanent album page for the so that you can see the pictures and videos anytime you’d like.

We hope to see you this weekend for the Friends of Hubbell Native American Arts Auction in Ganado, AZ!

Last Sunday, we concluded the Southwest Trader Rendezvous with a highly successful rug auction.  The Rendezvous organizer, Frank Lister, had done a good job of publicizing the event among weavers and several were in attendance in Cortez, which really completes an auction.  Several rugs were woven by young weavers and the video below shows Devona Salake, daughter of Navajo weaver Pauline Thomas, as she shows her rug at the auction.  As you’ll see everyone had fun finding the rug a new home!

We’ll be adding a picture gallery from the Southwest Traders event over the next few days. We had a great weekend with old friends and new!

Today, we are at the Southwest Traders Rendezvous and Rug Auction in Cortez, Colorado.  This annual event celebrates the traders and trading posts which have helped to develop Native American art and artisans and we are proud to be part of this group.  Later today, we’ll be holding a rug auction to benefit the Cortez Cultural Center, which is the sponsor and organizer of the event.

Yesterday was devoted to stories from and about traders, which each trader having an opportunity to do a show and tell presentation at the end of the day.  We thought you might enjoy this video of Bruce’s presentation.

Once in a while you’ll hear someone ask Bruce a question and he gets kind of a twinkle in his eye that lets you know that the answer involves a really good story and he’s about to tell it. Sometimes it takes an hour, but this one is only about a minute and fifteen seconds long. We were taking pictures of rugs for the web site and Bruce mentioned that he considered this rug a Storm Pattern variant. “Really????”, we said, and then he got the twinkle in his eye so we put the camera on the video setting….

You’ll see the rug on the gallery page in the next day or so, but contact us if you can’t wait. If anyone has one of the flour sacks that Bruce is talking about, we’d love to see it.