My Dad...

My Papa is a retired aerospace engineer. He and my mom live in New Mexico which is convenient because it is one of my favorite states. Papa has always been oddly creative for a man who worked in an industry that was all about numbers. When I was little he built me the best playhouse ever, to my memory it was a bit smaller than a trailer home with windows, lots of room to imagine things and a ladder that I could climb up to the roof. When he'd go away on business trips he'd usually take a hooked rug to work on and when he got home it would be mounted on a wall (these were BIG). He also did at least one of those pin and string art pieces, this one of a ship.

We always knew the house would end up on the market if Papa decided to panel something. I'm not talking about throwing up that 1970s wood-look paneling or even buying the panels and nailing them to the wall. He'd buy the wood, shape it, sand it, stain it then put it up. So oddly, logically creative.

When my parents moved to NM my mom wanted to take a Navajo weaving class. She'd always wondered how it was done. Papa decided to take it too. They both made little rugs, Mom learned how they were made and was happy with that but Papa really enjoyed the weaving so he kept taking classes. He's gotten very good at it, even laying out his own designs (he's mostly concentrated on traditional Navajo patterns). He started entering his work in juried craft shows the past year or two and has taken home quite a few ribbons. This year he was made president of his weaving guild.

So why am I telling you all this? Well I just love his latest rug, and I'm not the only one. First let me tell you how he made it. My mom has a little tin cut out of Kokopelli (a Native American fertility god that Mom refers to as the Mickey Mouse of the Southwest). Papa took a picture of it, edited out the background and set up the weaving pattern around it in Excel. He sets up all his patterns in Excel, something that never would have occurred to me but it works out really well. See? Oddly creative.

So this is the end result:
Did I mention it was reversible?
He entered it in two local fairs this month and won first honors in both. Below are the ribbons from The La Plata County Fair in Durango CO. He took Grand Champion of the Show, Champion and First Place.

And even more impressive to me is that some Navajo weavers have been very complimentary to his work as well. High praise indeed.

There are many reasons why I think my Pappa's amazing, this is just one of them, but right now I'm just incredibly proud and had to share.