Running with my Dad

I went running this morning with my dad and made this video.  

         

There is plan for a run from Taos Pueblo to the Hopi Mesas in early August.
--Aspen

Hand-Painted Colors

And expanding in another direction:

Moccasin saga continues:

        OK, from the last post you will notice that I have been a busy-bee, a cobbler of some sort, well actually my goal is to make a moccasin that can be used for long distant running, hey if the Raramuri (Tarahumara) used tire tread and a few feet of raw-hide i thought maybe i could tackle the theme.
So here's the almost there product...WHEW!

I'm thinking of adding thin Vibram sole material as an option.

Moccasins

     Most of today was spent working on designs for moccasins, southern plains style. It's what the Taos pueblo people wear in our ceremonies. I learned how to make hand-sewn deer-hide ones when i was a boy by watching my Grandma and Grandpa. i still make, but now I'm trying another method and this time the design well be a bit different because I'm using the old SINGER machine and I'm using a pretty strong canvas which is water proof at least a bit and the soles are made of a compressed cow hide called Latigo.

Today, I experimented on some thick--I mean THICK ass-saddle-siding UGH! Remind me not to use that stuff again, it didn't work too well in the sewing and when i was done with that, it was a drag turning them inside out, as well my measurements came out pretty odd. However, the design is there but it's my measuring that needs some tweaking. I think i like the Latigo better--more user friendly. Once the design measurements are mastered then i can make them available for everyone. They're pretty comfortable over the toes which doesn't have any seams over the toes. Anyway, here's what the work bench looks like at the moment.

Running the Embudo Pass

Yesterday I ran the Embudo Pass, it's the old trail between Dixon and San Juan. The road didn't used to go along by the river the way it does now. The Pass plays a small but significant role in my upcoming one-man performance planned to open in Santa Fe this August.

Braiding Cord

      Cord is playing a big part in the stuff I'm making for my shop this year. i have always been into things made with string, yarn, rope whatever.  you will be surprised how many ways you can use a string or a rope. My Grandpa and i would get the old hard rawhide lariat and swing it around and rope a post.  it was a past time but it taught me how to catch a runaway pig and and a loose horse.  rope was a neccasity at the pueblo, still is.

Anyway last year when i opened my new shop at the pueblo i started making a waxed braid for the Amulets.  it was crazy, people were waiting in line for their handmade four-strand or six-strand cord for the different amulets they bought. So Nelson and i taught Aspen and Kona how to braid on the braiding spool, up and over, cross and then under.  my girls became braiding fiends.

Hand Braider

I knew that it was going to be too much for us to keep up with the demand so Nelson started doing some research online and he found this machine that some guy had in his garage in Iowa or someplace like that, (its always some guy in the mid-west who has one in his garage). This man at one time had about a hundred or so of these machines making shoe laces and fishing line for some Japanese fishing company. Long story short, now one of these machines lives at the pueblo learning Tiwa from my mom and spinning a weave for the Amulets and all the different uses that Mirabal Native Gifts has in mind.

My mom running the cord braiding machine

Boxes of corded amulets

Bracelets

Ocarinas hung on cord

 The Cord, Sculptures, Amulets and the new art work is an on-going process. Not all is on the Mirabal website at the moment so check in from time to time.  Mirabal.com

Holding Up the Sky

This song is about Wovoka, the Paiute prophet who foresaw the crazy-changes of the world and how we could create a better life for all. It also honors the amazing writer Aldous Huxley with his controversial apocalyptic book Brave New World. Wovoka died in 1932, the year Huxley's book was published.

this song is on the album In the Blood, it's available at mirabal.com

Running Vid from this morning

Running

You know that i have always been a Runner, there were times when life put me into some corners and the only thing that saved me was my running. when i was on the road missing my home i ran, treadmills, parking lots, rural roads, and places where crack-heads roam, it cleared my mind gave me a better out look on life at least for that day. when you have performed all over the world as i have, some of the most dangerous mental states can consume you, depression, anxiety, evil mood shifts, self worth, Boo Hoo Hoo..

My pueblo people ran everywhere, even as a child i remember running to the head-gates to turn water on into our ditch, i ran in and around to the fields chasing dogs, horses, girls. many of the boys and i competed in traditional runs, running in Moccasins or shoe-less. Now there is a big adventure mind in America running barefoot. Tell you what, if you saw my feet you would know what shoe-less running makes your feet look like. I have always had a hard time finding the right shoe for my Indian feet i gave up buying the designer shoes (too narrow, too high in the heel ugh..) and about 2 years ago started just running in my canvas cheapy flat sole, pink,, i said pink Chuck Taylors that my daughters Aspen and Kona got for me as a joke, Im still using a variety of them now they too are a bit narrow but i have logged in many miles without injury and that is a BIG PLUS!

So anyway, now I'm designing some moccasins with Vibram soles just for my running. Last year the pueblo shop bought a hand cranked leather sewing machine so let's see what i can do in the process. 

The reason for this is i will be posting at times about my adventures in running, maybe as inspiration, however its also who I am.