After drafting the pattern in pencil, then I outline with a black Sharpie marker
Have you noticed that even though I may be weaving on a Chilkat robe for a year or two, I do not ever show the process of me weaving on this blog until AFTER the robe is completed? The reason is because I was taught by my teacher Jennie Thlunaut that whenever Chilkat weavers are weaving a robe (as opposed to an apron, headdress, leggings, etc.), that we are not to publicly show the robe to the person(s) who has commissioned the robe. Another Tlingit taboo? I don’t know. While I was weaving with Jennie, I gave up asking her the question “Why” every time she told me certain Chilkat “guidelines.” I remembered that the elderly folk of that time period and before did not explain the “why” of things – you just did what you were told, and that was that.
Using the Sharpie marker, I fill in the form line. I used elements from a couple of robes. This is a Diving Whale with an Eagle in the right side of the body and a Raven in the left side. – The far right design elements are called the “filler.”
I apologize that I cannot show you the process of weaving this robe. My goal is to finish by May 1st this year; then I will post a sequence of photographs.