Maude Lang is a Textile Designer that creates large scale weaves to celebrate the Navajo culture. The Navajo culture has learnt to abandon the rigid, perfectionist behaviour, to embrace the concept of imperfections. They purposely introduce flaws into their work to remind themselves that flaws are an integral part of being human. For example, a line called ch’ihónít’I is used, to leave small imperfections along the border of the rug weave (translated into English as ‘spirit line or spirit pathway’.Maude Lang believes that we should celebrate the beauty in the mistakes that we make; in this case when imperfections are created the weaver is thought to be weaving part of her being into the cloth. The spirit line allows this trapped part of the weaver’s spirit to safely exit the rug.
Maude Lang believes that there is no such thing as perfection, as God is the only one that can achieve such a high level. To commend this, she tries to leave little imperfections in everything she creates, with such small imperfections that it does not detract from the beauty of the item. Viewing the mistakes that you make whilst creating in this way allows you to have freedom to create without going through great lengths to be perfect.
