A limited number of artisanal wall hangings woven with wool from sheep raised by New Mexico State University students are now on sale.
The one-of-a-kind artwork is the second product line produced by NMSU’s New Mexico Heritage Wool Project and its founder, Jennifer Hernandez Gifford. Established in 2019 in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, the group aims to raise the profile of New Mexico’s rich sheep heritage and wool industry.
“Once we run a project, we won’t re-run the same design,” said Hernandez Gifford, a professor of animal and range sciences at NMSU. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone. You have the opportunity to own a very limited product that won’t be available ever again.”
To create the wall hangings, Hernandez Gifford and a group of undergraduate and graduate animal science students raised a 75-head flock of Rambouillet sheep in NMSU’s West Sheep Unit, a facility on the Las Cruces campus dedicated to training Aggies in livestock management. They harvested wool each year and sent it to Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Buffalo, Wyoming, for processing and dying.
Hernandez Gifford then turned to a trusted collaborator to oversee the design process – Richard Trujillo, a seventh-generation weaver and NMSU alumnus from Chimayó, New Mexico. Trujillo also collaborated with Hernandez Gifford on her group’s first product, a line of wool blankets. The 30- by 60-inch wall hangings feature a crimson Zia symbol rising over a black outline of the Organ Mountains with Southwestern accents in crimson, black and gray.
“Richard’s design emphasizes the importance of New Mexico’s weaving tradition as well as the cultural heritage of the art,” she said.
The mill created nearly 12 dozen wall hangings using fleeces sheared from the West Sheep Unit flock. Each hanging costs $450, and all the proceeds will fund future products produced by Hernandez Gifford and her students. About 100 hangings are currently available for purchase.
Hernandez Gifford doesn’t know when the next product from the New Mexico Heritage Wool Project will launch, but sheep shearing will commence early next year.
“Next January, we will have two years’ worth of wool saved, and we will send that off to the mill to start the next project,” she said. “We are excited to continue to produce these beautiful and unique products.”
To purchase a wall hanging, contact Hernandez Gifford at jgifford@nmsu.edu or call 575-646-2514.
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Cutline: The New Mexico Heritage Wool Project at New Mexico State University created artisanal wall hangings using wool from sheep raised by animal students. The one-of-a-kind hangings are now on sale. (Courtesy Julie Basile Photography & Graphic Design) View Full-Sized Image