Baby Kaya

After thinking about several different projects I finally settled on making a beaded blanket strip for baby Kaya. I made one a few years ago for a friend's retirement gift and really liked how it turned out; it was traditional in design but that fits him...baby Kaya is something new, so its my first effort into a more contemporary direction. Her mom works with Inupiat people in Barrow Alaska understanding the impact of climate change on their culture. "Eskimo" people have long hunted and fished and mom Chie often comes home with a cooler full of whale meat. Baby Kaya was so adorably plump and given the Inupiat nickname for a baby whale: Ingutuq....so a whale design is perfect.
Here is the larger central medallion (about 5" across); there will be 2 smaller ones and all linked together by a beaded strip.

Not sure what the strip will be attached to....in the past they decorated hide robes as well as wool blankets. I've considered a plain wool blanket, a smaller one made from salvage edge woolen fabric that is so lovely, or possibly even a Pendleton sea wolf crib blanket:

although the images may be too competitive. But it will take ages to get all the beading done and parts assembled so there is no hurry to decide. I'm glad to have started and look forward to working on the smaller medallions next and then the long process of the strip (not hard, just lots of beading!). I'll need to decide on an overall length and place a bead order with enough so I don't run out...bead colors can change from order to order so its best to order more than actually needed.

Spring 2013

Time to start thinking about a project...need something even if I only poke around on it a bit. Would like to start working on a beaded doctor's bag; a friend found a nice small sized one for me and I've decided to make a new cover in honor of a friend's baby (not enough time now to make a cradle or a bonnet). I will need to measure the bag, plan a design, buy thin hide (either a deer hide split or chamois) and order beads. I can't remember ever placing a Crazy Crow order last year so I may not get their new catalog!
These bags were lovingly decorated in the 1890s and new ones are winning prizes at Native art shows in Santa Fe. Mine will be decidedly less impressive but I'm looking forward to the challenge!! There are excellent instructions in Whispering Wind and plenty of examples on the web.

Since its a modern piece I don't feel bound by conventional designs (geometric or ledger art) or even color (usually a white or light blue background favored by the Lakota). Was thinking of putting a whale on one side but am a bit puzzled for the other. Mom works up in Barrow and the baby is affectionately called Ingutuq, a plump baby whale. Baby has lots of plush whale toys and so I was happy to find a whale medallion on line for inspiration. To get back into practice of beading I am working on making something along the same lines; made good progress on it today and I like the scattered randomness of the beads simulating light on the whale and the surrounding water. Not sure what to add it to, maybe a hide cover for a photo/memory journal book.

The nice thing about making a doctors bag cover is the luxury of time....I can poke along as time and other projects permit. Baby won't outgrow it and it's going to take quite a while to complete! But it will be a good project when it eventually gets underway.

Dolls

Well this is exciting news! The Grand Procession of Dolls from the Denver Art Museum will be displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian, NMAI, in Washington DC and with some luck it will be there when I go to do my own research. For those unable to attend there is a very nice book recently published on the collection: Grand Procession: Contemporary Artistic Visions of American Indians (2010). See the NMAI site for more info:

http://nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/683/

Buffalos

still working on this buffalo pattern but think I almost have it figured out! Flag designs were used more actively in beadwork after the 1890s as noted in Herbst & Kopp's book The Flag in American Indian Art (1993). Not sure what I'll use this rosette for; it would look nice on a drum stick bag with rolled edge beading and glass crow beads on the fringe! May try the pattern again and see if I can get it right the 4th time, but then I'll have to stop before I start dreaming of buffalos!

A nice diversion!

I confess I really do enjoy beadwork...its relaxing and is a nice way to spend a cold, snowy winter afternoon. I've tried hard to stay out of my craft supplies and haven't done any beading for nearly a year but I decided I needed to practice a bit and made up this buffalo rosette. Its my second time to use this pattern; made some adjustments to it and see I need to make a few more. When I have more time I will make up a small hide bag and attach....think my friend Marjy can use a pouch for small objects. I'll make the pattern again with a red/white/blue background but need to order more beads as I recently sent some to a friend who has been burglarized and lost several cases of them. This is a good time of the year to pick up deer hide as well so I'll also order a black split, they make super nice doll dresses and pouches.
Guess I need to get back to real work now......

Horses!!

a new reference book arrived in the mail this week; had read about it on Angela Swedberg's blog as it features a horse mask she made (and modeled by her own Appaloosa). Its a good book on an interesting aspect of regalia and it differs from American Indian Horse Masks (2007) by including other elements such as saddles, bridles, blankets, saddlebags and even quirts. It is well illustrated with photos of museum objects, detailed ledger book drawings, and historic photos from parades etc when folks display all their horse finery. The writing concentrates on the object's details but includes a large bibliography of well known works for those of us wanting to know more about the place of horses in the lives of native peoples.
It has just one photo of a toy horse but I'm inspired enough to consider making a leather horse and creating the needed regalia. Interestingly I found on Ebay a model horse supplier that carries metal and resin Native saddle trees for hobby folks who decorate plastic Breyer horses. I would like to get these little things for reference but mine would be made from carved wood just as the real ones were. Womens' saddles included a high pommel from which cradle boards could be hung...I was surprised by the detail of the model makers (and even more surprised that there was a market for them in the 1st place!!).

I doubt my horse would ever look like this one but it would be amazing to create it for a doll (Plains men measured much of their worth in horse wealth):

be sure to click on this photo to admire all the amazing beadwork, whew!!
a future project perhaps.......

new shoes

I need to buy some new shoes soon; I'm not a shoe person in any way and run barefoot all summer, but classes will start soon and I'll have to put my hillbilly life away (insert sad frown here). So I began looking at Kohls and was a bit puzzled by the Converse moccasins (which seem only 1 step above the old Minnetonka fake looking moccasins). I see the college girls in moccs and I know they are a popular fashion accessory, but there have been some grumblings lately about turning indigenous culture into just another mass marketed commodity, ignoring the important traditions and ideas associated with native art forms.
 But clearly culture crosses over boundaries and this leads me to the amazing work of Kiowa bead artist Teri Greeves!! Much of her work is done on canvas high tops, but others are more fashion type shoes; all seem to feature pictorial, ledger style images.

I think there is a real difference between an artist reinterpreting a foreign object while working within an existing cultural paradigm, one creation at a time, and the mass production of objects without any attached cultural meanings. I am unlikely to buy the Converse moccs and even more unlikely to ever buy a pair of Teri's incredible shoes...and really unlikely to ever bead a pair of Converse myself, but there is a slight chance I will eventually get around to making myself a new pair of moccasins....

in the meantime I'll have to go shoe shopping...

Buffalo bag

finished up another small project, will get it mailed out this week as a surprise to someone who recently sent me a generous packet of printed materials. I made the rosette after hearing about the killing of a yearling white buffalo on a ranch in Texas. Need to make some slight adjustments to the pattern to even out the four directions colors...I don't do alot of figural work, but I think the buffalo image turned out pretty good and I see some potential for others. I recently bought pretty brown luster beads to try another buffalo which would look nice on a dark hide pouch.

Mandan shirt

I follow a wonderful artist named Angela Swedburg on both Facebook and her blog...she doesn't post often but this new shirt project appeared today. My guess is she used elk hide, decorated with a large center medallion of porcupine quillwork, plus full ermine (weasel) skins...pricy little critters! Also dyed horse hair and bead work. Its her interpretation of an old Mandan shirt; the trapezoidal figures around the neck are a Northern Plains style often found in rock and shield art (listened to a great paper on this topic at the Plains Anthro conference held in Bismark, ND). All in all a mighty nifty item and likely a custom piece for someone or a museum.....amazing how much pride and work went into clothing in the past, as well as the present. For more info I recommend a good book on men's shirts:

Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts by Joseph D. Horse Capture and George P. Horse Capture (Jul 2001) available thru Amazon etc.

 

Natl Museum of the American Indian

one of my favorite books is Identity by Design published by the Smithsonian featuring native women's clothing and art...there are gorgeous close up color photos of bead work decorating women's hide & cloth dresses, historic photos showing women in their lovely outfits and informative text on how they were made. There are many photos of other items as well including cradles, moccasins, purses etc. Women are usually not well represented in art books on Indians, despite the fact that they made many (if not most) of the items worn by tribal members, and that their own clothing was just as elaborate as men's.

I was super delighted to see the NMAI on-line store selling notecards from the book & collection so ordered some for myself and friends. Now I see that I will need to order more to pass along to other friends!! If I owned a nice stationary & fountain pen shop I would stock these.                       
They are available at: https://nmaistore.si.edu/home/
NMAI has a great website with all kinds of nifty information and if you are needing/wanting a book on Native American women's art I recommend this one, you will love it!!