Beading Unveiled

I still remember vividly the first time I learned how to bead. The year was 1969 and I was staying on the Pine Ridge reservation with my sister for the summer. A newly found friend…my age at the time…was kind enough to teach me the logistics of loomwork. The memory is one of excitement at seeing the beads, the colours, the texture…the magic of being able to create a design, as simple as it was for a first attempt, and work to bring it alive. I created several items that summer…
Years later, while living in Berkeley, another Lakota woman, a friend of my sister’s, came to visit…bringing us the gift of the peyote stitch…which she showed us while speaking stories of unexplainable mysteries on the Pine Ridge…of shape shifters and long passed spirits remaining in spots like Wounded Knee to help those still struggling on that scarred, blessed land…
Over the years, I was what could be described as a “casual” beader…sometimes making various items for friends and family…until 11 years ago…when the opportunity came up to work on my beadwork “fulltime” and unleash an unlimited creativity…It was during this time that I actually became a beader. As was true with other areas explored, the more I beaded...the more it became a part of me…and I began to understand what I would call the “heart” of beading…how to observe things all around me and work them into unique and original creations…each one different. The white of the snow on the green of trees or an eagle hovering still and silent above…wings outstretched, for example, became a pattern for a loomwork bracelet or choker…a dragonfly observed became memorialized on a pouch or bag... It was during this time of unbridled expressiveness that I learned to understand and use colours…how to use the thread colours to enhance the bead colours……how to “mix” bead colours by their placement relative to each other…starkly contrasting or in ways so subtle that the variations are barely noticeable until examined closely. I have tended to stay away from many of the “standard” colour combinations seen on a lot of beadwork…perhaps inevitably due to my Caribbean beginnings and the vibrancy and diversity of colours I was constantly surrounded by as a child. I have also learned how to use the texture of a bead…matte or shining…clear or solid…to give a dimensional look to a “flat”piece…in the case of loomwork or hide-beading…or to the circular rotation of patterns in a peyote stitch piece.
Over the years I’ve created many…hundreds…of pieces…bracelets, chokers, necklaces, earrings, moccasins, pouches, belts, hair pieces and more…some sold…some given…each piece a new challenge…another expression of something stirring inside…to create unique and original patterns…never copying others…how to work…experiment…with the different materials…deer or caribou hide…fur…feathers… hairpipe… shells… finding the right tension for the threaded loom…the whole process of creation…starting with a mental design or pattern, sometimes translated to a drawing first…or directly onto the squares of graph paper...the challenge being to create roundness from squareness…and now...finally being able to "freelance" the loom......... Sometimes I think about all of my creations out there…and the people who “own” the pieces…who felt some kind of a connection to their chosen piece…the way they would hold the bracelet or the earrings…stroke the beads…the almost iconic verbal expressions which would often accompany their handling of the items….and observing…unbelievably…how often people who bought or received one of these items would seldom take them off…almost as if the beadwork somehow enhanced or calmed their life...children seeming particularly captivated by the colours…the designs................. Over the years, the most challenging to create have been the “commissioned” items. Since I’ve always maintained “artistic control" over the actual design and colours used…there’s always the possibility that the requestor…who places a special trust in me when revealing their “vision” of what they want…will be disappointed or that it won’t be exactly what they’ve envisioned. Luckily…that’s never been the case so far…or at least not that anyone has let on...maybe because I put as much, if not more, into the creation of these “directed” pieces...ideas lent to me to breathe life into...
Beading is also an incredible teacher of patience. There are really no shortcuts…no way to get around having to create the pattern bead by bead…colour by colour…and, of course, there’s the process of having to reverse and undo the inevitable mistake…bead by bead…the tanglings of the thread…the breaking of the needle…or the odd bead that’s just a little smaller than all the others…which naturally you don’t find out about until you’re trying to get the needle through a second time…and it won’t let you proceed…complications which…can offer general lessons about life…if one is open... It is for this reason too that my children and many of the young people…often troubled…who passed through our door were taught to bead….to create a design...work through frustrations encountered...and bring it to fruit......some still carrying on the art…integrated into their beings…an outlet for examining and working out solutions to problems….and if nothing else, just to create something of their own…pleasing to the eye…and the heart…
Now…though I no longer am blessed to be able to work on creations "fulltime"…beading still remains a constant and vital part of life for me…something beautiful and solid to hang on to no matter where life is turning me…