The Bead Goes On

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by!  I had a fun day yesterday at Vista House at Crown Point State Park participating in the Folk Art Program.  I actually was the first Folk Art Program Coordinator in 1982.  Sally King has been doing it for years - she and I did the demonstration together as we have collected and made beaded items together for.. well.. 25 years!  OK, want to learn more?  Below is a beaded medallion necklace I made.  Sally and I both made one taking a class at A Bead Source, a shop in Gresham.

This is my Turtle necklace/pouch that I made about ten years ago.  This was a freeform design I made, sewing the beads on white leather that I had cut and sewed into the pouch.  It was kind of like painting with beads.  This piece won first place nationally in the Jewelry Division of the national Daughters of the American Revolution American Heritage program.  It was on display in Washington DC at the DAR Continental Congress.  That was neat.  I attended the CC that year and got to see all the items on display.

Here are 4 of the peyote stitch beaded pouches I made.. each has another design on the back.  The two on the left depict real petroglyphs carved into rock here in the Columbia River Gorge.  The one on the far left is "She Who Watches" or "Tsagaglal" - a woman Indian chief who watched over her people.  Read the legend here (scroll down a bit).

From my side of the table, my work tray made of oak, my beading needle case, containers of beads and visitors learning about trade beads.

The bead-aholic herself.

Sally brought a frame of arrowheads to show - her parents dug them out of the sands of the Columbia River before The Dalles Dam was done which would have destroyed the artifacts forever.  The Dept of the Interior gave permission for the rescue of the items as long as the people gave a detailed list of their finds to the Dept.

Her parents also found these 3 rock items - a turtle paint pot, the oval rock carved with a face and the mortar for grinding food or paint.

The turtle mortar is extremely special and I love holding it and soaking in it's history.

Some of my beads.. on the left is a necklace of simple black beads that actually were dug out of the sand and were once in a museum.. when I got them they were in a small old jar and there was still sand in the jar.  On the right are some eye beads, I've found several of different colors.

The beads on the right are probably my oldest, hand made and dating to ancient Rome.  The one on the left has a collection of old aqua blue beads.

The beads below are ones I traded for from a couple of Indian traders - for the beads I made a website for them.  These were in a museum also and the traders purchased them when the museum was selling some things so they could buy new things.  The fun thing is that some of these beads could have been traded by Lewis & Clark to the Indians for food along their way through here.  The carved paddle was done by an Indian woman at a demonstration I did at Multnomah Falls - she loved my beads so gave me this canoe paddle pendant.. I then gave her some of my Russian Blue beads to make into earrings for herself.

My friend Gracie came to visit me during the afternoon.. isn't she cute?  She has photos of the day on her blog too.. be sure to click on her name and visit.

As I headed back in I snapped a photo of the beautiful day and lovely Columbia River Gorge.

My red beads.. the ones on the right are just old red trade beads.. the ones on the left are White Hearts and Eye Beads and some carved ones.  I strung these up this way.

The most amazing of all old trade beads are the Chevron Beads - they were first produced toward the end of the 14th century in Venice and Murano, Italy.  Called the "King of Beads" by some.

The color of these beads are their only similarity - on the left are old Amber beads which are very light.  On the right are old carnelian beads which are stone/agate and are very heavy.  The carved melon beads are extremely old - 200 to 400 years old, possibly.  Some like this are up to 1,000 years old!

At a rock show many years ago I got a little bag of white Russian Blue beads and this old Seated Liberty half dime that had a hole it it - they were reportedly found in an old trunk in an old abadoned miner's cabin in California gold country.  The Indians liked to use coins as decorations.

The white ones are the ones from the miner's cabin - the blues are the common color of Russian Blues.  The long blues are special.  These beads originated in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) and were eventually purchased by Russians who used them to trade for furs in the Pacific Northwest of America.  These were very valued by NW Indians for their deep sky blue color.

An overview of the display and Sally!

Looking up from our tables to the gorgeous ceiling of Vista House.

This is a bag I made, I made a very long strap so you can wear this cross body - just enough room inside for my money pouch.  :-)

I should mention that I use over my table a Pendleton Chief Joseph blanket that I purchased at an Indian auction.  A photo of my medallion with the necklace showing - this is beaded in a peyote stitch.  I cut the leather myself from a hide.

I put all the padre/chief beads of blue on this one necklace - these are out of the collection I got from the Indian traders.

The colorful chevron on the top is a wooden needle case or "etui" that I did - I keep my beading needles in there.  My turtle pouch, my 9-11 Bead choker, and 2 "Spedis Owl" petroglyph bags that I need to finish up by doing the beaded fringe and necklace.

I made this necklace to wear up to Seattle to see the King Tut Treasures show there years ago.  Dayle went up to our little market and asked for a piece of cow bone, then he fashioned into the oval for me - I did the scrimshaw of the Scarab wings, did a lost wax casting of the 2 gold parts, made the gold bezel and put it all together and beaded the necklace.  :-)

I was working in a call center taking starts and stops for The Oregonian newspaper and right after 9-11 I brought some leather I cut and began beading this necklace with US flags all along it.  I wanted to make something to declare my patriotism while we all dealt with the lost and devastation by terrorists.  They wanted to destroy us but they did not.. 

This is a design I'm working on to depict the Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem. I am still working on the bottom which will be a sunrise.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I made this necklace.. story time.. my older sister Roberta went to visit my uncle in Oklahoma and he gave her this necklace he found in our grandparents old farmhouse among some other things.  I loved it so much that I took her necklace to a bead shop and bought all the same color of beads and a loom - and made my own to match.

The basket above is a locally made Indian basket I purchased years ago.  I hope I didn't bore you with all these beads and stories!  I heartily recommend that you check out your local antique shops and bead stores and get your own trade beads!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)