Whaaaa?

Have I been asleep since October? Nah, just a ton of stuff involving 'life' managed to get in the way of my blogging. Things seem to be settling down now, my son graduated from NM Tech in December and is now home, looking for a job. He rolled his car on Feb. 28th while on his way to the big GDC in San Francisco, but aside from totaling the car, is fine and now the owner of a brand old Toyota Yaris. I've been working and doing beadwork, spinning and knitting, and am in the process of getting a little inventory up to put in a store of an acquaintance. Got to go to the BeadFest in Santa Fe last week and drool on all the fantastic beads. I've had a week off to deal with all sorts of busywork, and go back to work on Wednesday. Not much of a vacation, but interesting times (involving car shopping with Jake, and also with my buddy Sally, who suffered a car loss this winter). Today I'll zip in to the office and catch up on what will be a pile of refill requests from patients and some patient calls, then head on home and do my taxes-bleh. Tomorrow, in to Santa Fe with Jake to deal with a warning light on his 'new' car, and maybe catch a lunch 'out'. I'm working on a tumbling blocks pattern for a loomed piece for a beaded dog collar that I'll add to my stock of beaded stuff. Pics will follow in next post.

My first feather fan

This was a pretty big and complicated piece, for me. I'd never done a fan before, just beaded single feathers. Steve sent me the eagle feathers (with the requisite permit-it's illegal to have eagle feathers in your possession unless one is Native American, and has a permit), and fan handle and told me to go for it. I wanted to make something that reflected, but didn't exactly copy the traditional feather fan. Part of the work, straightening the feathers a bit was definitely a first for me, and was a bit scary, but the methods outlined in David Dean's book worked.


I did some threadwork on the feather shafts, beaded the handle, and decided to do a definitely untraditional motif on the wider part of the fan handle.
I added wild dove feathers to the front, to symbolize peace, and fringe to the bottom of the handle.

I hope this is something he likes, but if not, it can be redone...it's only beadwork, after all. :-)

Taos Wool Festival

I went to the Taos Wool Festival for the first time last Sunday. I've been trying to teach myself hand spinning for the past year, and finally found a course near enough and scheduled on a day that I could actually attend, so up to scenic Taos I went. The class was great! Taught by Ruth Northrop of California, it gave me all the hints and tips and tricks I needed to become a good beginning spinner. Next year I'm definitely going to take a more advanced course from her, if she comes back.
Then I spent a bit of time at the actual festival, scoping out the many gorgeous finished pieces, watching hand and spinning wheel spinners, sheep shearers, oogling at the llamas, sheep, angora bunnies, and even a yak!






I bought some 'tops'-wool that has been prepared for spinning, some natural and one dyed and came home to play with my new toys.
I try to spin some every day (not difficult, as it's a soothing and engaging task), and can see that I've got a new craft to keep me occupied, especially on cold winter days.

New pouch finished

This week's creation (while I was waiting for some supplies to come from Steve for a big project) is a little pouch I call my Aztec Princess. It's my favorite four petal design (which when worked up in a tiny pouch is called a pollen pouch), about six inches long, sewn together with picots of transparent red size 11 seedbeads, and embellished with a polyclay face surrounded by gold plated charlottes and the luscious peacock dagger beads I picked up at Betcey's Beyond Beadery open house this year, and topped off with some transparent red nailheads that I got from my buddy Mary.
Man, that commercial brain tanned leather is like 'buttah'! Gotta get more of that.

Finished rattle embellishment

Steve bought a rattle at Indian Market and left it with me to do some beaded embellishment. He gave me freedom to do what I wanted with it, so I did. I worked up a peyote bird and bear print pattern on the handle, added brass cones and green deltalium to the fringe at the bottom of the handle. Then I made a netted cover for the gourd, with jasper bears dangling from the netting which increased the intensity of the rattle sound, and changed the red horsehair topper for a blonde horsehair topper. I think it turned out well.

More Indian Market pics

I fell in love with these pipes by Argus Dowdy, a pipemaker and sculptor from Oklahoma. His quillwork rivals any that I've seen and each pipe is a work of art. Pictures can't do them justice, but here they are:






The pipes are sculpted from Minnesota pipestone, this one is inlaid with a tin/lead alloy, which is close to what the original pipemakers used; according to Mr. Dowdy the original pipes were often inlaid with bullet lead.

Steve and I meandered into the NNMAC gallery on Friday before Indian Market and fell in love with a series of fantastic masks made by Yup'ik artist Phillip John Charette:

My Indian Market purchases

I managed to get out, so far, without doing too much damage to my wallet, but I couldn't resist this sea serpent by 8 year old Jacy Edaakie from Zuni, and this wonderful pottery mouse by young artist Grace Aragon from Acoma Pueblo. I have a feeling both of these young artists will be well known in the future!