Crafters Provide Examples of Native American Beading on the History Tree

Deb Tiger is a maker of traditional Native American clothing. She also makes Native American crafts. She is just one of the Native American artists who have items placed on the History Tree at Prairie Star Gallery in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At the 10th annual tradition at the downtown Sioux Falls native art gallery, there is a twelve foot tree that is covered in decorations.

Deb Tiger's tiny baby moccasins are carefully sewn with beads in traditional patterns. She also made miniature replicas of garments she makes for pow-pow dancers and anyone else who wants traditional Native American Clothing.

Everything on the tree is hand made using Native American traditional techniques and materials. Every reservation and tribal group in South Dakota is represented and has contributed items for the History Tree, which will be on display until the end of January.

The ornaments that are for sale were made by about a hundred families who contributed over a thousand items for the tree. Every member of the family works on the ornament: The father, mother, children, grand children all work together.

The tree features a broad range of hand-made items: baby moccasins, tiny breastplates and headdresses, small sage wreaths, willow and quilled medicine wheels, and medicine bags. Hanging on the tree are beaded dream catchers, and many sacred animals. The ornaments are made from everything from leather to stained glass.

Other Crafters

Ben Spirit Track made medallions from beads, a craft he learned from his grandmother. He hopes that the tree will pass some of the Native American beading traditions onto future generations, by rousing interest. One of his medallions is made of leather and is round with beads stitched into the center. It symbolizes the four directions and the round shape is symbolic of the Earth.

Jaida Gray Eagle made beaded dream-catchers for the tree.

Ben McBride provided some miniature drums. He learned beading from his family and in school where traditional beading techniques are still taught to the children.

Although beading is traditional in Native America culture, many other cultures world wide have beading traditions. The Bead Cottage can help you with ideas and inspiration for your beading projects.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company. Ciniva specializes in web design and SEO. Ms. Vertigan Pope is the Project Support Manager and SEO Specialist for Ciniva.

Article Source: ezineArticles

Beading Around the World - Africa's Bead Culture

The last week of October is Beads Week in Ghana in West Africa. Exporting beads has become a major source of income for many in poverty stricken areas of Africa, besides being a major source of cultural exchange between Ghana and Italy and other European countries.

Ghana and Italy have long been linked in history. As early as the 15th century, makers of glass beads began shipping their products to Ghana in Western Africa. The beads were important for increasing the status of Chiefs and Queens and were used in ceremonies that marked rites of passage. Italy and Ghana were united by the common language of artistic beauty and their love of the tiny masterpieces.

Now, in a reversal, West Africa is beginning to export locally made beads to back to Italy.

In another part of Africa, Uganda has a thriving bead export business. Paper beads in all sizes and shapes are helping Ugandan women to rise out of poverty. Women in many parts of Africa have few economic opportunities and in Uganda, women are fleeing the civil war and settling near the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Instead of finding a brighter future, they found HIV, starvation and expensive housing. There is hope for these women-Bead For Life.

The organization called BeadForLife began when two American women watched a Ugandan woman making beads from rolled up magazines. The Ugandan woman explained that there was no market for her beads, so she had to work at a local quarry for less than a dollar a day. When the two American women brought some necklaces back to the US and gave them to some friends, a new market was born.

Paper beads are colorful and beautiful and come in many sizes and shapes. Because the market is strong in American, people purchasing these beads are helping women in another culture to survive and rise above the deprivations of deficiency. As a result, a new cultural exchange market has been created.

The paper beads are created from recycled magazines, posters or other donated material that is cut, rolled and finished with a water-proof coating. The products made from the beads range from single strands of beads to delicate three strand necklaces.

More information about beads and beading can be found at The Bead Cottage, www.thebeadcottage.com

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Vertigan_Pope

Blogging Inspiration

I have been looking at other sites to get an idea of what I want to do with my blog and I have decided to make this one about beading. I will feature the history of beading, interesting information about beading trends and useful tips for all beaders. It is not my intention to feature a current project that I am working on or have just finished, unless it is something that is extraordinary.

Having said that, I am featuring an article about the history of beading. I hope you find it interesting reading.

The art of beading has been around nearly as long as humans have been. From the moment an ancient human found a shell or stone with a natural perforation and strung it on a piece of vine to wear around their neck, beading has been popular in one form or another. Whether those objects were worn as a religious symbol, for personal adornment or to permeate them with special powers doesn't matter. Bead stringing is the first form of beading and it persists to today.

Thousands of years ago, ancient tribes of humans strung hollow animal bones on a fiber. It is believed that wearing the bones of the animal would either protect them from that animal or fill them with the animal's spirit, making them a less fragile human. When early humans developed the tools required to pierce another object, creating a hole, then many varied items were strung for many different purposes. Sea shells, seed pods, nut shells, fresh water mollusk shells, and even animal teeth and bones have been found by archaeologists with man-made perforations. Some people made actual beads of clay and others learned to add pigments to color the beads. As humans progressed, they began to enamel the clay beads.

About 3000 years ago, the Egyptians learned to make glass and the next logical step was creating glass beads. They elevated the art of beading to a high level that is still admired today for its beauty and elements of design. The Egyptians become skilled at adding pigments to the glass to craft very colorful beads. They combined these colored glass beads with precious and semi-precious gemstones and precious metals, such as gold and silver, to fashion jewelry pieces that were stunning. Beads became a much sought after commodity, so much so that they were used in commerce and exported throughout the ancient world.

Other cultures embraced the art of bead making. Most people think of China when they think of an abacus, or counting frame-a calculating device that utilizes beads that are slid on wires that have been strung on a wooden frame. The Babylonians were actually the first to use an abacus, although theirs was drawn in dust or sand and small pebbles were used instead of beads. The counter abacus with strings and beads can be credited to the Egyptians, or the Ancient Indian people, possibly. The Chinese played an important role in the evolution and development of the abacus.

Romans traded beads all across their empire, and even the ancient Celts and the Vikings were bead craftsmen who used beads to adorn themselves in the form of necklaces, amulets, and bracelets. Ancient Amerinds used beads as personal ornaments, in religious ceremonies and to decorate clothing articles. Native American bead art is popular in fashion, today and an important source of revenue for many people. Nearly everyone has seen turquoise beaded watch bands, or Native American necklaces and belts.

Beading was-and still is-a part of Native American Society. Many tribes had quilling societies that were sacred to the women. To join the society, a young girl had to be recruited and then she was tutored and carefully trained in the bead making arts. The process of making the quillwork was sacred, but the finished piece -- to be worn or used by someone -- was not considered sacred. The product was of secondary importance to the process of manufacture. The focus was on the thoughts and prayers and the work, not on the finished piece -- very different from Western society, which tends to value the finished product and ignores the process of creation.

There are contemporary beaders who report that beading is almost a spiritual experience for them as they embrace the art of creation as much as the finished work, the focus being on perfecting the art rather than a race to complete the final product.

Brighten Your Silver Jewelry (or anything else silver)

Did you know that you can brighten up your tarnished silver components and jewelry without leaving your kitchen? Baking soda is the secret ingredient in this method which I recently put to the test and have directions to share with you.

You will need:

• baking soda
• aluminum foil
• pot
• boiling water
• metal tray

1. In a pot bring two cups of water to a boil to which you've added 1/2 cup of baking soda.
2. Next, line a shallow toaster oven baking tray with aluminum foil and arrange your pieces so that each one has contact with the aluminum foil.
3. Gently pour the water and baking soda solution over the peices.
4. Buff with a Sunshine Cloth

A simplified explanation of the science behind this method is that when silver tarnishes, it combines with sulfur from the air and forms silver sulfide which is black. There are two ways to remove this coating – one is to remove the silver sulfide from the surface using abrasion and the other is to reverse the chemical process. When the tarnish is removed through abrasion (polishing) some of the silver is also removed. With the method described today none of the silver is removed. The aluminum is effective because it has a stronger affinity to sulfur than silver does, so the warm baking soda solution carries the sulfur atoms from the silver to the aluminum.

This SMART TIP was provided by The Nice People found here.

What are Czech Beads?

Glass making and glass bead making within the Czech Republic is dated back as far as the early bronze age, when the region was settled by Celts who possessed the skills of glass-making and enameling. Not only were the Celts involved in bead making and glass making, but so were the Monks in Benedictine monasteries. A glass mosaic titled “Day of Judgment” which embellishes the golden gate of St.Vitus's Cathedral in Prague is a testament to the skill of these medieval glass-makers.

Czech glass can be found in Corinthian excavations dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries. During this time, the art of glass making ceased to the solely the milieu of Monks and it moved out into the forests where many cottage glass-works arose. Vast quantities of wood were needed to fuel the furnaces, so the densest forests became the centers for this early art form.

The forest glass-works created "forest glass" of a greenish color created by imperfect refining of raw the materials potash and quartz sand—the main ingredients in glass.

In 1588, Emperor Rudolf the 2nd invited Mr. Ottavio Miseroni, the first person to perfect the art of cutting and shaping diamonds, to Prague. Miseroni opened a workshop for cutting diamonds. With his diamond cutters, he discovered a way to decorate glass by using stone or copper wheels. Engraving was born. The most important craftsman in Prague to come from Miseroni's workshop was Caspar Lehmann, who became an Imperial Court engraver. Rudolf the 2nd became a generous sponsor and Prague became the center of this new glass craft. From Prague, the craft spread to all of Europe.

During the 1600s, the popularity of engraved glass continued to increase and by the end of the 17th Century, Czech glass achieved world wide recognition. Particularly fire-polished beads, have been produced in the area of the Czech Republic for over 200 years. This craft started as a cottage industry with the forest glass makers, but today the art of crafting Czech faceted beads is done in a factory.

They are such a huge part of Czech industry that the Soviet Union created a state agency called Jablonex to distribute the beads. The breakup of the USSR saw a resurgence of onesproduced in cottage industries. Today, there are many companies that export Czech facetted beads to over 80 countries. The small enterprises are greatly assisted by the fact that Jablonex is no longer taking on any new United States clients.

The most common shape for the Czech bead is round, although the fire polished beads are more oblong. They are available in other shapes, too: bicone, rondelle, roller, roundlet, pear and parachute. The fire polished ones come in a variety of colors. The richness of color is one of the earmarks of Czech beads.

Most people think all fire polished beads come from the Czech Republic. In the last ten years or so, India has begun producing them too. Fire polished beads are distinguishable by there soft rounded edges on the face.