Koy's Flowers
Koy's Flowers
I started this work while watching my new grandson Koy Charles. I snatched in good beading time while he slept nearby in his similarly beaded velvet moss bag, wrapped in our love and generations of floral beadwork work that follow us through our lives. Flowers represent the seasons. The dormancy of seeds in winter, the new growth of spring, the blooms of summer and the promise of the next generation when seeds drop in the fall and bulbs pull back for a time to nurture themselves. Tulips push-up first in spring they are followed by the various five petal lovelies that treat us the longest. At last the morning glories arrive in various colors literally clinging the longest by exceptional vines which remind me of family; we stay together holding fast to our shared memories and treasured tomorrow’s.
This work is my own style, while my tribe frequently uses large scale Florals they are most always on black or dark navy blue in honor of my new grandson I wanted white, a new beginning. These are all florals I’ve used in variations over the years this vest is made from Teton Trade cloth I purchased locally it is lined in a fabric I designed from photos of my work it is titled Beaded Nations. The vest is trimmed in red velvet and has brass sequins The skirt is made from Teton Trade cloth as well purchased locally, it is lined in the Beaded Nations material, as is the kick plate in the front. The entire outfit is a size 12. I believe model sized clothes 0 to 3 are fine and the models are indeed beautiful but I think size 12 people are beautiful too and we should honor that. I enjoy breaking down my beadwork patterns turning them inside out so each accessory is a deconstructed piece of the total pattern. The cuffs are lined with my Beaded Nation fabric made from trade cloth backed with felt and trimmed in velvet and feature the morning glory pattern. The purse is the tulip pattern trade cloth backed in felt and lined in the same material. I always put one purse strap in the front and one in the back as I think the purse lays nicer this way. The hat is a vintage gift from a customer and features the five petal flower along with a trade cloth hat band. I included a face mask for my ‘model’ made from my Beaded Nations material in Lycra.
I would like to thank the Heard museum Guild and Indian Fair and Market for the opportunity to show my work.
I started this project with the notion to create a design with all of my favorite florals. I had to rein in some of my tendency to use multiple colors on each floral because I believe the overall design would have suffered. Multiple florals working from a base and extending with Vining is a classic Chippewa/Ojibwa technique. The beads extending from the vine are what I was taught in our tradition we call rabbit tracks as they resemble those tracks left side-by-side from a rabbit; seen especially in the snow. I have not seen any vests with this type of beading pattern on the back of the piece, just the front, but I took the liberty to do so with this design as well as adding the mandarin collar. Our vests are generally collarless, again I wanted to create something unique and I think it made the design more feminine. I backed the trade cloth in muslin and drew my design on paper sewn onto the front of the trade cloth and pulled after beading. My mother is a great quilter I was shocked to see how the back of the Muslim resembled her work when completed. I used real elk teeth at the vest fasteners, definitely not a Chippewa standard; but a nod to my 30 years residing on the Apsaalooke Reservation in south-central Montana. My hat band is all freestyle Florals a Chippewa tradition which I would like to continue to work at and improve my prowess as it often seen on older works.
I bead with one needle flat stitch, tacking down every two beads.