Tag Archives: designs

  The ceremonial scarf is part of the habit of this Hopi priest with his flute, photographed in Oraibi in 1901. Woven by men, it presents the typical embroidery pattern of the loincloths or thongs. It is believed that the geometric designs represent the mask of one of the Kacina …

  The supreme importance of caribou hunting for the Naskapi, Montagnais and Cree tribes of the Quebec-LabradorPeninsulais reflected in their ¾ caribou skin jackets. They wear these garments decorated with powerful symbols, the hunters hope to obtain that supernatural help that guarantees success on the hunt. Instruments of caribou bones …

  Piegan shirts with heavy ermine fringes and human scalps. Gathered in 1903, it’s the typical model worn by the Blackfeet Indians from 1880 on. Although the shoulder and arm straps are embroidered  with seed pearls using fill stitches, the designs are very similar to the porcupine quill trimming found …

  Micmac boxes were made of birch. Exclusive to the Micmac of the Atlantic provinces is the insertion of decorative painted porcupine spines into the birch bark, applied primarily to boxes with lids. Bark and quills were applied slightly wet, a small hole was made in the bark into which …

The plaits of the southeastern Indians are perhaps the only crafts never interrupted from the prehistoric age to the present. The river cane is the raw material, cutting and processing it is hard and tiring, but women never give up to its typical lucidity in favour of more flexible materials …