Examining & explaining
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Beadwork patterns
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Beading technique
2004
Examining & explaining
Eliza Jones: That Hester Evan and her sister Celia, they do beadwork just like that. Actually, this doesn’t look that old. And the reason I say that is because of the size of the beads. If it was really old, the beads would be smaller.
Judy Woods: Those two ladies make beautiful beadwork.
Eliza Jones: I saw some of their beadwork. Very similar to that Hester Evan and Cecelia Peterson. This is kkaatsuł [moccasins, slippers]. That’s the style grandmas used to wear long ago. . . . This [ankle trim] had fur around the edge at one time, but all the fur is worn off. I wonder what kind of fur it was. It couldn’t have been a very strong kind of fur. Caribou right here. . . . The top is one piece and the sole is one piece. So actually it’s just made of basically three pieces, two pieces of moose hide and then the trimming is another piece.
So this [tab at heel] thing is to help you slip it on. When you get your feet in there and then you pull up on this.
Judy Woods: All slippers used to have this.
Kate Duncan: So you’d call those slippers instead of moccasins?
Judy Woods: These are slippers.
Kate Duncan: What makes them slippers?
Eliza Jones: The ones they call “wrap around” is what they usually call moccasins.
Kate Duncan: With the cuff?
Judy Woods: Yes. . .
Phillip Arrow: This made for man and woman.
Eliza Jones: Yes, and on the men’s long ago, the women tried to do beadwork. For everyday kkaatsuł [moccasins, slippers], they said don’t embroider or do beadwork on the front, because when they go hunting and stuff, they need to scrape the ice off their kkaatsuł and that stuff gets in the way.
They said, “You’re just wasting time doing that, because they scrape it off.” [Laughter.] But what they did for the men’s was with the flap on there.
Beadwork patterns
Eliza Jones: These patterns are not used so much today. They start with one color at the bottom and then go around.
Kate Duncan: They change the color?
Eliza Jones: They change the color, yes.
Kate Duncan: What about the stems?
Eliza Jones: The stems are old-style pattern also.
Judy Woods: They try to copy that old-time style—because you see how they make these leaves and the different color leaves—from lot of books. . . . . They copy lot of this from the long-time-ago beadwork. That’s why I always am interested in looking at beadwork too.
Eliza Jones: My husband’s grandmother, she used to do a lot of beadwork, and she was fast. And she said when she first started doing beadwork, she used sinew a lot. When she was older, she started using the thread. And she used to tack down every bead. I said “Grandma, you could skip and do every other one.” She said, “No, that’s not the way to do it.” [Laughs.] In our language she said, “Don’t try to make shortcuts.”
Judy Woods: Yes, that’s what you learn.
Kate Duncan: Your grandmother, did she have paper patterns?
Eliza Jones: Yes, I think I may still have some of her paper patterns. I have my mother-in-law’s paper patterns.
Kate Duncan: Is it the whole pattern, or are they little patterns they put together?
Eliza Jones: Well, the older patterns had the flower and the stem attached. But, by the time I knew her, she was using the ink pen and tracing and stuff.
They were doing it different. But I know, when I was younger though, I could tell that her older patterns got traces of—
Kate Duncan: Pin holes?
Eliza Jones: Yes, pin holes with ink along it, because that’s how they did their pattern.
Beading technique
Kate Duncan: When beading those flowers, would you bead from the middle out? Or would you bead the outline and go in?
Judy Woods: Oh, you always got to start middle.
Eliza Jones: Yes, always start center and then work out.
Kate Duncan: When you do a single flower, do you do the outside edge and then fill it in?
Eliza Jones: Oh, yes. You always do the outline first.
Kate Duncan: Why is that?
Judy Woods: That’s how we make the flowers, that we were taught. [Laughter.]
Eliza Jones: We always do the outline first, and then you fill in the inside. See, once you get the outline done, then it’s easier to fill it in.
Kate Duncan: To control the beads?
Eliza Jones: To control the beads.
Kate Duncan: Otherwise they might be wiggly by the time you got to the outside?
Eliza Jones: Yes. It never even occurred to me to start in the center. You always do the outline first.
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