Renaissance Fair

A  trip to the Minnesota Renaissance Fair this weekend. We were with our daughter and her family. The 'boys' were interested in the side show events, the food and of course the jousting. I was busy watching the costumes!

There were assorted grades of 'muslins' along with numerous brocades and velvets. When we are were reviewing our favorite parts (the little boys were all about the swords), my highpoint was watching the lady below gracefully mount her horse--side saddle!!

Side saddle

Interesting bodices

Hems at ground level

Lone Star Quilts

I will be doing a presentation on Star Quilts at the Museum of the Rockies next Friday evening in conjunction with the Quilts on the Lawn show in Bozeman, MT. I began my research with the basic 8 pointed star and ended up captivated with the Lone Stars, especially those made by the Native Americans.

The popularity of the Lone Star quilt pattern and statehood for Texas happened around the same time. (The Lone Star pattern was first seen around 1830, Texas joined the Union in 1845.) Early Lone Stars featured other smaller stars or Broderie Perse in the blank squares.

The star and the circle have long been important images for many Native American tribes. Once trade beads were introduced to the fur trade in the early 17th century, classic stars were beaded on moccasins and bags. By the late 1880s the buffalo herds, so important to the Plains Indians, were gone. The Sioux and Assiniboine tribes along with others adopted the Lone Star quilt as a replacement for traditional buffalo robes. Now these quilts are used not only as tipi doors but also to wrap the dead, express joy at a birth, honor friends and loved ones, as altar cloths in churches, hangings for graduation ceremonies and a focal point of a 'giveaway'.

I hope you can attend the presentation on Friday evening. I will have numerous slides of Star quilts and a very special story about a Native American Giveaway featuring quilts!

Bau loxabigua

Crow for 'Laying Down Beads'. 

Friday I drove to White Sulphur Springs MT to listen to a presentation on Crow Traditional Women's Clothing by Mardell Plainfeather. She was fascinating--talking about growing up Crow, her mother's traditional dress and the clothing she has made for her family.

These are pictures of a dress she made for dancing when she was 15. The beading at the neckline and on the sleeves lays down flat on the tanned deer hide dress. I would refer to the technique as couching. The beads that edge of the scallops, Bau loeclougua (Crow meaning Making Beads Stand Up), are coiled back on themselves and then tacked at the base of the loop to the deer hide.

Billings Gazettte

Donna Healy, staff writer for Montana's largest newspaper, come to visit me in June. I was the 'feature' for Saturday's edition. Donna has done a very comprehensive article about me and how I got started selling reproduction fabrics to the movie industry. I thought my readers might enjoy the story and the pictures. This link is good through Friday, August 6,2010.

Margo :)

http://www.billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_ae1dbc52-9cc0-11df-b85f-001cc4c03286.html

Lightning press

In 1847, The Philadelphia Public Ledger installed the new high speed rotary 'lightning' press. It made the all those slow flatbed presses outdated and opened up a new market--cheap paper!

By the 9th century, Arabs were making high quality paper from recycled rags with additional fibers of of linen and cotton. This rag paper was still the standard paper in the 19th century with mainly linen fibers being added to the broken down rags. It was relatively expensive.

In the 1840s producers in Germany began mechanically breaking down 'scraps' from the timber industry to create a paper product. It was this pulp paper that would supply the demand for newsprint.

The use of the 19th century rag paper ( archival, non acidic) in my fabric sample ledgers has helped to preserve the vibrant colors of the fabric samples!

Ahead by a nose--Abby paddling with Ron at Hyalite--south of Bozeman.

Saved List

Under the "Dancing in Beauty" tab on the website for Identity by Design discussed last week, there is mention of 'saved list' wool used in the c. 1890 Kiowa headdress as well as a rainbow list on the sleeve of a beautiful comtemporary Kiowa dress.

I have always found this term intriguing.' List' refers to selvedge--the edge of the fabric which is more tightly woven than the body to prevent fraying. It was often of another fiber and could be coarser than the center of the cloth. 'Saved list' means the list or selvedge kept white during the wool dying process. It was encased by folding a piece of webbing lengthwise and whip stitching it securely in place. This prevented the coarser, more absorbant selvedge fibers from taking up the expensive the dye stuffs. 

The edge was usually discarded in European garments but was much admired by the North American Indians during the Fur Trade Era and even afterwards during the Reservation period.  It was often used decoratively at the side, bottom or on the sleeves.

The photo below is of two different pieces of saved list--one indigo the other scarlet, side by side.

This is a picture of me holding a beautiful beaver pelt given to me by my husband as a wedding present 43 years ago. He had trapped and prepared the pelt. I was delighted with the gift but did not have a clue I would be using it as part of my Furs on a Stick lecture! This picture was taken last fall in Minneapolis.

Washinton DC to Butte Montana

In 2007 I had the good fortune to visit the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. "Identity by Design" was on display.

It was wonderful! Here is the link to information about the display.There is a 'catalog' for the exhibit--"Identity by Design, tradition, change and celebration in native women's dresses", edited my Emil Her Many Horses.
 
This weekend we went to Butte for the National Folk Festival. This is the first time in 30+ years it has been held west of the Mississippi. Butte, America as it is known was the right venue for the western option. More than 100,000 attended. (Butte is unique. Many different nationalities arrive late in the 19th century to work in the mines and smelters. It was involved in the Labor Movement in America and has a very very colorful past!)

This was one of 6 simultaneous performances--Tony Ballog and Roma Nota. They were amazing!!
 
In the First Peoples' Marketplace I had the opportunity to see Mary Lou Big Day's traditional Crow
dolls. I spoke with Mary Lou and she proudly told me she has received two national awards for her dolls. We also talked about the Crow Reservation (nearby  in Montana), the view from her home and how she goes about crafting her dolls.

If you can get the book/catalog of Identity by Design through Amazon or on inter library loan, I know you would enjoy it. And if you get a chance to see Mary Lou's dolls, she will be in Santa Fe soon, you will be enchanted!