What is your Talent/Craft? To All

[dovelady]

I was just answering a post about beadwork in another thread and we talked about brain tanned leather and such to bead on.

And brain tanned leather is sometimes expensive and hard to find. So I got to wondering if anyone here on Saponi Town does brain tanned leather?

And then I got to wondering what kind of other talents we have here in our Saponi Town.

I and some others do beadwork, I know that at least Tom does basket work. I also have done some moccasins and basketry. I know that some here work with shells or stones etc. Does anyone here make regalia or related items? Or drums or play drums or make bows or knives or or or?

I just thought it would be fun to find out what kind of talent we have here.

So what is your talent/craft?

[PappyDick]

I'm a musician, and old, so over a somewhat checkered past I have made and repaired a bunch of instruments. It used to be mountain dulcimers, but more recently I have had more time and better tools, and have made a few balalaikas and guitars. This is mostly woodwork, but not entirely. There are for instance abalone inlays, so some shell work is involved.

Old banjos had skin heads, and I've worked a little with wet skin; can't really recommend it. In particular, incompletely brain tanned possum or cat skin is fairly gross (but makes a good banjo head). I also know how to make settin' chairs with bottoms of hickory "bark" (which isn't really bark), or oak splints, or rawhide.

My wife used to spin, dye, and weave, and I helped her with some of the more complex chores, like restoring antique looms and warping them to weave coverlets. She got allergic to the chemicals used to make natural dyes permanent, also was bothered a lot by lint. She had to give up either weaving or breathing, so, she doesn't weave anymore.

I've made lots of moccasins, mostly from Tandy kits, and have done some other leather work. Actually my grandfather (and two of his brothers), an uncle, and a first cousin were harnessmakers, so that was a family trade; but my immediate line of the family didn't pursue it.

Most of my craft activity has had nothing to do with Native American arts, but if the level is basic enough, most people use similar techniques to work with the same materials.

Oh -- I've made red cedar mouth bows. (That's a native musical instrument.) Learned that from an old guy in Tennessee, who had picked it up from the eastern Cherokee folks. He also made bull roarers -- don't believe I ever did, but I could. They should be of something denser than cedar -- maybe holly, boxwood, persimmon... hmmm.

[dovelady]

Wow! Pappy, what a talented man you are. How wonderful that you work with your hands like that and make items that can bring such pleasure to people.

You said, "I've made red cedar mouth bows." What are these? I haven't heard of them before.

Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us.

[PappyDick]

A mouth bow is kind of like the bow with which one shoots arrows, only made of much thinner and more flimsy wood. You hold one end to your mouth and pick the string, varying the pitch by the size of the resonator (inside your head). Similar to playing a Jew's harp. Buffy Sainte-Marie used to play one sometimes. I just Googled her, seems she's still around. Here is a link to an early album, on the cover she's holding one. (Hers looks nothing like the ones I made and gave away. But I guess it works.)

http://www.creative-native.com/albums/itsmyway.htm

[dovelady]

Wow.. that is totally interesnting! I don't think I have ever seen one played.

Now, if you talk about scrub boards, strings attatched to wash tubs, etc. I have seen those played. But not a mouth bow. How very very interesting!

Thank you so much for sharing. :)

[Ed Yancey]

Pappy, you mentioned possum and cat skin for the head of the banjo. If I shared this before then I guess I am old enough to repeat a matter. My mother always told how Uncle Otis, her brother made his first banjo. Grandma had chickens on the yard and little biddies(that's baby chicks)for you new comers! There was a tom cat that was coming over and killing the biddies. Grandma went to the store and bought some arsenic ( boy have times changed) ! She fixed a small bowl of milk and laced it with arsenic which the tom cat drank and then Mama's little kitten happened to lick the bowl. The kitten died and the tom cat shedded and grew back even slicker hair. Uncle Otis shot the tom cat through the head with a 22 rifle, skinned it and according to Mama put ashes on the hide and rolled it up and put it in a branch. You would probably know what the actual procedure involved. He cut a hollow black walnut tree and sawed a slice through the trunk to make the rim for the head using various parts to fashion the rest of the banjo . The cat skin was used for the head of course and he played this instrument for years. Ed

[sammarroq]

What a wonderful array of talents, it is wonderful to see Native culture come alive through craft. I am always amazed at the intricacy of beadwork, basket weaving, etc. However, I am sure it must seem very natural to those who have the gift. I love music, sing, and am taking up the guitar again (I used to play, but when the babies came...); I also write poetry. I have taken an interest in bowmaking, and have Douglas Spotted Eagle's book "Making Indian Bows and Arrows... The Old Way." My dream (after I get the last 5 kiddos out of the nest) is to return to the simple life, and live off the land. I love the outdoors, fishing and canoeing (when we camp, we eat fish everynight, and sometimes even for breakfast) I love to grow herbs, and believe in natural healing.

Shirley

[dovelady]

Hi Shirley,

How wonderful that you study healing with herbs. It has been a lost art which in the past decade or so has taken on a renewed revival. I'm glad to see the natural healing agents brought back to the people.

And it is wonderful that you are also musically talented. My parents were, but unfortunately it skipped me. LOL My voice was good when I was young, but I damaged it and the doctor didn't know how to treat it. It finally healed enough for me to talk just fine.. but when I sing.. well.. you can hear dogs howl. LOL

I do so love music though. I think it is one of the most wonderful Gifts that God ever gave to the earth. It has power to soothe and inspire or encouage those who need spiritual healing as well.

:) Just MHO

[PappyDick]

I don't think I have ever seen one played.

Last year we had a little chat going about this instrument, once in vogue among the southeastern Indians (probably including Siouans). I just noticed, somebody sells them now on eBay. And there's a picture of a young lady demonstrating one way to play them.

http://stores.ebay.com/Middleton-Mouth-Bow-Harps

A native one would not have a fiddle peg in one end, to fine-tune the pitch to match some other instrument. That's an innovation.

[Junglegeorge]

Really good thread. I play the guitar, and seem to be able to fix almost anything. I can farm fish and most vegetables, including corn, beans, etc. Currently I have a small fish and plantain farm.

I also have a sort of interest/desire to see make a comeback in our communities, that I have lots of work experience with. And that is designing and building extremely HVAC efficient homes and buildings utilizing all kinds of special products I have come into contact with over many years, and new technologies, and making them look like aboriginal homes inside and out and have that type of 'native family home' feel and experience, yet meet modern safety codes and modern living needs.

Alot of that tech came into being via research on varioius efficient materials and shapes for domes, oblong, interconnected, and igloo shape structures for arctic and other severe weather conditions. Interestingly, much of that building is more far efficient, beautiful to me, and less expensive than normal modern models and structures.

Looking at the shapes and designs in the native american thatch, plank, and adobe housing, I am amazed at how well ventilation, large family cooking spaces indoors, safety, and heating efficiency principles were at work in their designs so long ago. That type of stuff has been my work trade, so I guess it is sort of a craft.

I also know how to make gold and silver jewelry but have not done so in quite a while.

[Linda]

That's interesting. I had an interest for awhile in a geodesic dome home, because it is reminiscent of an a'ti, the domed structures our people lived in. A good fire in the wintertime would readily have one of them roasting and there is something satisfying about being in a circle.

I had to give it up, though, when it came time to look for financing. Borrowed money is a lot cheaper when it's in the form of a cape cod or a Colonial, your appraiser just can't get comps on a dome. Still, it would have been quite a sight, covered with cedar shingles, it would have been an amazing replication of an a'ti, and you're right, they are so strong and snug.

I want to see us make a large a'ti as a place to 'stomp' (dance), a simple structure but large enough for a group, and a smoke hole in the center. There's some family land a member here has on old Saponi turf where we might just do this.

[Junglegeorge]

I will try to gather some info that may help them in their process of decisions and building their dreams into realities. I just have to dig around some for it.
Here, since we are in hurricane alley, the banks refuse to finance wood rectangular structures. The alternative materials and shapes structure get financed immediately due to their efficiency in terms of energy use and their resistance to hurricane winds over 200 mph. I have seen the round domes, also oval ones, but the ones that really remind me of the native homes are the oblong strucures with rounded corners that are interlinkable and easily expanded.
Interestingly, they are very strong and made in layers of various materials, in similar fashion as the natives did using stick, brick, adobe, planks, and grass thatching.
I never handled financing issues, but I can make contact with those who handled that successfully on other housing projects I was involved with. I know they had projects in many western and midwest states and alaska. Not sure about va but I will look into it.

The dances need a round or at least oval/oblong structure to fit our cultural heritage and ceremonial and symbolic purposes imo. But part of the issue is adapting and advance vs preserving old ways. I suppose each group has it's own values and priorities there that need to be respected.

[Junglegeorge]

The smoke hole with a large open hearth/fire pit are easy to accomplish in any structure almost.

[redfox]

Our family make drums with hard wood tree's. Sing obijway, inute, cree to honor my grand-daughter's grandfather. I make reed baskets, loom bead, make shawls, tan leather, know many uses for herbs in healing.

[daniel_bingamon]

I make Native Flutes, Tinwhistles, other various folk wind, string and percussion instruments. I also make cedar Jewerly

[shoshone]

I make Shawls and Dream Catchers. Have my own unique styles.

Shoshone

[Red Metis]

Herbal medicine crafter

[quietgirl]

Sewing, quilting (hand & machine), beading, embroidery, knit & crochet.

[spilleddi]

I bead on cloth or leather (can’t do commercial except German tan). I make bags, medallions, barrettes, cradleboard, necklaces, etc. Do lots of miniature stuff, like cedar hats, mocs, and button blankets. Also basketry, both flat and round, mostly wool, some cedar. I do lots of things with different kinds of Pendleton wool. I just learned how to make little Indian dolls, so theres something to wear all the miniature things I make.

I can’t sew regalia to save my life, always comes out horrible. My friends have giving up trying to teach me. So I’m always looking for someone who makes regalia who wants to trade, like moccasins, dress, leggings, etc.