Years back, this guy came to me to have “pony soldier coats” made. He was traveling to Germany to lecture to interested groups, and his first not-very-specific coat was all but torn off of him by his fans. He decided it was worth having them done professionally.
The tribes (primarily Cheyenne and Lakota) “acquired” U.S. Army (Union surplus) coats, took them apart and put them back together with quillwork, nailheads, leather fringe – the latter pinon-smoke-tanned; my studio smelled amazing.
I made a number of them for him. His wife did the quill work, and told of her astonishment of being let into the back rooms of Denver’s Natural History Museum to check out their collection. It was wonderful meeting and spending time with them.
Chuck (Dr. A.C. Ross) dropped off the internet in 2013. I’m not having luck finding him.
I’d forgotten about him until coincidentally running across my reference photos a week or so ago. He grew up on the Pine Ridge rez.
* like** it’ll do you any good
** the ghost of my public school grammar teacher reminds me this should be “as if”.
Gold embroidery for this wedding gown’s neckline:
Silk chiffon over silk doupioni with hand embroidery; facing stabilized with crinoline net.
The wedding dress was done from the bride’s concept. An initial sketch of the knotwork is visible underneath at far right. My guess is that it was done with a light box on the doupioni with a fine point Pigma Micron.
She was originally willing to pay me to do the embellishment, and jumped at the chance to do it herself. She found three kinds of gold thread, one of which was the wrapped-cord stuff, which neither of us liked*. Her “sampler” using chain stitch is at right, using thread of two strands of a thin mylar. It was slow work, but much faster and easier than the other options.
A scan of the finished neckline before the ends were woven is in the middle. I have never since complained about weaving in wool yarn!
* it frayed like crazy and wouldn’t lie flat
xx