Fine Detail of Floral "Tiles" Beading

The body of the floral tile bandelier might be woven beadwork -- examination of the smallish photo shows the work is many very straight horizontal rows, and this is a geometric pattern suitable for loom beading. The edging -- three single rows that go over and under as if a wide-apart braid -- is a modification of a very old traditional pattern called "otter tail". This bandolier is unusual in that both straps are identical. Usually the left and the right strap have different -- though related -- designs. In the exhibit here, you'll see a Lenni Lenape (Delawarg) bag and a Great Lakes (tribe unidentified) where the background and figure colors are reversed. In some of the bags the photo isn't good enough to show that the background colors on each side are shades of each other, though the pattern on each strap is the same. On the big flower bags, strap patterns are usually related to each other artistically by a general color schme, but differ in the floral patterns used.

BANDOLIER Start Page

Explanatory text and graphics copyright 1995, 1996.

CREDITS: Tile bandolier photographed by David Heald for National Museum of the American Indian photoessay, "All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture," Smithsonian, 1994.. Earl Nyholm selcted a number of Ojibwe bandoliers as a focus for his essay there.

Last Updated: Saturday, August 24, 1996 - 7:33:15 AM