Quill Work

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Step 4. Continue to wrap the new prickle on around the leather, just as you did the first quill, until it's almost used up. Then go back to Step 2 and add a third quill just as you did the second. Simply repeat this process for every new quill-changing colors where noted-until you're about 1/4 inch from the top of your rawhide. Try to make sure that by the time you reach this spot you have at least 1/8" of the final quill left to work with. You're nearly done!

Step 5. Take.out your needle and thread, and insert the needle about three wraps down from the top . . . moving the needle between the quills and the leather, and slightly to one side of the splices, and bringing it up and out from the final completed wrap. This should position the needle on top of the last quill tip.

Step 6. Make a stitch up and over the final spear. Then navigate the needle back under the lower prickles . . . until it comes out from the place that it originally wen t in.

Step 7. When the needle is all the way out, slide it off the thread. Now, take both ends of thread and gently tug them until the last quill end disappears beneath the final wraps. Let go of one end of the thread, and lightly pull the other to remove all of it from your quillwork . . . and you're done!

TO WRAP UP

Once you've finally completed your short section of quillwork, the next question is what to do with it. Well, you could make a mate for the strip and stitch both pieces onto a watchband. You could-now that you know how-wrap another (longer) strip of rawhide for a necklace or a bracelet to give to a friend. Or you could just sit back, take a look at your work, and say, "Finished, at last!"

But, whatever you do with your own quillworked band, the chances are that because you've allowed yourself this hands-on experience (no matter how insignificant the end product may seem to be)-the next time you see an intricate, more complete example of quillwork, you'll have a lot of respect for the vast amount of ingenuity, skill, and time that went into creating that piece. And with this sense of appreciation will come a better understanding of what quillwork is and the heritage it represents. As George Horse Capture has so aptly put it, "If a piece [of quillwork] is truly superb, then it's too expensive and too special to sell for money. So you give it away. Give it to a friend . . . or to a relative . . . or to a visitor. And that's an Indian custom. For you see, quillwork is, has been, and always will be Indian."

FROM ONE CULTURE TO ANOTHER

John Fisher

Several years ago, Christy Ann Hensler, an artist of German-Polish descent (who lives in Spokane, Washington) was working on a painting she'd entitled "The Quillworker". Because she was unable to locate a whole lot of research material on her subject, though, Christy was having a great deal of trouble getting the right feel for her work.

Finally, she decided that the only way she was ever going to understand quillworking was to do it herself. So she located several authentic examples of the Indian skill in museums near where she lived .. . and spent several months studying these works and trying to copy them as best she could.

Well, not only was Christy able at last to capture the effect she was after in her painting, but she fell in love with her subject and has been quillworking ever since! Always working with respect for the native American tradition she was learning, Christy taught herself how to do nine established techniques and even originated a couple of her own. In addition, her completed quillwork pieces have been so well received that she now displays them in the same museums that handle her paintings.

This is truly a case of how one culture can share with another to the benefit of both!

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