Keepsake

Keepsake, 2024

Vintage Venetian, French and Czech glass beads; vintage French steel cut beads; cattail and willow paper; natural inks (rosehip, tobacco, wild rice, blueberry, crowberry, blackberry, cranberry, cloudberry, beet, saffron & cattail) velvet; imitation sinew; caribou hair & porcupine quills on recycled cotton and elk hide. 

7.5" x 13.5"

Keepsake combines a variety of homemade inks with beads on homemade paper, to deconstruct and investigate how we make marks as beadwork artists. Many artists' beadwork processes begins with a pattern sewn onto fabric or hide, and is then torn away once the beadwork is finished, leaving no evidence behind of the role that ink and paper play within the beadwork process. I hope to honour the role of ink and paper in this piece, taking the time to create the actual mediums of ink and paper by hand, that would bring my beadwork to fruition. I used intentional floral and plant beaded motifs that can be found in and around my new home in Dawson City, Yukon, that have impacted my process of harvesting materials for the ink and paper used for this piece. 

Historically, wall pockets were popularized during the Victorian era among Europeans, designed to hold letters, souvenirs and flowers. This marketable fad began to reach certain Indigenous nations across North America, with many artists producing their own beautiful interpretations of the trend — wall pockets adorned with colourful glass beads used to paint traditional floral motifs, usually on velvet or caribou hide, and were mostly sold to tourists or outsiders. When wall pockets were seldom kept by their makers, whether they were for the artists themselves or special gifts for their loved ones, the beaded wall pocket acts as a holder of sacred mementos, while displaying exquisite exterior decorative value. 

Before beginning this project, I asked myself: How do we make marks as beadwork artists? Many artists’ process and technique of beading today begins with a pattern, whether that is pencil on tracing or scrap paper, or designs printed onto copy paper. The paper stencil is then stapled or sewn onto a foundation such as cherished home-tanned hide, a preference to most beadworkers, and then beaded atop the pattern. Once the beadwork is finished, the paper is then torn away using tweezers, revealing the material behind the beadwork, without a clue that the stencil was ever there in the first place. Those unfamiliar with beadwork technique might not suspect that paper has a place in beadwork and rarely, is this part of the process honoured in the finished work. Combining techniques of natural paper, natural inks made by harvesting materials in and around Dawson City, and beadwork, this piece aims to honour the space that paper and ink holds in the beadwork process, that the viewer never sees or suspects.

Today, wall pockets are not as common in the household as they are in museum display cases. Yet, beadwork has become influential in the realm of cultural resurgence in many Indigenous nations, and remains a prevalent form of mark-making in current trends such as beaded earrings, for example. My dashboard, tote bags, and jacket pockets are overflowing with small, meaningful mementos, such as rocks, shells, dried flowers, letters, business cards and photographs — little pieces from my travels that I bring with me to all the new, temporary places I call home. Making a beaded wall pocket has challenged me to explore a current, functional value of wall pockets: creating a designated place to hold those tiny keepsakes and their respective stories.

Keepsake on display at the Confluence Gallery in Dawson City, Yukon (2024).