How To Make A Native American Ribbon Skirt

Northward America was colonized past several European powers and these various nations brought a broad assortment of goods to the continent to exist traded with native groups.

Many ordinary objects from Europe had a powerful market place value for American Indian tribes. These items and their associated purpose were frequently adopted and adapted by native peoples. Such is the case with silk ribbons, which were used by Woodland Indians to create a form of appliqué decoration not seen before in Europe.

E65663/27931 - Painting of Menominee women by Samuel M. Brookes, 1858.This painting shows the early on employ of silk ribbons as a decorative trim to garments, such as skirts and shawls.

The silk ribbons used in native ribbonwork were brought past French traders to the Peachy Lakes region in the after part of the 18th century. Afterward the French Revolution, improvident wear busy by ribbons rapidly went out of style in Europe and the unwanted ribbons were exported to the Americas. In improver to the silk ribbons, tribes in the Great Lakes area traded for metallic knives and cookware, bells, small mirrors, drinking glass and contumely beads, guns, booze, and wool blankets.

30559/7322 Iowa Breechcloth

The exact origin of ribbonwork appliqué is unknown, but by the commencement of the 19th century, Europeans had observed this unique manner of decoration among several tribes. The first recorded instance of ribbonwork appliqué was on a Menominee wedding apparel fabricated in 1802. Ribbonwork reached its peak in the concluding quarter of the 19th century, having moved out from its epicenter in the Great Lakes to several tribes in the Prairies, Plains, and Northeast.

Louise Armour, a Menominee Medicine woman, wearing a ribbonwork shawl and skirt. Photograph by Dr. Samuel Barrett (1915-sixteen).

Ribbonwork appliqué initially lasted for just a century, the craft apace dying out in the early 1900s. This time period coincided with the dislocation of many tribes from their traditional homelands and ways of life. Thus the appliqué technique was non adept in many groups, or was only done by a few individuals.

Due to authorities involvement in native art in the 1930s, federal agents began to collect information nearly the traditional production of ribbonwork amidst the tribes that originally produced information technology. Museums at this time also began to display early examples of ribbonwork. By the 1970s, the same time equally a native cultural resurgence and Indian activism, ribbonwork was over again being produced past diverse Prairie and Plains tribes.

Since then, ribbonwork has regained popularity in a few of the Woodland groups. The production of ribbonwork has inverse significantly from its traditional grade, since the utilise of modern conveniences, such equally sewing machines, has fabricated information technology easier to create. Ribbonwork, like other native art forms, also has an economic value for those who sell information technology in the non-Indian market. Despite these modifications from its traditional course, ribbonwork is mainly produced for American Indians to exist used as ornament for items worn at native cultural events, especially powwows.

Ben Bearskin (Winnebago), "A Tribute to Survival" Showroom

Technique

E56273/17706 Detail of Fox Breechcloth

Ribbonwork appliqué involves sewing many strips of colored ribbon onto another base of operations fabric to serve equally a trim or decoration. Patterns are created in the ribbonwork strip by cutting or folding the cloth at different levels of ribbons to reveal many colors of cloth.

Diagram of a pattern ribbon (A)

The ribbonwork strip is created using 2 components: an uncut base of operations ribbon and a secondary cut or folded pattern ribbon. The secondary ribbon is fastened to the base ribbon to reveal a pattern made from the color of the base of operations ribbon. Highly intricate ribbonwork patterns contain more two ribbons and create a pattern of several different colors. Gimmicky ribbonworkers take been recorded to use up to xx unlike ribbons. The ribbonwork strip can also exist embellished with other materials, such every bit beads or shells, to enhance the pattern.

The original ribbons were fabricated of brightly colored silk and the appliqué was hand-stitched on darkly colored wool, broadcloth and sometimes leather. Due to the nature of the fabric, early productions of items with ribbonwork are extremely perishable and fragile. Gimmicky ribbonworkers utilise the sewing machine to create more complex designs at a quicker pace and may as well substitute silk ribbons with the less cheap taffeta, grosgrain, or satin ribbons.

E59546/20747 Fox Skirt