Customer Reviews

Native American Beadwork

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Note: Book first published in 1929 by the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, in New York, N.Y.

Native American Beadwork is a reprint of Orchard's Native American beadwork technique book published in the early 20th century. It was one of the first books examining beadwork techniques in detail and is still one of the best. Orchard was a Native American museum curator, as was his son - this book is written from a base of authoritative knowledge and original investigative work. Many of the techniques were actually reconstructed from either disassembling or thread-tracing artifacts.

I particularly like the coverage of woven beadwork. This is not your typical block or peyote stitch bead book, nor is it a project book. It is a an examination of Native American and trade beads, historical bead production techniques, and beading techniques. Most of the photos and all of the illustrations are in black & white, which is to be expected from a book dating from this period. The first 85 pages of the book cover bead history. Coverage of techniques is on pages 86 to 129 - all of which is descriptive and not instructional per se.

This is not a photographic reprint. Rather, it is a full recreation of the original book. The text was re-entered, the photographs re-scanned, and the color plates were produced with modern techniques. Some of the color plates were re-shot using the original artifacts as the original plates could not be located. As a result, the quality is superb.

This is a must-have book for anyone interested in Native American beading.