My Woman's Traditional Outfit

This is a Photo taken by my Husband some years ago. It shows the front of the outfit. This is my more contemporary outfit.

The beading on the yoke of the dress took me eight years to complete! The whole outfit with a bone breast plate weighs about a stone. Don't I know about it after a day of dancing!!
The beading and the design on my dress is interesting in that I was very much guided by dreams. I was given my design and told in which order I should continue the beading. Also the colour of the beading had a significance given to me in my dreams. The red is representative for me of the woman's menstruation cycle (otherwise known as the Moontime). This in hind sight is odd, I developed a severe condition relating to my Ovaries later on. I now can not menstruate. A blessing and a curse.
The dress is made from brain tanned buckskin. The dress top and skirt are separate. If I am attending an outdoor pow wow I tend to wear a smoked brain tanned buckskin skirt. Brain tanned buckskin is the greatest leather in the world. It is unmatched for quality. It is beautiful to work with and produces the best results.
I am very proud of my Eagle feather fan. It was a gift from a friend. I took it apart and rearranged the feathers and gourd stitched the handle. I used sheep hide at the base of the feathers. All my feathers have been gifts.
There are a lot of details that are not visible in the picture. The Moccasins, leggings, belt, belt set, breast plate and hair slides. All the accessories are beaded too. This takes as long as beading the dress... Often an overlooked fact!

In this picture I have used slightly more traditional accessories. I have found that as I have progressed in years I prefer the more traditional style.
The quilled hair ties at the front I borrowed for the day. I made them as gifts for friends. The hair rosette is quilled too. The hand bag is like a very traditional tipi bag with the quilled rows but a much smaller version. Even the breast plate is much plainer than my earlier ones.
I love my hair ties. Lots and lots of dentailia. The belt too is more plain. It is the usual heavy leather with German silver conchos. It has a drop at the back.

Here you can see the very traditional women's belt set. It consists of a Strike a light bag and awl case. I am not wearing the knife sheath. This set I beaded in size 13 Charlotte cut beads and kept the design vary plain. The awl case is a functional one. I lined it with raw hide and the lid slides up and down the hanging thongs. I never really got around to completing a matching beaded knife sheath. I am currently working on one now.
I am always aware that you should only wear a knife traditionally if you know how to use one. That is, you know how to skin, tan a hide and butcher an animal properly. Whereas I helped in skinning a rabbit as a child I only got around to salting the hide. The dogs ended up eating it! I left it in their reach, a mistake.

Some photos of my beadwork.

Another day...

I thought I would start with the passion that has been with me the longest...

Here are one of my earlier pairs of moccasins.

These I made to dance in. They were my first project I undertook with size 13 beads. I was really bent on doing thsese when I was told that I would not be able to make them. Some people should know better. That makes me even more determined.
These were beaded on commercial deer hide. I was extremely proud of them at the time and I still love them now. I put bunches of small feathers from mum's parrot on the back of them and the red is a tri cut iris bead.
At the time these matched my entire Woman's Traditional outfit.

MY FIRST BLOG - An introduction....

My First Blog

I am working on My new website.
https://sites.google.com/site/elwynsweb/
This shows my adventures into Elven dresses. When I make these dresses I think of the culture of the Elves. I want to make a believable Cultural 'costume'. I start with the layer closest to the body and then work out wards. I choose the fabrics that I feel encapsulate Elven aesthetics.

I am always aware of the integrity of my work. This goes for every aspect of my many different activities:

I also Volunteer at an Open Air museum in Singleton. Here I undertake all sorts of domestic tasks of a Tudor or pre-Black Death House wife.
The museum saves and re-erects buildings that would otherwise be lost. The era in which they will be interpreted is chosen and then it is 'clothed' appropriately for that time. We (the interpreters) then inhabit the house to breathe life into history. I am often a Tudor housewife or Yeoman's daughter, through the Summer I can also be a Medieval housewife.
These houses are a window into the past. They present life of the normal man and woman with the emphasis on vernacular life. What is also very important in our interpretation is seasonality. Everything we do is dictated by the season.
I am usually demonstrating spinning within the beautiful setting created by the hard and dedicated work of the museum. I am not a great or even good spinner but I enjoy trying! I also demonstrate fleece preparation.

Another addiction is Natural Dyeing. This started off small. I used (and still do) dye hanks of wool for my own use. This gets used in my period embroideries and various very small scale weaving. I do like to try and dye my own spun wool. Needless to say this addiction then got out of hand to the point that I now dye metres of cloth in the piece. The cloth then gets used to make period clothing that is worn at the open air museum. To supply this addiction I have had to start growing some of the dye plants I use.

The resulting cloth also gets made into Saxon clothing. This gets worn at Saxon Living History displays at various locations around the South of England. I am a member and Living History Co-ordinator for Sveinshavn which is a re enactment group based in the Southampton area of Hampshire. I am very much interested in the low class domestic interpretation of the time.

To help in the 'authenticity' (a word I am not very keen on), I try to grow my own period foodstuffs in my postage stamp of a garden. This produce is then used in the various ways in which it is intended some culinary, medicianal and in other countless ways.


Another very large part of my life is Native American art. I love to make original pieces based on the Plains Indian style. This includes both modern contemporary and historic styled pieces. For this I use Brain tanned buckskins, seed beads, porcupine quills (some of which I dye myself), and many other natural resources. This above all has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

On top of all this I suffer from Depression. This slows me down considerably. But my creative aptitude is sometimes all that carries me through the worst storms my mind can create.