Peyote beading is an off-loom beading technique practiced in many societies that never had contact with each other, from Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It's advantage is that the beading does not need to be applied to a material as you make it (later it can be if desired). It also works on a hex pattern which can reduce the square-edged patterns common in loom beading. It is also possible to increase or reduce the number of beads so that concave or convex forms can be overlaid with them. African drums called Shaker.
I was fortunate to have quite a few beads available to me because my late mother-in-law did some beading. Despite her Native American heritage, however, she never attempted to do peyote beading. I took a graduate beading class at the University of Northern Colorado. At the time, I was supplementing my college teaching with stints in the public schools and was required to keep my teaching certificate active by taking additional graduate coursework. I just couldn't face taking a theory class (I had been a teacher for 15 years) so the course looked interesting.
As has often been the case in weaving and crafts classes, I was the only male student. I never understood this because these classes were really mentally challenging and valuable. I could never induce men to take these classes, though there are many men who have excelled in these media. Honestly, I generally get along better with women than with most men, so I was not disappointed.
This design was an attempt to use a non-Western beading technique and apply it to a Western motif. I chose the snake in the garden of Eden with an apple in its mouth as the pattern. Snakes appear in Native American iconography in an upright position, and in Western African spirit-religions, the flying serpent is one of the most powerful deities. I use Czechoslovakian beads in the background areas because they have a Raku-like iridescence. I repeated the snake pattern on this very small fetish bag (just 5 cm. wide). It takes more time than you might think, and as I spent my last weeks completing the guitar I also made, I pooped out on this project. My intention was to make a necklace band using the same background beads using the peyote beading method. As you can see, I didn't get this done as I started to run out of the Czech beads needed. I need another 20 hours to finish it and attach it to the other side of the bag, because I did not know of a secure way to put a clasp mechanism into the necklace, and fetish bags often hand low enough on the chest to allow the bag to fit over the head.
Here's my semi-completed peyote bead fetish bag:
great color and nice neat beading
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