Glen's Handiwork

Thanks to the downturn in the economy, Glen's company hasn't had much work, so he hasn't had any either. In this northern Michigan winter that will not end, he turned his attention to indoor projects, which got him started on "sprucing up" his pow wow regalia. When he realized how much he enjoyed doing that, he started working on things for other people. This is all very labor-intensive stuff and I'm very impressed with his efforts. Thought you might like to see some.

The first thing he made was a fancy strap for his "medicine bag"

In the olden days, the longer white and dark pieces would be made of hollowed-out animal bone and horn. Nowadays, if you can't find those items, it's acceptable to use plastic. There's a couple of local places where you can actually get bone and horn "stringers".

From the first project, he went on to make a tiny breast plate for our 4 year old grandson, Parker.

All of the beads, buttons, fringe, etc, make the item personal and are the Native American equivalent of "bling".

He started telling family members what he'd been doing, and they're now giving him projects. He made a very large breastplate for our nephew. This breastplate started out as a "mail-order" kit, but never got out of the box it came in. Glen took on the project and finished it with a great deal of personalization.

Side-by-side comparison of child and adult size breastplates.

To be continued . . .