Discover the designs, color, styles and technique of traditional bead embroidery while crafting moccasins designed for baby feet. Create a gift that will be treasured for years to come (and that will stay on those adorable little feet). Students will design and sew a pair of moccasins using quality tanned deerhide. Ojibwe cultural specialist and Grand Portage band member Marcie McIntire will teach the steps required for assembly and help students to design a pattern to finish a pair of moccasins with bead embroidery. Your materials fee includes the fabric, interfacing, beads, needles and thread. As time allows, additional beadwork projects will be included.

This course offers students the opportunity to work with Marcie McIntire, an Anishinaabe beadworker. Marcie was exposed to beadwork from a young age not only from attending pow wows, but also because her mother, Ellen Olson, is a well-established beadworker. Marcie's grandmother was also a beadworker, and Marcie believes that beading was a family tradition at least back to the 1850's. In 1969, an early point in her artistic career, Marcie took a tour of a Red Lake museum. It was only a 15-minute tour, but the beadwork covering the museum walls made a lasting impression on Marcie. In addition, the beadwork and birch bark work at the Grand Portage National Monument served as an inspiration.

You will need the following tools for this class:

All required tools/materials are provided by your instructor and North House and will be available once the course begins.

Feel free to bring your favorite tools and whatever materials you might feel appropriate for this course.