Sioux Quill and Beadwork: Designs and Techniques (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

Rating:
Summary: Any penny is wasted on this one!
Review: Another of those Dover rehashings -- if there were MINUS stars, I'd rate this a million!! There's so much better books and museum/exhibition catalogs on American Indian beadwork, that this title should remain where it belongs: on some dusty dark library shelf.

Many authors have tried in the meantime to dispell Lyford's myth of porcupines NOT living where quillwork was done -- the contrary is true and I've found dead porkies on highways in Montana, right in the heart of Native American quillwork country!

Another ethnocentric myth that was buried long ago (and it should stay there!): "Caucasian rugs" being an alleged source of Sioux beadwork designs. It just ain't so: there are worlds between that "classic" spidery Lakota beading style of the late 1800s and early 1900s and Caucasian rugs. One might find perhaps similar design elements on kelims but these have evolved convergently. Only some ethnocentric arrogance can find a source of artistic ideas in the cheap rugs that the homesteaders and settlers brought with them to the West or mail-ordered from some Sears & Roebuck catalog!

This Lyford book may have become sort a "classic" but only so because for many years nothing else was available on Sioux beadwork.

As to the new title that deceived one buyer: it has become most likely a deliberate policy of Dover Publications to republish copyright-free books under new titles, in one case even using a title that still belongs to another book ("Native American Beadwork" for Orchard's classic "Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians").

Rating:
Summary: Any penny is wasted on this one!
Review: if you have bought lyford's book, _quill and beadwork of the western sioux_, you already have this book.

yes, its a wonderful resource--i thought so when i bought i under its original title. i thought this book, with the different title, would expand upon the other.

as long as you keep this information in mind, and only buy the book once under either title, you will be rewarded. since it was originally published by the government in 1940, there are no color plates, which is a great shame. however, some of the historic photos are worth the price of the book.

the instructions for both quill and beadwork are very good. there is a section that briefly analyzes design elements, very useful for creating your own designs.

i just wish i had known i already owned it under another title.

Rating:
Summary: there's just one little thing
Review: if you have bought lyford's book, _quill and beadwork of the western sioux_, you already have this book.

yes, its a wonderful resource--i thought so when i bought i under its original title. i thought this book, with the different title, would expand upon the other.

as long as you keep this information in mind, and only buy the book once under either title, you will be rewarded. since it was originally published by the government in 1940, there are no color plates, which is a great shame. however, some of the historic photos are worth the price of the book.

the instructions for both quill and beadwork are very good. there is a section that briefly analyzes design elements, very useful for creating your own designs.

i just wish i had known i already owned it under another title.

Rating:
Summary: A special guide to a very specific art
Review: This guide to quillwork and its counterpart beadwork was originally published in the 1940s for the U.S. Dept. of Indian Affairs, and sees new light today thanks to Dover. Craftspeople of all kinds will find Sioux Quill And Beadwork Designs And Techniques begins with a short history of Sioux art and patterns to quickly move into the specifics of creating and sewing quills and using beadwork techniques adapted for Sioux designs. A special guide to a very specific art.