Thumbs get in the way. Fingers are too sweaty, too stubby. The buckskin is just too thick.
When Naomi Kuka tied off her thread Saturday at a workshop at Travelers' Rest State Park, it was easy as breathing.
Six eager novices uttered a collective: Say what?
There followed six personal demonstrations of knot tying until, by golly, everybody had it.
“I won't do any thing too difficult in this class, I promise,” said a laughing Kuka.
The goal for the four-hour workshop was to produce six deceivingly simple-looking medicine pouches, or possible bags, the kind natives of this and other countries have been making for centuries.
Kuka, a professional beader from the Salish tribe, walked her students through the process step by step - from selecting three shades of beads, to waxing the thread with a chunk of beeswax, to threading the needle, to loading up with seven beads at a time to make a “lazy stitch” (“you can fill a lot of space real quick,” Kuka explained.)
One trick was to get the correct number of light-, medium- and/or dark-colored beads on each stitch as a pyramid design emerged in the center of each of three rows.
“One of mine has six beads, and no one is ever going to know,” said Patsy Bischoff of Missoula.
Kuka conducted the first of what Travelers' Rest plans to be a monthly $50 workshop, according to program coordinator Kate Senger. The next one, moccasin-making, is slated for March 10, and subsequent workshops will be held on the second Saturday of each month.
Tom Lukomski of Missoula will teach how to make moccasins, but on Saturday he was a struggling student of beadwork, the only male who ventured in.
Kuka said her husband, John, is a beader. He made two of her dance outfits and the dress she was married in.
“I know very few men who bead, but the men I know do beautiful work. They can outbead most women,” she said.
Bischoff makes pine-needle baskets, and she said she was intrigued by the chance to learn American Indian beadwork.
“I had to try this. This is too much fun,” she said as each stitch got easier.
“I always like to try new things, and I especially like the Native American influence. (Kuka) can tell stories of the origins and stuff that they have. That's what I like.”
Indeed, Kuka is a bubbly fountain of beading and native lore. She's a northern traditional dancer and full-time employee with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Education department.
Kuka learned her craft from her grandmother and mother, and is the fourth generation of women in her family to bead. Her 13-year-old daughter is the fifth.
Kuka's work has been displayed at the likes of the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning and the Tamastslikt Culture Institute in Umatilla, Ore.
“There's something different about learning from someone who's learned generation to generation compared to a book,” said Cinda Sweeney of Missoula.
Traditionally, the medicine bag was used for both medicine and personal items, Kuka said.
“In yours you can carry whatever helps you. If you have a special tie with something you stick that in there and always keep it with you,” Kuka said.
Kuka carries three things in her medicine bag: lavender, to bring her luck; sweet pine, because it smells good, and husk.
Husk is dug from wet ground, then cleaned and dried. It makes a better throat lozenge than anything Halls or Vicks will ever put out, Kuka said.
“Usually after you have a medicine bag, what you stick in there becomes very private,” she added. “I'm telling you what's in mine. Would I ever let you actually grab my medicine bag and look in it? No.”
She uses only cut beads; that is, tiny beads cut individually from long strings. Hers come from the Czech Republic and have a shine and sparkle to them that others don't.
“They're by far the most superior beads out there,” Kuka said.
Each workshop participant received a 5-by-3-inch piece of smoked buckskin to work with.
“Aromatherapy,” Kuka said. “I've actually had people try to wash their buckskin. They say, why does it smell like that? It's supposed to smell like that.”
As the day progressed, fingers got nimbler, as fingers tend to do. Bonnie Pulliam of Corvallis quickly got the hang of it.
“I've done beadwork where you make bracelets, and that kind of thing. I haven't done it on leather, though,” she said. “And I'm a harp player, so I think that helps. Finger dexterity is a big thing with these kinds of things.”
“You guys are going to be pros by the end of the day,” said Kuka.
Her six students gradually learned to view the needle and thread and buckskin as something other than the enemy. Frustration gave way to pride as stitches got straighter and patterns took shape.
Kuka encouraged the fledgling beaders and reminded them of the importance of their creations.
“I want them to be holding up 50 years from now,” she said, “so your grandkids and your great-grandkids can be saying, ‘Look what I've got.' ”
Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com
Coming up
Travelers' Rest State Park will host a moccasin-making workshop Saturday, March 10.
For details, visit http://www.travelersrest.org
or call 273-4253.
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