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Communities can adapt and combine traditional forms of cultural expression to impact new ergonomic forms.

Communities can adapt and combine their traditional cultural expressions to create new forms

Communities can adapt and combine their traditional cultural expressions to create innovative forms

How can communities adapt and combine their traditional cultural expressions to create innovative forms?

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Culture-inspired design principles, methods and tools in current products

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Culture-inspired design principles, methods and tools in current products

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Yu-Han Wang*, Sheng Feng Qin**, David Harrison**

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Featured Image: Freepik.com Africa's inimitable beauty running down its streets and in the veins of its people truly inspires travelers as well as art and design enthusiasts. My father visited Nairobi, Kenya, a long time ago, and he was awestruck by the fresh blast of their culture, urban and rural landscapes, and wildlife.

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In synergy with playful fantasies and lightness of the moment, they give this wonder an (almost) ordinary shape - the colorful furniture of ames presents the Colombian Realismo Mágico, reflecting the vibrant nature of Colombia and creating the cultural setting for the product design.

The furniture, as well as decorative textiles and home accessories, interpret this South American country's cultural heritage in a modern design context. Its complex production process is directed by founder and CEO Ana María Calderón Kayser who makes out old-established ateliers in different regions of the country and connects traditional artisans and contemporary industrial designers.

"For me, Colombia is especially about its different surface characters. Colombia doesn't know seasons but instead, mountains covered in snow, coastlines, and deserts." This geographical diversity inspires Ana María Calderón Kayser for choosing natural materials for her products. "Whether we use fique fibers, iraca or werregue depends on the availability and unique qualities of the raw material. Sometimes we have to wait for two years until the material is even usable," Ana María Calderón Kayser explains. Creative dialogue eventually leads to the development of sophisticated furniture pieces demonstrating how the playful designers Sebastian Herkner and Pauline Deltour handle the - for them until then unfamiliar - materials. They are colorful and vivid, and their visionary realization is of a vibrant, contemporary aesthetic.

Ames' concept has the potential to animate discussions about sustainable materials and to create more consumer awareness. With the company's appreciation for local work performance in Colombia and fair conditions for workers, Ana María Calderón Kayser has established a valuable brand attribute. "Colombia's craftsmanship is based on the knowledge of our master artisans, and it is great to see that the large interest in ames' products as well attracts young workers seeking to find out more about their grandparents' craft." With the founder's exceptional standards and high demands, the furniture brand is both a role model and pioneer.

These colorful products show once again the result of the inspiring collaboration between Colombian ateliers and ames' designers Pauline Deltour and Sebastian Herkner.
Sebastian Herkner
Celebrated German designer Sebastian Herkner focuses on designing furniture and objects merging various cultural contexts, combining new technologies with traditional craftsmanship. He highlights the beauty of the materials and draws attention to small details. Traveling with ames creative director Ana Maria Calderón Kayser, he visited craftsmen whose traditional production methods have been passed on for centuries from one generation to the next. Honoring these special skills, he blends tradition with contemporary design to create unique and exclusive products.

Subtle color combinations and blending-effects characterize the Carpet PAR by Sebastian Herkner. The carpet's multi-colored thread is composed of 28 single strands that are meticulously presorted. One master artisan works on a vertical loom making one knot after the other. The PAR carpets are made of the natural material fique. The wild-growing agave-like plants are constituted of hard, long fibers that are highly flammable. In order to be usable, the plant has to go through a complicated process: the pre-washed fiber is first soaked for 15 hours, then dried and finally manually brushed.

All carpets are two-colored and available in five different color-combinations and three sizes. It is also possible to use these indoor-carpets outdoors, yet, they shouldn't come into contact with water.

Colors: Cacao/Brown, Light Grey/Brown, Greenrose/Terracota Yellow, Natural Rose/Terracota Yellow, Greenrose/Light Grey.

The chair-family Cielo got a new member. The stackable chair is now a Lounger and is available with an extra high or standard backrest. The charming geometries create a vibrant atmosphere on hotel terraces or cafes as well as cozy interiors or exteriors. Handcrafted plastic strings and powder-coated steel tubes interact symbiotically. The strings are braided by hand according to the traditional braiding practice "Momposino". The steel tube frames are made in a small manufactury in Bogotá. Cielo Lounge chair is available in six colors and suitable for indoors and outdoors.

Colors: Blue (braiding) / Brown (frame), Mint (braiding) / Black (frame), Black (braiding) / Black (frame), Oliv (braiding) / Menta (frame), Purple (braiding) / Carne (frame), Honey (braiding) / Menta (frame).

The hammocks-inspired Lounger Maraca is also presented in new forms. Since centuries colorful "hamacas" - hammocks - are woven in Bolívar, the lounger's region of origin. The chair made of cotton and powder-coated steel got a larger frame and is now also available with the fabric being removable. Sebastian Herkner relates to the familiar nature of the material and traditional pattern of the hamacas and combines these two characteristics flawlessly.

Colors: Verde/Púrpura/Rojo (fabric) / Menta (frame), Naranja/Dorado/Rojo (fabric) / Carne (frame), Dorado/Púrpura/Rojo (fabric) / Black (frame).

Maraca Hammock is the colorful hammock in the familiar maraca colors. Traditionally, the hammocks are only manufactured by female artisans in Bolívar. Every woman of the region's villages owns her own weaving loom. Before the weaving process begins the artisans color the cotton yarns with natural color. Salts and almidon which generate starch are used to fixate the bright colors.

Colors: Verde/Púrpura/Rojo, Naranja/Dorado/Rojo, Dorado/Púrpura/Rojo.
Pauline Deltour
Born in France, Pauline Deltour is defined by being both severe and delicate. Her designs reflect a vocabulary that is characteristic of her own personality. Her precise hand, neat lines, carefully selected materials, and colorways distinguish her. She was delighted to find ample inspiration during her travels around Colombia with Ana Maria Calderón Kayser. Hard-hitting seduction is achieved through rare qualities that are challenging to implement, sturdiness and usefulness mingling with poetry and sensitivity.

Pauline Deltour presents some of her designs in new color combinations and measurements.

Killa is an oval standing wall mirror. The frame of the unique home accessory is elaborately hand-made with fibers from the Iraca palm tree. The Iraca palm tree is known for the building of Panama cottages. Killa is available in five new color variations and two new frame shapes: round with a broad rim and an oval with a thin rim.

The wall mirrors are manufactured in the province of Narino. The manufacturing process is complex: Iraca fibers are gained from the leaf stalks, and afterward shredded, boiled, washed and bleached. Following, they are naturally colored with seeds, leaves, nuts, and roots. After letting them dry for several days, the frames are woven with the help of tweezers, needles, and pilers. Eyecatcher of the mirror is its unique seam.

New colors: Pink/Dark Red, Natural, Blue/Green, Honey/Pink.

The bench Mecato gets an addition as well. Iraca-yarns are woven through the entire powder-coated steel frame. The modern bench with its pleasant surface feel is also available in 70 cm breadth. It is light, minimalistic, and yet playful in its aesthetic. Whether placed in the entrance area, bedroom or as home decoration, the bench is easy to combine with already existing interior design or as a single piece of furniture.

The entire series is available in new color variations: Terracotta (braiding) / Black (frame), Natural (braiding) / Sand (frame), Red, Natural (braiding) / Carne (frame), Green Khaki, Dark Blue-Grey (braiding) / Light Blue (frame), Grey Khaki, Natural (braiding) / Black (frame).

Pauline Detour's mirror collection Cesta, as well as the stool Cana, are launched in new colors.

Mirror Cesta: Olive Green/Carne, Honey/Sand, Blue/Mint.

Stool Cana: Black Natural (seat) / Black (frame), Yellow Natural (seat) / Sand (frame), Dark Red, Natural (seat) / Carne (frame), Vivid Red, Natural (seat) / Dark Red (frame).
Photos - Andres Valbuena
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Eco Lodge Design Project - Kasiiya Papagayo in Costa Rica - Have a Look

How to Design Outdoor Living and Dining Rooms - Find Out

Family Residence in São Paulo - Architecture Intertwined with Nature - Read On

Bedroom Design - Colors and Styles - Discover More

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Designer Furniture Inspired by Colombian Cultural Heritage

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In synergy with playful fantasies and lightness of the moment, they give this wonder an (almost) ordinary shape - the colorful furniture of ames presents the Colombian Realismo Mágico, reflecting the vibrant nature of Colombia and creating the cultural setting for the product design.

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The Superheroes project put into practice by the Swedish design studio Glimpt - Mattias Rask and Tor Palm - is inspired by the Vietnamese culture and crafts. Traveling in Vietnam and visiting various craftsmen in Ho Chi Minh City, the two designers have studied the techniques, materials and colors used by these ones. Here, they came in contact with handmade products especially made from paper and sea grass and they have decided to translate, to a larger scale, these work techniques in pieces of furniture. Supported by UMA, a local furniture company, the collaboration with the local artisans materialized into a collection of chairs named Superheroes, which combines the Scandinavian design with Vietnamese craft. The chairs are made on an internal metal frame using colored threads and sea grass. Although they are small handcrafted pieces of furniture, the supplies made by Glimpt have bold designs with a unique and vibrant personality.

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Superheroes project inspired by the Vietnamese culture

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The Superheroes project put into practice by the Swedish design studio Glimpt - Mattias Rask and Tor Palm - is inspired by the Vietnamese culture and crafts. Traveling in Vietnam and visiting various craftsmen in Ho Chi Minh City, the two designers have studied the techniques, materials and colors used by these ones.

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People who holiday in Morocco typically buy a bold Berber carpet or the colorful leather slippers known as babouches. When art dealer Dorothea McKenna Elkon first traveled to the storied port of Essaouira, almost a dozen years ago, the New Yorker acquired a much more impressive souvenir: a crumbling 18th-century riad, or courtyard house, impulsively purchased several days after she landed.

"It was a coup de foudre," says the owner and president of the Elkon Gallery, an Upper East Side fixture established in 1961 by her first husband, the late Robert Elkon. "I was astounded by the old stone arches surrounding the courtyard, but the rest of the place was in total disrepair." Overlooking a slender alley in the densely packed medina, or walled heart, of this city of around 70,000, the three-level masonry structure was so decrepit that the upper floors would have to be demolished and rebuilt. Elkon was undaunted, having been bewitched by Essaouira's wave-splashed ramparts and its languorous pace.

"A friend had told me Essaouira was one of the most beautiful places in Morocco," she recalls. "A fishing town with white houses and blue doors." What she discovered upon arrival was a spot largely unchanged since its founding in the 1760s. The city center, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has remained blissfully free of the package-tour hubbub that plagues other popular destinations in Morocco. And yet Essaouira was an easy flight from Paris, where the dealer keeps an apartment.

It was back in the French capital that Elkon's ambitions for her new getaway came into focus. At a dinner party not long after her North African vacation, she met a dashing designer named Salem Grassi; the two got to talking, and she learned he was heading to Morocco the following week. "So I suggested he go to Essaouira to see my riad," she says. Off he went, returning full of ideas. She quickly hired him to oversee the renovation; within two years the job was complete, and Grassi had plighted his troth. These days the couple, now married, spends nearly two months a year in the house that brought them together.

Their approach to the project was simple. Grassi would be the man on the ground, while Elkon would visit as often as she could. In preparation for taking the riad from shambles to chic, the designer toured mosques and palaces in Morocco and Spain and, through contacts made on those journeys, tracked down accomplished painters, tile setters, and wood- and stone-carvers. The structure they had to work with conformed to the riad ideal: narrow, high-ceilinged rooms arranged around a central courtyard and accessed by galleries. Even with all that expertise at the ready, however, challenges abounded. "Moroccan artisans are great when it comes to techniques," explains Grassi, who was born in Algeria and raised in Italy and France. "But none of them can read blueprints, so you draw a design on a wall and go from there."

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See How a Crumbling 18th-Century Home in Morocco Went from Shambles to Chic

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People who holiday in Morocco typically buy a bold Berber carpet or the colorful leather slippers known as babouches. When art dealer Dorothea McKenna Elkon first traveled to the storied port of Essaouira, almost a dozen years ago, the New Yorker acquired a much more impressive souvenir: a crumbling 18th-century riad, or courtyard house, impulsively purchased several days after she landed.

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Designer collecting traditional Chinese handicraft skills in Shanghai

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Designer collecting traditional Chinese handicraft skills in Shanghai

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The details below are for the REGULAR version of this episode. Click here for the PREMIUM version.

Episode 08: The Handicrafts Designer

Jovana ZHANG - Co-Founder, Rong Design Library & PINWU Design Studio

Original Date of Release: 23 Feb 2021.

In China, craftsmen are not always venerated as artisans. Instead, they are often denigrated as low-status workers. But there is a design team based in the Zhejiang countryside that is doing its best to turn this around, curating the myriad ancient crafts that can be found across China before they disappear, and repurposing them for modern usage.

This week's episode is with Jovana Zhang, one of the co-founders of the Rong Design Library and the PINWU Design Studio. Her's is not just a story of design inspiration, it's a story that teaches us that respecting heritage is not the same as clinging onto the past. It's about repurposing what we can learn from the past, and making it relevant to modern times.

The episode also includes a catch-up interview with Roz COLEMAN from Season 01 Episode 22.

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Season 02 Episode 08 Jovana ZHANG - Mosaic of China

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The details below are for the REGULAR version of this episode. Click here for the PREMIUM version. In China, craftsmen are not always venerated as artisans. Instead, they are often denigrated as low-status workers.

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Beadwork is a pillar of Indigenous design. While various tribes hold different design specialties-the Navajo, for example, are best known for their weaving and textiles-much of the Native community across North America makes use of glass beads in some aspect. Beads can be found on everything, from contemporary art and fashion designs to more traditional regalia pieces found at powwows. "In some cases, [regalia] involves hundreds of hours of beadwork," says Molina Parker, an Oglala Sioux beader, profiled below. "Most of the time, you can tell what tribe someone is from just from the style of beadwork and imagery they use."

Indigenous people have practiced the craft of beadwork for centuries. Pre-colonization and before the prevalence of glass beads, they often adorned themselves with their own version of beads, making them through a laborious process out of bones, shells, teeth, copper, and other materials. When European settlers arrived in the 1800s, however, they introduced glass beads-originating from Venice, Italy-to the trading markets. These glass beads, which were available in bulk and much finer in size, became favored by Native craftspeople. This was a classic example of how Native people took an element deemed "superior" to their traditional materials, and then completely mastered it and made it their own.

Today, there is a new crop of beaders who are now taking on the craft, which has been passed down through generations, and completely modernizing it. Their works simultaneously keep their culture's traditions alive while proving that artists can break free from their tribe's respective signatures and create pieces that are, yes, even trendy. "It's one way we stay connected to where we came from, and that it is our responsibility as younger Natives to keep the tradition alive," says Elias Jade Not Afraid, an Apsaalooké beader, also featured below.

It's a spirit we've seen in Native fashion design a lot lately. Prominent ready-to-wear designers and artists, such as Jamie Okuma, profiled by Vogue, here, are using beadwork on pieces that make a broader statement about their culture. Okuma's hand-beaded Christian Louboutins, for instance, have an underlying message about pop culture and appropriation. Below, meet the eight Indigenous beaders who are redefining their craft, specifically through jewelry and accessories.

Skye Paul, of Running Fox Beads, does beadwork via an unexpected medium: in addition to designing earrings, the Toronto-based artist specializes in sewn-on beaded patches, which can be applied onto denim or leather jackets. She inherited her talent through her family, learning the craft from her aunt Candyce, who was taught by Paul's grandmother Catherine. "I started when I was 15, but only rediscovered beading after I finished my maternity leave with my first son, who my business is named after," Paul says. "I use the techniques that were passed down by family, such as using a two-needle-and-thread technique to make patches." Though her work is a more youthful take on the art of beadwork, Paul does reference traditional motifs from her Dene heritage. "I'm inspired by [our] traditional medicines-sage, sweetgrass, cedar-as well as tattoo flashes," she says.

Her signature items are her beaded rose patches, as well as a tattoo-style "mom" patch. "Both patches use various tones of red to create a gradient effect," she says, adding that beading a single patch can take her anywhere from 12 to 36 hours. She says that sharing her work on social platforms has allowed her to educate consumers on Indigenous culture-in other words, it's not all just double-tap-worthy pieces. "I'm able to use my platform on Instagram to share who I am as a young Indigenous artist, and share parts of my culture as a way to counteract appropriation," she says.

Though you wouldn't know it upon first glance, Molina Jo Parker 's clean, modern jewelry began as a faith-based venture. "I grew up in the Episcopal Church, so a lot of my early work was making beaded cross chains, cross shields," she says. "As I got to high school, my work was a little more wild. I was experimenting a lot with color and new techniques." Like many beaders, she learned the craft within her family. "My mother and grandmother taught me to bead at a very early age," she says. "Beading is what brings me joy, keeps me inspired, and helps me to feel connected to the stories my grandmother would tell me as we sat together." Parker's jewelry combines beadwork with quillwork, a choice that nods to the original way Indigenous people used to adorn themselves. "If you look at how our ancestors were adorned pre-colonization, you're not going to see beads," she says. "You'll notice that our adornment was made from things found in nature: porcupine quills, hair, shells, fur."

She'll combine that old-school approach with new techniques, such as using a laser cutter and etching machine. One of her most well-known pieces is a fully beaded collar studded with antique seed beads, titled, "Say Wut!" which is now in the permanent collection at the Akta Lakota Museum in South Dakota. "I used an appliqué stitch, which required me to sew every bead down individually," she says. "I accentuated the piece with dentalium shells, resin elk teeth, trade beads, and a vintage clasp." Meanwhile, her ready-to-wear pieces are available on Bethany Yellowtail's website, as well as her own e-commerce store.

Elias Jade Not Afraid learned how to bead while growing up in Lodge Grass, Montana, on the Crow Indian reservation, where he lived in his great grandmother's old house. "While living there, I would dig through her large cedar trunk and look at her beadwork," he says. "I taught myself how to do the traditional Crow-style beadwork technique. . .beading with two needles: one threads the beads, and the other tacks down the beads on thread every two to three beads." Though he is a self-taught artist, Elias kept his skill a secret until high school. "I was told when I was a kid that only women bead, so I never told anyone I knew how to bead until I was a senior in high school, around the same time when I came out as gay," he says. In addition to breaking gender stereotypes with his work, Elias also defies the design norms typically associated with his tribe. "In my tribe, when it comes to Crow beadwork, it has to be traditional, from design to colors," he says. "My fifth beaded project ever, I did a skull medallion and was almost crucified."

Since then, he's pushed the envelope even further: he's done skull medallions with glass and 24-karat gold-cut beads, as well as a fully beaded, Crow-style belt bag, lined with stingray and lambskin, and finished with a spiked shoulder strap. Meanwhile, his beaded cuffs, which come in various geometric designs, sometimes lined with Kevlar ballistic fabric, are some of his best-sellers. "I try to blend both traditional and high fashion. I love the use of luxurious leathers and embellishments, [but] I love my materials to be as traditional as they were back in the early 1900s," he says. The artist says there is a certain power in continuing to use materials that were once handled by his ancestors. "The art of Native-American beadwork is still here, just as we are," he says. "Now watch us evolve into something our ancestors never thought was possible."

Like a true DIY-er, Lenise Omeasoo taught herself how to bead through YouTube. "I would visually learn from tutorial videos, YouTube, or looking at the photos of other Native artists," she says. "Getting used to the size and feeling of handling beads taught me to work with a calmer hand." Omeasoo always had an interest in the craft and fell in love with powwow regalia at a young age. "All the colors, different designs, and styles of regalia, had me in awe," she says. "It made me want to learn who I came from." Omeasoo experienced a "non-traditional" upbringing in more urban settings, which propelled her to connect with heritage through fashion. She began experimenting with unusual approaches to beading. "I loved layering and stacking multiple-size beads on a piece of stiff Pellon, which guided me down the style of a more European embroidery style of beading," she says.

Through Antelope Women Designs, she's been creating handmade jewelry for the past five years, often taking on custom regalia orders as well. She enjoys incorporating her Blackfeet and Cree roots into her designs. One way she has done so is through her animal-themed works, such as her buffalo and hummingbird earrings. "My Blackfeet people prided themselves on their hunting skills and vast nomadic migrating range. Animals were wealth to my people," she says. Her most popular pieces are her beaded feather earrings, which take one to two days to produce. "Every pair of feathers is made from a variety of seed beads, crystal rhinestones, and dentalium shells and put together with a two-step edging process to create the futility of the feather's inside and outside."

Other signature pieces include her floral earrings; no two pair she makes is alike. Creating regalia work is a more individualized process, she says. "When it comes to regalia, one project can take up to a year or more to create. I'm tasked with having to design and create a person's identity as a dancer, something they will travel with and share with their own family," she says. "It is a process of learning their tribe, patterns, and family meaning they want incorporated in their work."

When it comes to Tania Larsson 's intricate jewelry, what she beads on is art itself: she tans and treats all of her hides herself, which she uses as a base. "My work is guided by the seasons," she says. "When I tan my own hide, I know their quality and how easy it will be to sew on them depending on much I work it." She will work with hunters on securing different skins; caribou hides are thinner in the spring, while thicker moose hides, often used to line moccasins or purses, are better in the fall. "For jewelry and finer pieces, I would pick a late winter harvest." She learned to bead from her mother, who even taught her how to make her own beading loom. "You get a willow in the bush, bend it like a bow, and install your threads. She always encouraged me to learn more, so she brought me to beading workshop and to Gwich'in sewing nights," she says. With the help of family and friends, Larsson began creating jewelry as a teenager. "I always wanted to wear jewelry that represented my Gwich'in culture and it was really hard to find that," she says.

After studying arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, she apprenticed with Kiowa jeweler Keri Ataumbi- profiled for Vogue, here-where she fell further in love with jewelry and adornment. Her love for beadwork, meanwhile, was rekindled after completing an artist leadership program at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in 2015. "I [was] looking at all the Gwich'in items they had in their collection. . . . These items that belonged to my nation were the most beautiful pieces of art I had seen. This visit is when I really fell in love with the color palette of vintage and antique beads. The colors and qualities of them were so different from today's bead production."

Some of her signature pieces today are her beaded earrings with caribou hair tufting, muskox horns, and diamonds. Larsson enjoys juxtaposing natural materials such as horns, antlers, and furs with more precious finishings such as stones, diamonds, and antique beads. She will also combine traditional hides with more advanced techniques, such as laser-etching and diamond setting. Along the way, she's discovered the deeper symbolism behind how her ancestors used to, and continue to, approach beadwork. "I've learned that patterns are passed down through generations, families are identified by patterns and styles found in beadwork," she says. "That's why it's so damaging when people appropriate our work, they don't understand the significance of each color combination and shapes used."

Bobby Dues is a self-taught beader whose works have deeper meaning. "I learned through an instructional text that I found at the homeless shelter where I was working. The book was called Quill and Beadwork of the Western Sioux. I'm not Western though, I'm Eastern Woodlands," he says. He evolved his craft through friends, family, and YouTube (a common tool, it appears), developing a particular interest in his tribe's nature-oriented approach. "My ancestors from the Eastern Woodlands had an aesthetic which was beautifully informed by the flora and terrain around them," he says. "Medicinal recipes were woven into our design vocabulary and displayed through adornment. I strive to remain thoughtful in my own work."

While his work can be beautiful, Dues's beading is rooted with darker statements. "Beads are fucked up. I just want to address that," he says. "The historic threads of the slave trade, land theft, and community displacement are strung through glass beads from Europe. Needless to say, I've got a complicated relationship with those beautiful little bubbles of glass." One of his most charged pieces is a medallion necklace in the shape of a pickle, made out of quills and edged with seed beads, and finished with a 24-karat gold chain. It's a piece he made to reference the foods-which often includes pickles, Dues says-that are consumed in more impoverished Indigenous communities.

However, though his work aims to raise awareness around the history of Indigenous people, he doesn't exactly view himself as a traditional activist. "If an artist's goal is cultural activism, the messaging should be intellectually challenging and never expositional," he says. "Give the viewer an opportunity to earn the message, and they will have a deeper bond with the concept you've chosen to work with."

Hollis Chitto's beaded bags may seem too beautiful to use on the regular-but he doesn't view them that way. "The handbags I make are lined and fully functional, if one were to wish to use them as such," he says. While his creations make use of fine materials such as silk, Swarovski crystals, semi-precious stones, and silver and gold beads, he encourages his wearers to, well, actually wear them. Like many artists in this list, Chitto taught himself how to bead. "When I was around 10, I found a box of my mother's beads and porcupine quills that she had tried to teach herself with. I started playing with the beads and quills and taught myself the basics," he says. Now, his work is on display at the True West gallery in Santa Fe, and he regularly shows at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Art Market in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Cherokee Art Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

For this year's Heard Museum market, he created a fully beaded bag based off of the framework of an antique style. "The bag is lined with a cotton-printed fabric from Australia that is designed by [Indigenous] artists using their traditional designs. I used a lot of chain in this piece to reflect the chain handle that was attached to the frame when I found it," he says. Referencing archival styles is something Chitto excels at; in the past, he's also done a contemporary take on a cornmeal bag. "Pueblos use cornmeal for prayer during ceremony, and Pueblo women wear a bag around their neck to hold cornmeal. The bright colors contrast against the traditional black manta (dress) that Pueblo women wear," he says. In addition to his bags, Chitto also produces jewelry, including large-scale medallions.

Up next, he hopes to use his work to draw attention to crucial issues that continue to affect Indigenous communities. "I am currently working on a couple projects that talk about ideas of queerness and being two-spirit," he says. Chitto recently designed a bag, titled "Bloodwork 2," for an exhibit, "We Never Left," at the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida. "It is a white bag with a streak of red interrupting the design," he says. "I made it to draw attention to HIV in Native communities. It is an issue that needs more awareness."

Catherine Blackburn's work aims to combine the traditional with the modern, playing with oversize silhouettes that certainly fall into the current shoulder-grazing earring trend of the moment. Her signature pieces include her beaded earrings, chokers, bolo ties, and cuffs. "Many of my designs are a mix of materials," she says. "I combine traditional seed beads with more contemporary materials, such as 24-karat gold-plated elements. Traditional components include shells, quills, leather, and feathers. . . . Honoring these traditional ways of creating are very important to me and speak to our strength and [survival] as Indigenous people."

Blackburn began creating her jewelry in 2011, initially focusing on a mix of leather and feather creations. Now, most of her collections are focused on exploring new takes on beadwork; her floral earrings, with a long, tasseled trim, are a particular standout. "I select certain design elements that speak to my mixed Dene and European ancestry," she says, adding that she often uses fashion to feel more connected with her culture. "Having not grown up in my community of Patuanak, I struggled with how I identified as a Dene person for a long time. It was through having the tangible outlet of beading that connected me in ways I otherwise felt lost," she says.

Blackburn sees beadwork as an effective tool for not only carrying on the craft, but giving Native people a voice through style as well. "Beadwork showcases the individuality of our histories. . . instead of generalizing our cultures and perpetuating harmful narratives," she says. "Within this space, we can reclaim and celebrate our identities."

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Meet 8 Indigenous Beaders Who Are Modernizing Their Craft

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"It is our responsibility as younger Natives to keep the tradition alive."

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Learn to research and document cultural traditions; seek inspiration from existing skills, aesthetics, and forms

Learn to adapt, synthesize, and innovate

Learn to differentiate between inspiration and plagiarism

Learn to design purposefully for a specific human; ergonomic form and function

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Form:  aesthetics, shape, colour and texture make the product appealing to humans

Adaptation: we can learn from what has been created before to enhance our understanding of what to do next

Ergonomics: it is essential to focus on how well the design suits human interaction

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Why should students care about this topic?

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Why should students care about this topic?

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We should all care about our cultural traditions, and reflect on where we came from in order to move forward purposefully. Especially in an international school setting, students should reflect on and study their own cultural heritage, simply for the sake of connecting with and understanding their past, and additionally, to look for potential inspiration.

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Why is this topic  important for students to explore?

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Why is this topic  important for students to explore?

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As the world becomes more connected, multicultural, and culturally-homogenous, we should reflect on the impact this has on cultural traditions, skills, technology, and aesthetics, and consider ways that we might want to document, preserve, and possibly adapt these into new designs.

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GC = Personal and Cultural Expression; "the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values"

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GC = Personal and Cultural Expression; "the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values"

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By understanding our cultural traditions and artistic heritages, we can honour and learn from the past to make something new.

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Idea: how can we both value and gain inspiration from traditional, cultural craft and technologies to create new design products