I wanted to make a horn to go with a pistol a friend of mine made for a Cherokee friend of his who is active in living history. I wanted to do something that would depict the image reflected in his name and to place his name in the Cherokee syllabary on the horn. I could not find anything that was historically correct for a scrimshawed Cherokee horn (with the level of research I was able to do), so I used a Tansel theme for the shape of the horn. The deer is not nearly as stylized as on the Tansel examples I was able to find and I chose to inscribe geometric borders along the plug and neck transition.
The strap is leather that passes through the staple and fastens with an antler button.
Larry Luck