Looking for a bead worker

[Roger B]

In the reservation period, many of the res doctors had beaded doctor's bags.  There are many examples of these online, but they are too old and valuable to actually use.  I have a leather doctor's bag that I would like to have beaded and am looking for a bead worker to take on the project.  This will be for my actual use when making hospital calls to kids, many of whom are Native American.  Let me know if you are interested.  I know it won't be cheap, but I still want to do it!
Roger B.

[skillman]

That's a really cool idea Roger. I would imagine that the beadwork pould have to be done on a material that would then be applied to the bag. I hope you find someone to do it for you. I would love it if you would post pictures of the finished project.

Steve

[Vomitus]

 Steve's right. I've had pipe bags and an ottertail arrow quiver beaded. Used red trade cloth(wool melton) as backing. Pipe bag was "lazy stitched" right to the brain tanned pouch.With brain tanned you can get away without backing...sometimes.
  Chuck Burrows does beautiful work. BTW, Native beading was tribal specific so you may want to do some research on some N.American tribal shaman type bags and beading. Me,...I like the Lakota style of beading and even more,their quilling.Good project and good luck!

[Kermit]

Wow, what a great idea, Roger!

[mr. no gold]

Roger, you might contact Kathy Sibley about beading.She does very fine quill and bead work and living up in the wilds of Wyoming, she most likely has the time to do it. They are contributors here on the ALR, and won't be hard to find. There are stil some bead workers on the Sioux reservations done buy both men and women, but don't know how to reach them. Great idea, good luck with it. The Indians will be favorably impressed, no doubt.
Dick

[Chuck Burrows]

Roger along with Cathy you can give me a call about doing beadwork for you - only caveat as you said it won't be cheap no matter who does it..........you can see some of my beadwork here and I'll post a couple of my most recent examples a bi later:
www.wrtcleather.com

email: chuck@wrtcleather.com
phone: 970-317-5592

as Leatherbelly noted designs are mostly tribal specific - here are a lot of examples - most of the pre-1920 pieces will be of Lakota, Cheyenne, or Crow make:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS476US476&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=K4G4UvfoAcnF7AbxnIDoCw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=568&q=beaded%20doctor's%20bags

on the other hand an original pattern following the tribal style is also an option and one of my favorites.....

[Roger B]

Thanks guys.  Chuck, I sent you a PM.  If the families don't like it, I should be safe since I don't have enough hair to make it worth lifting.
Roger B.