Back from vacation

I've been on vacation and I have some cool photos to share.  We love museums and tend to pop into whatever museums we come across.  This time we were in Lake Tahoe and found a tiny museum called The Gatekeeper's Museum in Tahoe City.  I wasn't expecting much but it turns out that this museum has a fantastic collection of Native American baskets and beadwork along with some historical items from the Tahoe area.  There are a number of Native American tribes in Northern California but the tribe most common to Lake Tahoe is the Washoe tribe.  I've always been inspired by the patterns of the basket work and beadwork of Native Americans so I took pictures to use as inspiration for some future, undetermined project.  Enjoy!

Some of the natural dyestuffs used by Native American tribes in Northern and Central California to dye the various materials used for weaving baskets as well as their clothing, bedding and other objects used in their daily lives.

Yokut Tribe (Central California) woven basket with quail feather details.  

beaded and woven basket (unknown tribe)

Washoe Tribe cooking basket

Pomo Tribe "Ti Weave" cooking baskets

Nez Perce tribe (Pacific Northwest) woven corn husk bag

Assorted embroidered and woven bead accessories (tribes unknown).

Beaded collars from the North Fork Mono (Central California) and Klamath River (Northern California) tribes.  The color symmetry and style of bead weaving are similar between the styles of collars made by these tribes.  The square collar of the Klamath River tribes was approximately 20-25 inches across.  The round collars were a little smaller at approximately 18 or so inches across.  This would make an amazing collar detail on a modern dress or coat.