Sew What?

To Bead or Not to Bead: Historic Beadwork of England and the Americas

September 10, 2020 Isabella Rosner Season 1 Episode 18
Sew What?
To Bead or Not to Bead: Historic Beadwork of England and the Americas
Show Notes Transcript

This episode is all about beadwork. Isabella begins the episode discussing 17th-century English beadwork before moving on to discuss Native American beadwork techniques. 

Whatsup stitches!! Welcome to episode 18. Today we’re getting into a type of needlework I’ve not discussed at all yet. It’s beadwork! I love beadwork! I’ll be focusing on 17th-century English examples and then will jump over the Atlantic Ocean to look at Native American beadwork. I’m really excited to get into how a shared medium can be used in many different ways, across continents and centuries. As always, pictures and sources are on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We have some especially rockin’ objects this week because beads retain their colour really well so they are super bright and fun and you should definitely check them out if for some reason you’re not up on the Sew What social media stuff. 

Okay yay, beadwork! I bet some of you are thinking “Why is beadwork being discussed on a podcast about needlework? What does a needle have to do with stringing beads?” Yes, good question. Well, for the most part, the beads I’ll be talking about today are so teeny tiny that those who made and continue to make beadwork use a needle to string beads onto thread. I speak from experience, as I’ve done some beadwork in the style of seventeenth-century examples and the beads are SO small!!! A needle is the only way to handle those lil buggers. So basically, yes, I’m not talking about like 21st-century friendship bracelet beads in this episode. We’re getting into teeny tiny, beautiful but frustrating, centuries-old beads.

Let’s start with the seventeenth-century English pieces because it’s what I know best. First, let’s chat about the origins of the beads. In 17th-century England, the beads you came across and used were from Amsterdam or Venice. In around 1490, the “drawn-glass technique” was developed which created huge numbers of small, round coloured beads with a central hole. These are the beads all the English ladies were using. The manufacturing of huge numbers of beads inevitably made beads much more affordable, which in turn led to some beadwork being associated with the not super rich and with charitable efforts. I’ll get into that in a minute. 

Firs, though, there’s a really good explanation of bead importation and English beadwork generally on the Met website, accompanying a beadworked object I will get into in a few minutes. I’m gonna read a few paragraphs because it gives a really nice, succinct explanation about the whole beadwork situation, so here goes: “It has been suggested that the introduction of beadwork into English embroidery was related to a growing trade with the Far East, Africa, and the Americas. Glass beads, or "bugles," were produced on a large scale in Venice and Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and shipped in quantity to ports near London, where they were destined to be traded for fine materials that were imported to Europe. Joan Edwards speculated that the use of these beads in embroidery must have developed suddenly after the 1630s when this trade first began. She posited that haberdashers, merchants, or bead traders, who often also sold wire, realized the market potential of the use of such beads in women’s embroidery. Many raised-work pictures of the period also incorporate glass beads, demonstrating an appetite for the unusual and exuberant.” 

Intriguing, right? Beads and therefore beadwork are representative of that burgeoning globalism and international trade that really goes big in the 17th century and which informs so much of needlework and decorative arts and aesthetics in general. It’s fascinating that English girls and women who used beads for beadwork were using this very international medium to create pieces that were QUITE English. I say that because SO much English beadwork that survives features royal animals like lions and stags and unicorns but more than that, there are maaaaany beadwork baskets that feature King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. Those many baskets inspire questions about who made these baskets and if they were made by professionals or produced from kits but I’ll get deep into that in a few minutes. Anyway, that’s all to say that beads were really indicative of and dependent on and influential in global trade, but somehow English beadwork is visually very divorced from a lot of other contemporaneous needlework, including the Native American examples I’ll talk about later in this episode. 

Okay, yes, onwards to the objects. Let’s start with the beadwork purses of the early 17th century and how they relate to charity and friendship. These bags, which seem to have been produced between 1600 and 1630, are flat, square leather or silk bags covered with beads (usually brown, green, red, white, yellow, and blue ones). They sometimes have a repeating pattern of stylised acorns and then other times its stylised birds and sometimes it’s both! They also all have silk and beaded tassels that are attached to drawstrings. Basically, they all look very, very similar and they’re all over the place, from the Met to the Fitzwilliam Museum to the V&A to the MFA Boston to the Tassenmuseum in Amsterdam et cetera et cetera. There are loads! But what were they used for? Weeeeeell. Let’s get into it. 

First, here’s a cute lil blurb about a beadworked bag at the V&A that is very informative. It reads: “Their stylized floral patterns and less expensive materials imitate the elaborate embroidered versions carried by the aristocracy. Many bear mottos or expressions relating to charity, friendship or luck, which suggests that they may have been used for gifts of money.” The beaded inscriptions on some of the bags make the charitable aspect very clear. There are at least three bags that survive that have inscriptions that say “REMEMBER THE POORE.” One is undated and is at the MFA, one is dated 1630 and is at the Tassenmuseum and the last is dated 1627 and is at the Whitworth Art Gallery. It seems likely that these bags were used to hold monetary donations to the poor, although I’m not sure if those monetary donations were from individuals or if these bags were passed around so others could donate money. I also don’t know who exactly got these donations, if they went to organisations for the poor or to poor individuals. What is clear is that these beads were way less expensive and likely involved a lot less handwork than embroidery, so it was easier and quicker to make purses out of them. 

Other bags of this type have inscriptions that are more about friendship and less about charity. Some say “THE GIFT OF A FRIEND,” “IN HOPE ME HART DOTH REST,” AND “HIT OR MISS.” Hit or miss is my favourite one and this is why. The expression “hit or miss” is first recorded in English in the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida, which was published in 1606. Like today, back then it meant random luck. But maaaaybe the expression also had something to do with a country dance called the hit or miss, recorded as early as 1626. Fun mystery!! I love learning about the origins of common phrases I never think about otherwise. Thanks for the knowledge, 17th-century beaded purse! 

 What I find interesting and what I definitely want to look into if no one has done the research already is why there are really very few designs within this whole group of bags. They’re really only acorns, birds, or both and that’s it. Why is that? What was the significance of acorns or birds in this case? Or were these designs just convenient because they were legible using just a few beads? Or were these bags produced from kits? Or by professionals who churned out lots of the same ones? It’s confusing but something I think would be really fascinating to research. These bags have been studied in larger historical contexts in scholarship about charity in the 17th century, but I don’t think there’s any scholarship thus far about their imagery. 

Those purses are the earliest examples of beads in the mainstream in 17th-century England. Over the century, girls and women made beadworked cabinets and caskets and mirror frames and panels and jewellery cases and all that good stuff. Perhaps one of the most well known is from Martha Edlin’s suite. I talk about Martha’s needlework suite a lot but that’s because it’s really important when it comes to 17th-century needlework!! Martha made her beaded jewellery case in 1673 and she decorated it with a cockatrice surrounded by flowers and other birds and a teeny tiny leopard! It’s a very cute and fun example of the kind of stuff late 17th-century English gals were making with beads. 

Now, okay, I wanna spend some time talking about beadwork baskets, which are STUNNING and have been the source of much debate. So, these baskets are essentially rectangular frames made from thick wire that have lil spherical feet and sides that extend outward from the base. Within that frame there are regular intervals of more thick wire which creates square openings. There are four handles, one in the centre of each side, and all of the handles are bent in trefoil shapes. The handles are then wrapped in beads and the centre panel is either covered entirely in beads or has beadwork pasted onto a fabric ground. And then the square openings on the sides are filled with beads too, in a mix of flat flower motifs and 3D flowers and fruits. These baskets are absolute visual treats and I am obsessed!

Scholars have been confused by the purpose of these baskets for a looooong time. Historically, some scholars thought these baskets were layette baskets, made to store clothing for new born babies. But like honestly? Absolutely not. Why would you risk ruining the delicate three dimensional aspects of the basket by putting clothing in it? I say nope!!!! I think that the baskets were probably completely decorative, just used to exhibit one’s artistic skills. Just a nice opportunity to humble (or not so humble) brag! I actually think they might’ve been marriage gifts. I say that because a lot of the surviving examples show Charles II and Catherine of Braganza or unidentified courting couples. The significant size and detail of the pieces, plus the common subject matter of courtship or marriage, screams marriage gift or commemoration to me.  

Interestingly, there are a number of very similar beadwork baskets that survive, and there are two that are like exactly the same. They’re at the Met and Colonial Williamsburg and they both have the same fruits and flowers and an identically posed Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. The only difference is that the Met example has in its corners female personifications of the Four Continents, while the Colonial Williamsburg one has royal animals and trees in the corners. The similarity of these two baskets and so many other surviving examples suggests that these baskets were either made by professionals or were sold as kits that could be assembled at home. I’d really like to think that they were kits because I love the idea that women were going to the shop to pick up their beadwork basket kits just like I used to get paint by numbers kits when I was a kit. I think that’s a lovely thought. But honestly it’s impossible to say at this point. It is definitely likely that the three dimensional fruits were professionally made, though. These baskets survive in decent numbers and are universally loved by those who see them, but there’s been really very little scholarship on them. Can someone please do a PhD about them? Please. Please!! So much of textile history remains understudied!! Ayy!!  

Okay, so that was a very quick ride through 17th-century English beadwork. Speedy but efficient, I hope. I really, REALLY love beadwork and could talk about it for a long, long time but we don’t have forever on this podcast now do we? Okay, now let’s transition from English beadwork to Native American beadwork. A good way to transition is to talk about glass trade beads. As girls and women were creating boxes and baskets and pictures out of beads in England, Englishmen were going to the “New World” to settle and colonise. Beads were involved in economic and cultural exchanges between European colonisers and Native Americans for centuries because there wasn’t any monetary exchange. So beads were used between settlers and Native Americans as money. The first known instance of European glass beads coming to the Americas was through the deeply bad Christopher Columbus., so truly glass beads have been part of the Americas since Europeans began trying to colonise the region in earnest. Oy.   

First, let’s get into the history of beadwork for Native Americans. Waaaay before Europeans got to the Americas, Native American beadwork involved stone, shell, quills, and carved bone. One of the earliest forms of native beadwork involved porcupine quills stitched onto moccasins and robes. Those quills were convenient because they were easy to gather from hunted animals, were fairly easy to cut, and had a natural hole down the middle. Native American beadwork also involved other materials like semi-precious stones with holes drilled through them using stone tools or abrasive sand or wood, shells, and stone. But then when the Europeans came and brought with them new materials, beadwork quickly shifted to those glass, ceramic, or metal beads. When the Europeans started arriving in the Americas, their glass beads became a status symbol. That was because they weren’t brought over in huge numbers, so they were rare and therefore very expensive. Alongside those glass beads were wampum, or shell beads, which were used by both colonisers and indigenous people. Native American beadwork became a symbol of wealth and was often used in marriage ceremonies, trade agreements, and treaties. 

Now, a note about the importance of beadwork to Native Americans. This is a quote from the website powwows.com, which offers a lot of really good information about Native American beadwork, in addition to just a lot of really good information about pow wows and native life across the US. Here’s the quote: “Archeologists have found beads of varying materials, styles, and sizes in digs focused on various Native American settlements and tribes over the years. Originally, they may have been used as a type of currency for trades among tribes and individuals. Primarily, they simply decorated everything from buffalo hide belts to complex necklaces that featured story bead combinations. Unlike European artwork designed to stay in place and decorate a room, the nomadic nature of the Native Americans necessitated a combination of design and functionality. Their bead-based art existed in clothing, everyday objects, and their tents and horse tack.” Powwows.com mentions a really good point – when English gals made beadwork in the 17th century, it was for their homes. But for Native American individuals, beadwork historically was much more clothing based. The reason I am putting English and Native American beadwork in the same episode is because I find it really fascinating how different groups of people use the same medium in different ways. We love diverse artistic processes and ideas! 

And just FYI, for the rest of this episode I’m not going to talk about specific objects but rather about various types and stitches involved in Native American beadwork, and I’ll post images of examples across the “Sew What?” social media platforms. This is because, unlike 17th-century English beadwork, Native American beadwork is an art that’s very much alive and well and is not limited to historical examples. So let’s celebrate the beautiful pieces that are being made now and not just the stuff made 400 years ago! Also, I gotta say that I am not Native American and therefore am not speaking about indigenous beadwork as an expert or anything other than as a fan. This is just something I am really interested in and find very beautiful and wanted to learn more about, but if I get something wrong please call me the heck out because it’s important to be held accountable! Also aaaalso, obvious there are many, many Native American tribes, all of whom have their own beadwork styles. But I sadly don’t have time to get into the specifics, so I’m gonna go over the most common Native American beadwork methods. I hope that is cool with all of you. We love to learn!  

Okay, let’s get into methods. The first is the lane stitch or lazy stitch. To do the lane or lazy stitch, an artist puts short lengths of beads on thread (or historically, sinew) and affixes them to the ground fabric only at the ends. This is used to complete large patterns with big areas of single colours. Different tribes use different numbers of beads for each of the short lengths. The lane or lazy stitch would be used for things like moccasins or cradles or yokes of dresses.

The next is loom beading, which does not involve a ground fabric, but rather just a loom that forms long strips. It’s well suited for things like bracelets or hair accessories or belts. Oooor the strips could be sewn together to create a wider piece. Another method that doesn’t really involve a ground fabric is the peyote or gourd stitch. It’s worked as a tube directly around an object. If you wanna compare it to other beadwork, think of beadworked needle cases made from the 17th century onwards and it’s like that. For peyote or gourd stitch, the pattern that is created must include a total number of beads that divides evenly by three and that’s because what looks to be horizontal lines going around the tube are actually lil clusters of three beads in mini triangles. And, interestingly, that beadwork around a tube is just like the beadwork involved in making those 3D fruits in the 17th-century baskets. You gotta slip your needle through the previous lines of beads to create a like net of thread holding the beads together. I had to do that when I was making a 17th-century beadwork strawberry and oh my GOSH it was so hard. In Native American beadwork, the brick stitch is similar but it doesn’t require those bundles of three beads because the objects it’s used on (for? Ugh prepositions) are flat rather than curved. But that weaving back through previous lines to create a literal net is the same. 

There are more methods but those are the ones I’m most familiar with. Interestingly, in addition to different tribes using different techniques more or less frequently, different groups also have different colour preferences. Historically, those colour preferences meant that they traded with Europeans for those specific bead colours. For example, the Sioux typically worked on a white fabric ground with blue, yellow, various greens, and pink beads, while the Cheyenne used turquoise, transparent beads, and bright red beads in their work. And then northern groups like the Ojibwa had multicoloured fabric grounds with dark red, clear and black beads used to create floral motifs. And the Cherokee and other southeastern tribes used a lot more black beads than other groups. The more you know! 

The significance and interest in certain colours reminds me of the beadworked charity bags I mentioned at the beginning of the episode. At very different times and in very different communities the colour of beads had (and for Native Americans, still have) significance. I’d love to know more about that, what those specific brown and blue and white and green beads meant to those 17th-century English people and the same with various Native American groups. Was and is it just style or personal preference or is there some sort of symbolism involved? If you are listening to this and you know the answer, please tell me so I can learn and then I can share it with all the Sew What? Listeners and we can all learn! 

Okay, that’s that on English and American beadwork. I didn’t even touch the glass bead trade between Africa and Europe, which could and should be a whole ‘nother episode which I may do in the future. I’ve chose England and the Americas selfishly, really, because I grew up seeing a lot of Native American beadwork by virtue of living in the Southwest (does California count as the Southwest? Unclear) and also because I was a kid in the early 2000s and the biggest shoe trend at that time was moccasins but I never got a pair because my feet were too narrow and looking back, it was probably good I didn’t have them from a cultural appropriation point of view. So yeah, I grew up knowing about and really admiring and appreciating Native American beadwork and then I went to England and got to work in museums with lots of English objects and came across these WILD beadwork baskets and boxes and all sorts of stuff and I was just like blown away by the wide variety of artistic uses for the same medium. And also I just always loved beads, so much so that I had a birthday party at a bead shop once. So yes, that’s why we’re having a beadwork episode. Also because it’s a fascinating form of needlework I think gets forgotten about when one thinks of needlework.  

Yay! Beads! So tiny and yet so powerful in the history of economic and global trade and colonisation, which is so fascinating and shocking! It’s hard to believe such tiny objects really did have a part to play in global trade and colonisation and even slavery and trafficking and all sorts of gnarly stuff. I bet the gals making their beadwork boxes and mirror frames in 17th-century England weren’t really thinking about the global impact of those beads when hunched over their needle. This is just one of many reasons why needlework is important – even the smallest examples are intimately tied to larger histories. Studying needlework is so important! I will scream it from the mountain tops and tattoo it on my forehead just so the whole world realises how important it is. This has just become my needlework-based soapbox. 

Okay, now I will step of my needlework soapbox and say thank you for listening to this episode and thank you for supporting Sew What! And like always, if you haven’t already, please subscribe and rate the show and follow it on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram! We love support and friendship! And we love learning about beadwork! 

And on that note, go out and stitch some stories and if you’re into it stitch those stories out of TEENY TINY lil beads. Bye!