Today, it’s the next installment in our Monday series on small, modestly priced holiday gifts. Today, we’re featuring work drawn from a couple of different genres, leatherwork and woodwork. These are items that function on levels practical and frivolous, for function and for art, making them ideal for stocking stuffers or as sand-alone gifts.
These items are also all in the family, so to speak: They’re all made by Wings’s sister and other members of her very talented household. Nes herself is extremely skilled at beading and leatherwork, among many other things; her husband Daniel and son Estevan both make beautiful leatherwork and traditional weaponry. We’ve profiled some of their work here before, including the pieces you’ll see here today, as well as Daniel’s bow-and-arrow set with a hand-made fringed leather quiver.
We begin today with some of Nes’s leatherwork. First up: her hand-made, hand-beaded baby moccasins, an art form she’s practiced for many, many years. This pair is my favorite; as I said when we featured these little mocs a couple of months ago, the bead colors remind me of Indian corn. From their description in the Other Artists: Leatherwork gallery here on the site:
These beautiful baby moccasins take the colors of the medicine wheel: white, yellow, red, black. Hand-sewn of lightweight white deerhide by Anespah Bernal Marcus (Taos Pueblo), each is beaded carefully by hand around the edge of the sole. Two bars of beadwork in traditional patterns in gold, dark red, and black accent the top of each moc. Sole length 4-3/8″ (dimensions approximate).
Deerhide; beads
$50 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We have another pair of hers, too, one that in colors more obviously for a little girl (although, as I also noted earlier, that’s not always the case, culturally or historically). From their description:
Tiny feet can dress just as traditionally as adults with these little moccasins hand-made by Anespah Bernal Marcus (Taos Pueblo). Hand-sewn of lightweight white deerhide with soft soles, they feature the classic Pueblo-style tongue and ankle laces. Pink and red beads trace the outer edge of the sole and form three accent patches in the traditional patterns over the instep. Sole length 4-3/8″ (dimensions approximate).
Deerhide; beads
$50 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The beaded versions, of course, are more for those occasions when children wear their finest traditional dress. Moccasins for daily wear, whether worn by children or their adult counterparts, are much less fancy. They may have a little understated beadwork on the instep or around the ankle, but for the most part, they tend to be fairly utilitarian. We have those, too — two infant-sized pairs made by Estevan. The first are of white deerhide; from their description:
These traditional little mocs are made of regular-weight tanned white buckskin, with firm soles. All hand-sewn by Estevan Marcus (Taos Pueblo), they feature the classic tongue and ankle laces that tie in front. Sole length 4-3/8″ (dimensions approximate).
Buckskin
$50 + shipping, handling, and insurance
They’re beautifully simple — little basic mocs for everyday use, tiny facsimiles of the versions adults wear. Of these, though, my favorites are the ones shown immediately below, in a soft natural tan color. From their description:
These tiny little mocs are made of tan (and tanned) buckskin, of regular weight and with firm soles. Hand-sewn by Estevan Marcus (Taos Pueblo), they’re made with the classic tongue for on-and-off ease, laced traditionally around the ankle to tie in front. Sole length 4-3/8″ (dimensions approximate).
Buckskin
$50 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In keeping with their purpose, they’re made of heavier-weight hide, the better to withstand regular wear. They’re also buttery-soft, with the inside surface gently sueded. But whether you like practical mocs or the decorative beaded versions, they’re ideal gifts for little ones — or, perhaps more accurately, for their doting parents.
Next up, it’s another item from Nes (or, rather, a group of items), one that straddles that line of today’s categories a bit. We’ve classified them as leatherwork, and they appear in that gallery here on the site, but they’re also made of a substance very like wood: dried cholla.
Cholla is, like so many of the names in this area, a Spanish word bestowed by colonizing forces century ago, one that stuck and is now the accepted term today. It translates in English to “skull,” but is more generally regarded as a slang term, analogous to the English “head,” “noggin,” or even “nut.” It’s sometimes used to refer to “brains,” or the lack thereof. Looking at the stalks, marked by ropy strands joined together around elongated spaces that evoke images of the face in Edvard Munch’s The Scream, it’s easy to see how this spiny yet unassuming cactus could remind people of both brains and skulls.
Cholla (Latin name Cylindropuntia) grows all over the New Mexico desert landscape; it’s a hardy plant that thrives in conditions where water is scarce. It’s a member of the cactus family, and it does have fangs: long, sharp spines that trace the length of each stalk, or tubercle. The tubercles can be harvested and dried, the spines removed, and the wood used for a variety of purposes. Nes uses them to make keychains. From their description:
Keep your keys close at hand, secure on one of these unique little keychains by Anespah Bernal Marcus (Taos Pueblo). Made from lengths of cholla cactus, harvested locally, each is thoroughly desfanged and smoothed. She then wraps them securely at both ends in tanned leather thongs. One end is attached to the ring with a loop; at the other, a bead channels the thongs into a pair of tassels. Some have a tiny nugget of turquoise embedded in an opening in the cholla. Length, bead color, and nugget availability vary. Lengths range between 3″ and 4″ long, not including tassels (dimensions approximate).
Cholla cactus, leather, beads, turquoise, metal ring
$25 each + shipping, handling, and insurance
I love these little things. Such a great example of putting something from our natural environment to good use. More, it’s something that most folks around here detest because of the spines, and so it’s an object lesson in the idea that although some things can cause pain if not handled with the proper respect, they also can exhibit great beauty.
Lastly, we come to what a lot of folks regard as the marker of the season: Toys! And not-toys; these are functional for their originally-intended use as small weapons, too. Of course, skilled use of the slingshot is increasingly a lost art in much of the country, but not everywhere. And although we don’t have a “Toys” category in our inventory anyway, because of their function and purpose, these are classified under “Traditional Weapons.”
We originally had three of these, each painted in a different color combination. The one painted in blues and purples went almost immediately, but these two remain available. We begin with the one painted in what to me are desert colors. From its description in the Other Artists: Traditional Weapons gallery:
Daniel and Estevan Marcus (Taos Pueblo) created this slingshot in the old way: carved and whittled by hand from a branch of local wood and strung with sturdy rubberized bands knotted around a soft deerhide pocket. The Y-frame is hand-painted in vintage style, with repeating bands in the color of the local landscape — the soft green and gold and gray of chamisa and desert sage. Perfect for kids of all ages, including the fully-grown ones.
Wood, rubber, deerhide, paint
$35 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a beautiful little slingshot. But of the three we originally had, the one below is my favorite, both in shape and in color. From its description:
Give a young friend one of the traditional toys of childhood, or revisit your own, with this old-style slingshot. Crafted by hand by Daniel and Estevan Marcus (Taos Pueblo), the characteristic Y-frame is whittled from local wood. A flexible white deerhide pocket is tied to the frame with rubberized bands. Painted accents evoke the colors of the very Pueblo itself, the golden light of the sun, the warm red of the earth, and the turquoise sky.
Wood, rubber, deerhide, paint
$35 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a beautiful little piece, accented primary colors cast in precisely the sort of brilliant jewel tones that most appeal to me. It’s a perfect stocking stuffer for kids of all ages, or great gag gift to lighten the atmosphere at that holiday party you’ve been dreading. Just don’t shoot yer eye out, kid.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
