How do you prepare porcupine quills for beading?
To clean the plucked quills, remove any fur or detritus, and then soak the quills in hot soapy water, rinse, and repeat until the quills are a nice bright white color. This should remove the oils from the quill, and make dying them much easier.
What can you make from porcupine quills?
Use of Porcupine Quillwork
Quills were folded, twisted, wrapped, plaited and sewn using a wide range of techniques to decorate articles of clothing, bags, knife sheaths, baskets, wooden handles and pipe stems. Quillwork has been, and continues to be used to decorate the basketry of various Native American tribes.
How long do you soak porcupine quills?
Try soaking the quills in a very hot but not boiling solution of dish soap and water (I find DAWN works best for me, but any will do). Soak them with frequent stirring for anywhere from 10 minutes to a half an hour. You may just have had an older porcupine with very oilly quills, but this should do the trick.
How do you dye quills?
Get a few packets of Kool-aid in whatever color you want the quills to be. Then in a shallow pan put just enough water to cover the quills (don’t put them in yet) and turn it on “LOW”. You don’t want the water to boil, just get hot. Add you Kool-aid and mix it up.
What do indigenous people use porcupine quills for?
Quillwork refers to the Indigenous art of using coloured porcupine quills to decorate various items such as clothing, bags, medicine bundles and regalia. … Quillwork refers to the Indigenous art of using coloured porcupine quills to decorate various items such as clothing, bags, medicine bundles and regalia.
What did the Indians use porcupine quills for?
Before European traders introduced glass beads, indigenous communities across North America used brightly colored porcupine quills for decorating surfaces of clothing and utilitarian objects. … The porcupine uses its quills as a defense mechanism.
How is quillwork done?
Quillwork, or the use of dyed, flattened porcupine quills as a means of decoration, is unique to the indigenous people of North America. Dyed with aniline dyes or in “teas” made of natural materials, the quills are softened in the mouth and then wrapped around thread or sinew stitched to tanned leather. …