The materials used to make this work are textile (light purple velvet, and dark purple fabric for backing), glass beads (clear, white, dark purple, light blue, and black), and silk (lilac ribbon).

The collar was constructed by sewing glass seed beads to a semi-circular piece of lilac-coloured velvet, and meticulously attaching each glass bead with thread to create a whimsical pattern of flowers, hummingbirds, leaves, and vines. An intricate border and fringe of beadwork was also executed which complements the main design. Long pieces of light purple ribbon were also sewn around the border of the velvet surface, and two long strips were attached at the neckline in order to wear the collar.

Flowers, hummingbirds, leaves, and vines.

In terms of the symbolism of beads themselves, George Hamell explains in his book Trading in Metaphors: The Magic of Beads, that “shell, crystal, and native copper are ‘other world’ substances traditionally obtained by Real Man-beings, that is, real human man-beings, through reciprocal exchange with Under(water) World Grandfathers, extremely powerful man-beings, variously of serpent, panther, or dragon form.” (Hamell 6). In addition, “as light, bright, and white things, shell, crystal, and native copper, are ‘good to think (with)’. They are reflective substances, literally and figuratively, and substances in which native ideological and aesthetic interests are one.” (Hamell 5). Therefore although white or clear crystal and glass beads were imports from Europe, they dovetailed with the spiritual beliefs of Hodnesaunee cosmology of white being light, bright, and good.

In terms of the floral designs, there were differences between those used for men, and those for women. For example, Sam Thomas’ collar at the Canadian Museum of Civilization was meant to be worn by a woman, as stated by Thomas himself. According to Phillips, “flower-decorated clothing had different specific connotations when worn by Native men and by Native women. (For men), it specifically signaled their abandonment of masculine aggression through warfare and their rejection of a hunting existence - the idea of natural man in his ‘animal’ guise. Native men’s flower-embellished clothing evoked, rather, the new sanitized version of ‘herbal’ natural man.” (Phillips 193).

Ornaments such as this are put up as bets in the Peach Stone game played during the Midwinter Ceremony

Year of creation, museum documentation
Statement by the artist, Sam Thomas, as well as by the CMC. Used for betting in the Peach Stone Game

The collar is part of a set of beaded ornaments including also a crown and a barrette made in 2001 by Sam Thomas and his mother Lorna Hill for an Art Show in Michigan where their collar and crown won third place. In January and February of the same year, the collar was used in the traditional Midwinter Ceremony, (which I will later elaborate on). Judy Hall, the curator of Eastern Woodlands Ethnology at the Museum of Civilization, purchased the set of four works (one pincushion, one crown, one collar, and one barrette) from the artists in March of 2001 for the Canadian Museum of Civilization's collection, the first pieces of contemporary Hodnesaunee beadwork acquired for the museum.

First People's Hall mall exhibit
"Layered with meaning: Iroquois beadwork traditions" summer 2001

CMC records

Created by Jasmine Fenn as part of a class research project. ARTH 5210, Master's program in Art History, Carleton University, autumn 2010. Supported by Judy Hall, Curator of Great Lakes Ethnology, Canadian Museum of Civilization. Edited by Ruth Phillips

Sam Thomas kindly helped with the research, whose scope was limited by the time span of the seminar. Further comparative work on Aboriginal beaded collars would further illuminate this piece.