Browse Exhibits (2 total)
Four Views of a Bear Paw Quill Box
This quill box, was created by the renowned quill work artist Yvonne Walker Keshick, who also goes by the Indigenous name Falling Leaf, of the Little Traverse Band Bay of Odawa/Ojibwe Indians. Dubbed here as the bear paw quill box for the bear paw design on its lid, it is a small box, about 4” wide, 2” tall, and only half the box was designed with finished quill work. The bear paw quill box is particularly remarkable because it was designed in this manner intentionally, for the purpose of serving as an educational tool. Wrapped in sweet grass and bound with sinew, it is nonetheless an impressive display of quill work, made with undyed quills as is typical of Yvonne Keshick Walker’s work.
Other examples of Yvonne Keshick Walker's work-
Four Views of an Octagonal Birchbark Box
The box was created in 1900 by an unknown Odawa artist in Harbor Springs, Michigan. The box is a 5 ½ inch octagon and is composed of 8 birch bark panels, a circular bottom, and a removable lid. Each panel is embellished with inlaid with a porcupine quillwork of a white flower with branching stem and leaves. The lid is similarly adorned, with a larger, more intricate flower design. The panels are held together with sweetgrass supported by a black thread (MSU Museum n.d.)