Technique & Materials
Indigenous people within the Great Lakes Region would use a wide range of materials to build the items that they used everyday. The most popular material used when building items like baskets, storage containers, etc. was birch bark. Birch bark was the base for most quillwork pieces and the gathering of the bark only happened during specific times of the year. The next, and most important, material are the porcupine quills. The quills can be harvested from any porcupine, any time of the year. The quills are probably the most difficult material to work with on these pieces because they have to be softened so the maker can create the desired designs by fitting the quills through holes in the bark (Porcupine, 2018). Quillwork is a long and arduous process that has been passed down through generations. It is also important to know that quillwork is done primarily by women. When teaching the art of quillwork, women would oftentimes tell stories to the younger generations that they were teaching so the children would learn about the art form and the cultural traditions (Radus, 2018).