My partner and I used to make fringed leather purses like that; the button would be a slice of deer or elk antler we cut, polished, drilled, and dyed to look sort of aged. Sometimes we did beadwork on the leather. The strap was generally braided leather strips. There’s one around here somewhere, kept as a memento.
Thanks to everybody for the kind words! That period of the 60s and 70s was a rich one for handcrafts, and it seems to me that after the highly commercial 80s and 90s, and since the economic upset of the 2000s, there’s a resurgence of interest in learning to make (and remake) beautiful things, repurposing old things, and also in enjoying having handcrafted things around. The furniture companies in the southeast are reporting increases in sales of their locally-made home furnishings, and that’s a good sign.
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Fan1: I lived in a little cabin in the woods on a Colorado mountainside during the 70s, with a doorless outhouse (the better to hear the coyotes and watch the deer), a spring up the road from which we hauled water, and a wood-burning stove for cooking and heating. Idyllic! We picked up road-killed porcupines for the quills, birds for the feet and feathers, and shed antlers for making those buttons. We got deer and elk hides from hunters, brain-tanned them, and made all sorts of things. It was a rich time, despite our having no money whatsoever! I know what you mean about kinda missing those days!
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
My partner and I used to make fringed leather purses like that; the button would be a slice of deer or elk antler we cut, polished, drilled, and dyed to look sort of aged. Sometimes we did beadwork on the leather. The strap was generally braided leather strips. There’s one around here somewhere, kept as a memento.
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Love Dad’s balletic foot position!
comicbuff24 over 11 years ago
I know I told you this before Annieb but thank you again for all your stories, comments, wisdom/insight. It is a pleasure to read.
katina.cooper over 11 years ago
Alvin will love the look and that’s all Emmy Lou cares about.
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
Thanks to everybody for the kind words! That period of the 60s and 70s was a rich one for handcrafts, and it seems to me that after the highly commercial 80s and 90s, and since the economic upset of the 2000s, there’s a resurgence of interest in learning to make (and remake) beautiful things, repurposing old things, and also in enjoying having handcrafted things around. The furniture companies in the southeast are reporting increases in sales of their locally-made home furnishings, and that’s a good sign.
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Fan1: I lived in a little cabin in the woods on a Colorado mountainside during the 70s, with a doorless outhouse (the better to hear the coyotes and watch the deer), a spring up the road from which we hauled water, and a wood-burning stove for cooking and heating. Idyllic! We picked up road-killed porcupines for the quills, birds for the feet and feathers, and shed antlers for making those buttons. We got deer and elk hides from hunters, brain-tanned them, and made all sorts of things. It was a rich time, despite our having no money whatsoever! I know what you mean about kinda missing those days!