NWT Arts

I’m a beadwork artist, with a focus on making keychains, earrings, and bolo ties. My signature design is black outlines filled with edgy colours or dark tones. I use seed beads on pellon or stroud, with 24k gold beads sprinkled throughout.

I learned to sew from my grandma. I spent some summers with her in Pehdzeh Ki (Wrigley) around 2009. There wasn’t much to do, so she took the time to teach me how to bead. The first item I ever created was a cardholder. I stopped beading for many years after those summers in Pehdzeh Ki, but I decided to pick it up again in 2021.

Back then, I didn’t understand much about beading. My grandma taught me to be patient: if my work didn’t turn out right, she would tell me to do it again. By doing that, she was showing me how to have patience with the whole process, which paid off in the work that I do now.

My grandmothers inspire me immensely because of everything they were able to create in their lifetimes. I’ve always seen them sew and bead, putting mukluks together for their family. After they passed, I felt disconnected with my culture, but beading helped me reconnect with my grandmothers in new ways. Every time I bead, I think of them.

It takes a lot of preparation for me to start a beading project. I’ll draw my designs before I start to bead. I have one specific drawing of a flower I drew a long time ago that I still use often as a template for earrings and keychain.

I always go back to flower patterns, but once in a while I try something different. I recently started making mushroom earrings, with different size of beads to recreate fungus patterns.

What I like the most about making beaded artwork is a combination of things, like finding the right colour combination. I also love the feeling that I get when I have a vision about something and I can make it come to life the way I had envisioned!