Saraguro beadwork

Mary Tafoya just posted about going to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, where she got to see oodles of Saraguro beadwork, and met some of the artists.  Mary took some beautiful pictures; that would be an exhibit of beadwork to see!

I’ve seen several collars in person.  Linda Belote is an Anthropology professor at the Univeristy of Minnesota – Duluth, where I attended a Split Rock Arts session on beadwork.  She visited the classroom with some of her collars, and it was wonderful to be able to see them in person.  Here is one of Belote’s symposiums on the evolution of Saraguro beadwork, the website that she and her husband maintain on the Saraguro people, and the beadwork from that website.

I wish I could see those collars again!  If you’d like to make a collar of your own, like Mary wrote, check out Chris Prussing’s patterns on bead-patterns.com, where she donates half of what she makes back to the Saraguro – I think through Linda Belote!