Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes...


My to do list is trying to swallow me whole this week, so no big posties here ... Instead, I offer this pic of some lovely mocs we saw on a recent road trip.

They're antiques, done in "lazy" stitch (LOL, what a misnomer!) and a sweet example of traditional beadwork. Not sure if these are plateau or plains work? Either way, you gotta love those old time colors -- check out that greasy green & the Cheyenne pink. IIRC, the red beads are old whitehearts, too!

I'm intrigued by the fact that the soles are completely beaded. I wonder what it would feel like to walk in these shoes?

3 comments:

Dulcey said...

I *thought* ones with fully beaded soles were for burial, but I don't know if that's right or not.

It would be a weird sort of crunchy walking! Slippery?

freebird said...

The shoes are pretty but I'll bet Dulcey is right. It makes sense. Hope you are still enjoying your shoes. I have the greasy green beads. I love them.

Drea said...

I agree Freebird, Dulcey's idea makes sense. After reading it, I looked around to see what I could find about the significance of mocs with beaded soles.

From what I could find, it looks like different tribes use them for different cermonies -- honoring cermonies, adoptions & yes, burials too. So I guess these were made for someone or something special! :o)

I'd treasure them if they were mine, but they're not -- a store owner was kind enough to let me snap the photo.