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[billiemvigne]

[billiemvigne]

Beaded snakes

I picked this beautiful creature up at a local antiques market recently. I googled them as soon as I got home- the overwhelming search results were for Turkish prisoner of War hand beaded examples. Mine has 1919 written on its white belly in black beads but that is all. I don't know if he is a similar example or also from a POW camp.

The innards are crocheted and the patterned beaded exterior would have been made on bead looms or hand crocheted. In Ottoman camps these beaded beasts were sold as souvenirs or in trade with other prisoners.

It leads me to thoughts of POW art, of the fineness and intricacy born of limitation. Much like in tribal arts where the materials of seasonal nature are your only options, the craft becomes honed. It makes me think of the dexterity a clunky man hand can acquire in the face of lack of choice, and the mental control/meditative capacity required in repetitive craft. isolation, reminding me of the matchstick boats I once saw in Whitby museum.