Hi there, my name is Jim. I can't tell you when I began to do beadwork or create traditional works of art, all I know is that I was young...just a boy. My mother herself did not do beadwork, but I remember as a child sitting on her lap as she drew beautiful pictures of warriors in their warbonnets and leggings with shields and society lances. Women with long braids and shell covered dresses. So she gave me a spark that became my fire, my passion. She told me to be proud of who and what I was. "Everything you create or make has spirit in it. I hope you understand that." I owe it all to the masters of art who walked before me. The Grandmothers and Grandfathers who created the works of art and tradition that you now see in museums. I honor them and continue to hope they will steer me in the right direction to create beauty and do it in the right way. To make it correctly and be proud of my work. So the honor goes to those who went before me. My heart is in Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapaho, and sometimes Kiowa traditional themes. I give thanks to them and I don't like to make anything exactly a copy but stay within traditional designs and boundaries.
Although I love to work in various mediums like rawhide, weapons, shields, ledger art, beading seems to be my focus. I have talents with making many items in many catagories including: apparel: moccasins, necklaces, medicine bags, chokers, baby and toddler clothing, umbilical cord amulets, and more gender specific pieces as women's leggings, dresses, breastplates, belt kits, fans, and men's shirts, bustles, roaches, and other dance regalia, leggings, breastplates, turbans, and warbonnets. Weapons: lances, shields, quiver and bow case sets, knife sheaths, and war clubs. Other miscellaneous items: pipe bags, rawhide parfleche bags, boxes, and cylinders, rattles, and hand drums. I also like to hand carve elk teeth to compliment many items and create clam shell chokers. I hope you enjoy and can feel the inspiration from our ancestors in each piece that I create.