MicMac Bead design on Bag of red & black wool: Paul St John, Mohawk

Description

Beautiful beadwork - taken from old MicMac design on a vintage red & black wool shoulder bag by Paul St John, Mohawk craftsman.  This is a traditional and beautiful beaded design done in white, blue and yellow vintage glass seed beads. The bag has a lovely scalloped bottom and is of a red wool, black wool back with a black flap over the top.  It has a black grosgrain ribbon handle and is bound with the same ribbon.   It is lined with a red and black calico cotton - the vintage design is of small leafy branches.
The main design has double curves, diamonds and is taken from a bead design on an old MicMac bag - the beads on the bag's flap are all white and are of trifoliate designs inside a double curve design.  An inner border of white beadwork is on all 3 sides of the bag's front just inside the ribbon edging/border ..
It is 11.25" long and 9" across.  The flap is 2.75" long.  The ribbon handle is 22" long from center top to attachments to the bag.
You can wear this as a shoulder bag or tie it to your belt/sash. (or use it as a decorative object).
Wabanaki & Iroquois traditionally made and used various types of bags, medicine bags and shoulder bags, of varying styles, sizes, materials  and designs.  Here vintage white glass seed beads are used to make a traditional beaded Wabanaki design on the front- with double curves and X's in center squares.
The Wabanaki confederation tribes include Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and MicMac (Mi'kmaq is one of the Canadian spellings of MicMac).
You can use this as part of your regalia, wear it over your shoulder, wear it around your neck under or over your shirt/blouse with traditional herbal or current medication - or money or whatever you like --- Or use it as a  beautiful decorative display piece.
Paul St. John now lives in Maine, near his mother's Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac relatives.  He is an enrolled Mohawk and grew up on the Mohawk lands in New York, his father's tribe.   2nd from last photo in slideshow is of Paul St John and 2 of his other works.  Last photo is of his Mohawk grandmother, Amelia St John who taught him beading.
Paul St John also makes birchbark, porcupine quill and coiled sweetgrass baskets, beaded knife cases, traditional dolls, water drums, birch bark rattles, beaded barrettes and moccasins among numerous other traditional crafts - check out more of his work in this ebay store.