"Best of Show"!! I entered this blanket in our Grace Community Church Art festival and it won! I'm so thrilled as I've never sewn anything of this genre before. There are so many truly talented artists who submitted such incredible photos, paintings, and other works of art, that it didn't seem possible. At any rate, I'm glad the judges like it. This blanket is a gift to my husband's brother and his wife, who is a Native American from the northwest. Mary is a lawyer representing her tribe from Washington State. I titled this work "Family" since that really represents what the Rodgers family stands for better than anything I can think of. The fish are salmon which are a very important symbol to the indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest. The central circle is a salmon egg which represents Tad and Mary's daughter, Jordan. I have sewn 300 abalone shell buttons (imported from Hong Kong) on it to insure it is truly an authentic ceremonial button blanket. The only thing that would have made it more authentic would have been to sew it from wool, but I wanted it to be 'cuddly' too for Jordan's sake. I would really like to do more work in this field since it is almost impossible to find a button blanket. I know of only one artist who does this. I saw some of her work, but it was very busy and not what I was aiming for. I used the buttons like white paint to highlight the form of the salmon and I think the effect was pretty amazing.
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