Prize Winners: 12 Loomed Necklaces

This slim, vividly photographed pattern book documents twelve award-winning loomed bead necklaces by R. C. Davis, an artist of Blackfeet and Cherokee descent who, by his own account, came to his heritage late and pursued it with the zeal of rediscovery. The cover and plates show his geometric beadwork in earth tones and brilliant accents, several pieces incorporating Southwestern motifs such as the humpbacked flute player Kokopelli, staged here among Indian corn and gourds.

The author page records a remarkable run of honors in the mid-1970s, including beadwork awards at the Scottsdale National Indian Arts Show and a first place at the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, the venerable New Mexico gathering that has long been a proving ground for Native artists. Self-published instructional booklets like this rarely survive in good shape, so a clean documented copy preserves both a working record of loom-beadwork technique and a small slice of 1970s Southwestern craft history.