Local groups start work to prepare traditional dress

The Thursday night beading workshop is quiet, for now.

Soon, more than 20 prospective craftspeople will descend on the Johnson-O'Malley room at the Stikine Native Organizations building to finish headbands, octopus bags, and ceremonial vests ahead of this year's 2014 Celebration, a biannual gathering in Juneau of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Alaskan Natives.

For now, the loudest sound is that of the television, which plays "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked" for a future craftsman too young to handle a needle and thread.

Seven artisans worked to create an octopus bag, a bead-decked four-armed bag typically used to store valuables while dancing. Each of the four arms ends in twin protuberances, creating eight tips and giving the bag its sea-creature name. Two others worked on headbands, one for an adult and one for a child.

Tommy Rooney worked on a headband containing an emblem of his own design with an eagle head inside of a bear paw.

"It's my own design," he said. "It's called an eagle-paw."

The design incorporates clan emblems from both the eagle clan and the brown bear clan. He came up with the design when he was participating in an art class.

"I started to draw stuff," he said. "I drew all kinds of animals and stuff, but then I thought about this because I'm an eagle-brown bear."

Only members of various clans are allowed to use clan emblem animals when creating their regalia. For a member of a clan to use another clan's emblem, they must receive permission from that clan in order to incorporate that emblem in their embroidery. When members of different clans intermarry, their children sometimes combine both emblems in unique ways to represent their dual heritage. Those designs themselves are property of the individuals and can't be duplicated without permission.

Some elements of the Tlingit art style, like the seaweed pattern that a few crafters worked to apply to the outside of the octopus bag, are available for common use.

Other elements, like the use of certain colors to represent the seasons, are shared between crafters.

Virginia Oliver was one of the team that tackled the octopus bag.

"The (clan) elder is helping us," she said. "She's going to cut them out, and then we're going to make the design for her, and then we're going to give her the pattern and all the beads and she'll take it home and work on it."

Rachel Moreno, in town from Sitka, was putting the finishing touches on an eagle headband for Ty Waldron, who was watching the Chipmunks. She was blending red sequins and beads to combine stagecraft with heritage.

"The red is just to kind of make it pop when he's dancing out there," she said.

While a small group of dedicated crafters were present Thursday, organizers said they expect the room to become more crowded as Celebration, to be held in June this year, gets

closer.