“Jane Mary’s Garden” is a celebration of my great grandmother’s legacy. My grandmother’s beadwork expresses the distinctive Norway House Style featuring a combination of bold colourful graphic flowers and structured geometric design. My mother always said, “Grannie’s beaded moccasins are in a museum in Winnipeg” and it wasn’t until I made a connection with the Manitoba Museum while teaching beadwork that I requested a search for the moccasins. To my surprise, they located several pieces of my grandmother’s beadwork in their collections. This collection dates back to the early 1930’s and includes elaborately beaded moccasins, mukluks a wall pocket, and 2 pairs of gauntlets. Also in the file were photos of my grandmother that I have never seen before, which made this discovery all that more special. Finding my grand- mothers beadwork and reproducing her work has been the highlight of my career a beadwork artist. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from my grandmother almost 100 years later and my only hope is that I made her proud. I was captured by this particular pair of gauntlets for the design and colour arrangement. Orange is a difficult colour to implement in my own beadwork and her bead- work taught me to express freedom and go with the flow in my own work today. The reproduction was a healing journey and a reconnec- tion with my grandmother and her spirit. With every stitch there were fond memories, many emotions and at times, tears, remembering her gentle smile and the beautiful person she was. Blood memory played a significant role in this reproduction and it was comfortable and natural. My grandmother’s spirit lives on in my reproduction of her gauntlets and in this fabric line.
