The few crafts shown here are just a sampling of the hundreds I have done and shared with friends and family. In later updates of this page I will be displaying several of my own creations in beadwork. The wolf head on the mandella shown above was created with thousands of very small seed beads, each one about the size of a sesame seed. It took many hours and though offered several hundred dollars to sell it, I am glad it remains a part of our decor today.

The tipi shown in my collection is a scale model which preceeded the real one. This model has an eighteen inch cover whereas the real tipi has an eighteen foot cover. It was made with all the care and diligence of the real one and now serves as a glowing night light in our basement den. It is fully furnished with miniature mandellas, quivers, rugs, furs, firewood and utensils. We photographed it outdoors to visualize how a real tipi would look in the yard.

All of my craft items were created using natural materials. Several larger beads I made by hand and baked before stringing and adapting to the piece. All mocassins have well padded durable soles and there are several different styles...even fur lined.

The painted tipi at the top of this page is a recent creation of mine using Adobe Photoshop 3.0 with which I am having oodles of fun. This is area of art and stained glass work are areas of art I hope to work with in the future.

Life goes in cycles it seems... computers have doomed my crafts to the back of the buggy for a while. I tried my hand at many different art forms through the years: my earliest recollection is of cardboard sewing cards which my grandmothers bought me to play with. I was seldom content to lace only the holes provided but found myself gathering yarn to lace up the edges and binding them into books as well. I began real sewing in 4-H club as a third grader, and progressed to a seamstress and tailor by the end of my high school era. The Native American crafting didn't register with me until I sought a stress outlet while working as a 911 police dispatcher. When I started it grew like wildfire going from token keyrings to a full sized Souix Indian tipi in the back yard. I have also enjoyed making quilts and will add some pictures of them to this gallery in the near future.

Throughout all my life I have had a deep love for words and the English language. I love to write and create worlds on plain pieces of paper. In 1995, after retiring due to MDS, or myelodysplasia,* a rare and complicated blood disorder, I looked for another outlet and a way to feel whole again after several years of being at the hub of activity in the law enforcement circle; so I began creating a newsletter for my family and named it TIPI IN THE TREES bridging a gap between two of my favorite pasttimes. T.I.T.T. grew from a two-pager to an eight-pager in a few short months and now includes a larger circulation including friends on the net. The crude homemade drawings and clipart succumbed to scanned pictures and the contributions of readers helped it come alive. I hope to someday write a real book and perhaps compile the volumes of poetry and prose I have stored in bottom drawers and on high shelves.

As I look back on my cycles of "extra-curricular activities", as well as my career goals, throughout the years there are several wonderful teachers standing at the forefront of my mind. It was their interest and taking the time to give me the direction and encouragement I needed to pursue my dreams which bolstered me into doing something about them. Though most of them have passed on, they will live on in all my work and never will they be forgotten. I also am very grateful for having been able to grow up in a family of very loving and talented teachers and artisans. Both of my parents chose teaching as a career and music and art were a part of life rather than a sideline at our house.

You have my thoughts..... I hope you'll send me yours.