Sunday, July 26, 2009

Haitian Beaded Flags with Sequins

At the 2009 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, I was given permission to shoot and share pictures of the amazing work of Market veteran George Valris. At the last minute, he was unable to attend this year, but fortunately he was able to ship a huge pile of work from his studio. Let me tell you, it sparkled and shined!

haitian sequined vodou flag
This medium-sized Haitian vodou flag depicts La Sirene, with her comb and mirror. Pardon my angle, this piece was laying on the table in the front of the booth.

La Sirene

Most of this flag was executed in spot stitch, with the cupped sequins facing down, attached with seed beads in the same colors as the sequins. It looked to me as though the seed bead outlines were sewn on after the sequins.

Recently I found this nice blog article about Haitian sequined flags, as well as a link to an exhibition of Vodou-related artwork at the American Museum of Natural History, so check them out to learn more about the flags (drapo). And you can even purchase George Valris' very reasonably priced work at the sister site of the SFIFAM.

3 comments:

  1. AMAZING! Went the the link on the flags & then got lost looking at everything else. Oh how I wish I could have had the money/time to make it back out to Albuquerque this week for the doll conference. I'd love to go to OFF to check out the place you always talk about & to see the Museums. Wahhh..maybe next year.
    dot

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  2. Dot, how I wish you could come out again too!

    I NEVER hear about that doll conference except by chance from people on the Internet.

    Gonna have to find out more about it... I love Treasures of the Gypsy and they are usually there.

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  3. Thank you so much for this post, Mary!!!! I'm especially grateful for the detail shot and your observation that the beading was probably done after the sequins were attached. I agree that's how it looks. This is a magnificent piece!

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