Mattress padding is the BEST. In particular I use the waterproof baby crib mattress padding. Most of the beadwork done in this family has some funny design on the back of it like colorful balloons or ribbons because it was printed on the padding for the baby crib. It's AWESOME. its about 1/16 of an inch thick, super dense thread weaving so it doesn't matter what angle you put your needle in or how deep or shallow you run it, its going to catch threads. I almost never bead on leather. It rots a whole lot faster than that padding will and when it does, I snip the threads holding my beadwork to my leather piece and move my beadwork to fresher leather. It just doesn't get any better than that! hang on and let me upload a picture of that yoke I'm working on to photobucket. hang on... almost got it... dial up STINKS!... While you're waiting, watch my new favorite show: While the Face Turns ----> GOT IT! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v478/osage18/001-BAK-beadwork.jpg The spider is the center of it and I used photoshop to color in the unfinished bits or you'd be able to see that mattress padding. I really ought to finish that thing. Again, so glad to have met you. It's good to talk shop. (((HUGS!))) Brandy

I excited to have met you too!! As I'm sure you know, most of the people you meet on the web are new bloods. I don't have a problem with new bloods, I think its great that they're finally figuring out who their grandparents were and all. I'll help them out all I can, but when I want to talk about what it means to have lived it all your life, new bloods just can't keep up. Glad you don't have to live on the res. Some are alright but most are the pits. I grew up on the Osage res in Oklahoma. Ours is a little different than most. For one, its not technically a res. We own it. Instead of being "removed" like most tribes were (because we were some big ol' mean sonsabiches) the government gave us $1.25 per acre for the land we had in Kansas. Then we went down and bought land in Oklahoma from the Cherokees for $0.75 an acre (sorry, ya'll got the short on that one ) Well lo and behold that land was sitting on a mother load of oil and natural gas. The Osage tribe became the richest per capita people in the world for a while. It was funny too because they'd have great big beautiful homes built on their tract of land and buy the most expensive cars on the market but they'd still cook over a pit in the front yard and had to hire drivers to take them everywhere because they didn't know how to drive (and with their money, didn't have to learn.) Eeeee... sorry, I slipped into a bit of a history lesson there didn't I? Anyway, the point of the story is that our res has electricity and plumbing and nice towns and all. It's mostly poor now though. At least that much is still very much like other reservations. Hey, I hear they make Cherokee speed tape in all sorts of colors now. Even saw some pictures of girls making their prom dresses out of it. Bet they didn't know how ethnic they were being. I bet I can find the perfect match for your plastic canoe. Martha Stewart says Connecticut is beautiful country. I'd love to see it someday. Indiana stinks... sometimes quite literally (hog processing plants). But hey, in a couple of years, my butt is going to New Mexico for law school. We need a few good tribals lawyers out there. Too bad I'm not one now, I'd be all over that Abramoff fella. How far do you travel for powwows?

Boat cover huh? Well......I suppose it really could work! LOL! I know what you mean about the rosettes looking like pasties, and iot is NOT hot! LOL! What a great idea to put your beadwork on mattress padding! See, it pays to chat up other Indians and see what they're up to! I may just end up having enough buckskin to make little skirts for my daughters after I am finished cutting it up!

OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA Your Great-Grandmother isn't a princess?! Next you're going to tell me that you're not related to Pocahontas either. Come on now, you can't be a REAL Indian then can you? ((((HUGS)))) Nice to meet you! I have a few Cherokee friends. We pick on eachother mercilessly. I call them chair-OKIE and they call me o-saw-Gay. And of course, every now and then, I gotta mail them a roll of Cherokee speed tape so they can fix their mocs and patch their aluminum tipis... you know? Yes, we love eachother. So what part of the world are you in?

Well, hunny. I AM Cherokee, and I guess this reply is a few months too late, too! LOL! Anyhow, no one seems to really be posting much here. Write to me and tell me how you are doing, if you are not too discusted with us Cherokees...............would it help to tell you that my Great-Grandmother is NOT a Cherokee princess? LMAOOOO!