I should've added in some 'materials' info. That's brain tanned caribou, unsmoked. Stitching is elk sinew with the correct number of stitches per in., the 'paint' is flying fish roe which gives the yellow (correct roe would have been Sucker roe). All the other colors use the same roe but with pigments added ie red iron oxide, natural prussian blue, and charcoal. I think I got a green also using copper powder leached into ammonia. The actual 'painting' is done with shaped slightly curved sticks dipped into the pigment, which in turn are in clam shells (see the last pic of the worktable). The painting tools used be the natives were made from caribou antler, mine were made from a piece of hard cherry wood. Another interesting side note re: caribou skins. 'Ever seen one anywhere? Probably not. That's because they are so utterly riddled with bot fly holes and scars that they have no commercial value and are left where the animal is dressed out more often than not. I got my first three from Fairbanks AL but they weren't big enough. I finally and luckily found a wholesale hide dealer nearby who bought deer hide by the semi truck full. Mixed in with the deer were caribou (cheating on the load) he couldn't sell, so we climbed piles of raw deer skins pulling out some big caribou hides. Dirt cheap. A small local tannery nearby fleshed and dehaired them for me, also for cheap. Then they went out to someone in the midwest for the braintan. Not Cheap! Between sewing with sinew and painting with sticks I have no idea how many hours went into this. Pretty laughable considering I had/have not real use for it. It does look cool though hanging on the wall (chuckle).
