Red Squirrel on the lookout

Representation of a red squirrel in seed beads on its terracotta base.

I used a combination of two passions : ceramics and woven beadwork as per the ancestral technique originating from Greenland. The first step of the work consits in  shaping the squirrel out of clay ( real size) then giving  it color with engobes and finally baking it at 1280 degrees Celcius ( 2 336 degrees Fahrenheit).

The seedbeads (size 9/0) are then woven with the help of a needle and cotton thread around the terracotta sculpture thus obtained .

The tail is made with many loops connected together. Each loop in circular Peyote used seed beads (size 11/0).

The body of the squirrel is 11 in long, the tail 9.5 in.