Quilled Pouch by Djuana Tucker

by Heinz Ahlers

The CLF Fundraising auction is proud to present this mid-18th century Eastern Woodland/Great Lakes style quilled bag by Djuana Tucker. Djuana has over 10 years experience in quillwork and credits Bruce Horne and Chuck Edwards with getting her started in this dimension of living history. Djuana can be seen at living history events throughout the midwest and refers to Fort de Chartres, in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, as her home base. Here is Djuana’s piece in her own words.

“I focus on design aesthetic and composition rather than perfection. Irregularities and asymmetry appeal to me. I refer to catalogs of museum collections and photographs of original pieces for reference, but I am also inspired by the world around me.

This piece highlights my mid 18th century post European contact style of quillwork. This 5.5″ x 7″ bag is made from walnut dyed braintan leather, lined with natural linen and trimmed with aged tin cones filled with cochineal dyed deer tail. The quillwork stitches used are linework, zigzag, and quill wrapped edging. The red and yellow quills were dyed with cochineal and osage orange, respectively. The ‘solid’ zigzag section of the design was taken from the toe of a moccasin in the ‘Museum of Man’ collection, while the white linework was designed freehand on graph paper, then loosely translated on to the leather.

I enjoy doing quillwork demonstrations at living history events and I also offer workshops. Custom orders are always welcome, and I have pieces for sale through my website and on Facebook.

The Contemporary Longrifle Association has been very good to me over the past 10 years and I wanted to donate a porcupine quill embroidery piece to the annual auction to express my gratitude. The CLA members’ kindness has been invaluable to me and I hope to be part of the Contemporary Longrifle Association family for years to come. Thank you so much for your continued support.”