Tool (for needlework) (Pincushion)

Description

This traditional Mohawk Iroquois beaded trilobe-shaped pincushion is heavily decorated with glass beads. The border of the pincushion is stitched in a coarse style with tan thread, and its bottom edge is decorated with elongated loops of green, gray, and red glass beads threaded along twisted ropes of clear seed beads. Beaded bags, purses, and pincushions such as this one were highly popular objects made for the souvenir market in New York state during the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The type of beadwork used around the borders and in the center of this cushion, known as "raised beadwork," is unique to the Haudenosaunee of New York state and Ontario. While sewing, the beadworker overloads the threads with beads, pushing (or raising) a number of beads above the surface level of the object. This pincushion was probably made at Kahnawake, the Mohawk reserve across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.