Friday, April 17, 2009

Jingle Dancer

If you guessed that this is a jingle cone, you are right!




It's a jingle cone for a jingle dress worn by Native American dancers in a powwow.

The jingles are made from rolled tin lids of chewing tobacco (snuff). The jingle cones are sewn to the dress and when the dancers move, the cones hit together and make the jingling sound.

And, why do I have a jingle cone?

This week I made a jingle dress for a coworker's daughter. She picked out the fabrics and I sewed the dress and apron and put the jingles on it. If you want to sit down, you just take off the apron so you don't sit on a jingle. The apron is pretty heavy, it has over 80 jingles on it. It was an involved project for my limited sewing skills. This is a very simple style. Some of the outfits and moccasins the dancers wear are truly works of art.

This is also definitely a jingle dress for a little girl..... it is pink and purple and has Hello Kitty ribbon above the jingles. The owner of this dress is not yet 3 years old.


She wore it today at the powwow. She walked in for the opening ceremony in her jingle dress but didn't do much dancing!

Here is the opening ceremony and presentation of the flags.



It is a beautiful sight to see the dancers come in behind the flags.



The presentation of the flags is very respectful. I've only been to a couple powwows but noticed both times the honor they paid to their military veterans and all veterans. It was very moving.



Here are some young jingle dancers. Look at those pretty moccasins!


The clothing the dancers wear is referred to as regalia and I loved the bright colors in this regalia.



A powwow is noisy with the drums beating and the jingles and bells the men wear around their ankles. The steady beat of the drum is very soothing in the background.


This young man could really dance; my daughter took a picture of him dancing but it didn't turn out well. He moved around too fast. His outfit had a lot of beading on it; it was very beautiful.



See what a blur he is when he danced - so fun to watch.


I loved the headdresses these two men had on - I couldn't stop looking at them and wondering how they got all those feathers to stand up like that.




All of the regalia was unique, every outfit had something interesting whether it was feathers,beading, mirrors, sparkles, etc. I would have loved to have studied them close up to look at all the details.


This was my favorite regalia. It was so bright and full. Many of the men had feather sprays on their backsides but most of them were natural colored feathers.



So, there you have it. Now you know that it was a jingle cone.

2 comments:

Far Side of Fifty said...

Very interesting..and here I thought it was a May Day Basket! LOL. Now it makes perfect sense ..Your photographs are beautiful..it has been years since I have been to a Pow Wow.:)

Missy said...

Mary it turned out so cute!! I love it and I bet the little one did too!! GREAT JOB!!! Great photos too!!