Jackie Larson Bread

Jackie Larson Bread is a beadworker from the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana.

Jackie has beaded all of her llife, since childhood. Her grandmother who beaded, passed away before Jackie was born. Jackie taught herself the techniques by studying her grandmother's items, and the beadwork done by the ladies of my tribe. Among the Blackfeet, everyone knows the basic techniques. At 14, she started to work at the Museum of Plains Indians, which continued for ten summers, where she was amazed by the beadwork and learned even more techniques. She attended the Institute of American Indian Art, in Santa Fe, to study painting and printmaking. Jackie wanted to figure out how to introduce beadwork, because I like the mix of traditional and contemporary imagery, using old photographs. Sitting Bull was the first composition, then Geronimo and photos of her people. "-- 90% of what I do is about the Blackfeet, telling what we look like, sharing our homes and designs. It takes so many hours.