Native American art celebrates state birthday at Brewery

Making tiny baskets, Sandra Eagle weaves tradition with design.

Each has unique stitching - some laden with bead work, others integrating feathers. The spirit of the place she lives inspires her work.

Eagle is a Native American artist keeping alive the Shoshone-Paiute tradition passed to her by her grandmother. Each basket is meticulously crafted from strips of willow branches.

The colors of Pyramid Lake, her lifelong home, gives her work an authentic Nevada flavor.

On Friday, the Brewery Arts Center exhibited her art along with that of other area artists to commemorate Nevada's 136th anniversary. The Nevada Day Music and Heritage Festival exhibits, along with demonstrations, continue today.

Interested artisans and connoisseurs can learn about welding, basket weaving, bead work and other crafts after taking in the Carson Street parade.

Eagle will be on hand, likely continuing work on the basket she started Friday morning. The tedious exercise of stripping and soaking the willow switches, tying them into little knots, and finally incorporating a pattern is an exercise in patience, she said.

"It takes time to do it," she understates, pointing to an ornate basket that took her four days. "You have to be patient. Take your time and be patient."

With simple tools - a pocket knife, scissors, tweezers and pins - the stitches are slowly coiled into each other.

Friday's demonstration drew the attention and admiration of Brewery visitors.

"This is a thing that not too many people are doing anymore," Eagle said. She uses the same techniques to make jewelry.

Some of her pieces are on display at the Stewart Indian Museum and in the pages of folk art books.

Bead weaver Mary L. Thompson, who teaches at the Stewart Museum, showed what 13 years of intense self-taught techniques can produce.

Thompson's bead work, most of which can be worn as jewelry, also picks up Native American themes. Like Eagle, Thompson is inspired by the vibrant colors of Nevada life. She also works out of her Virginia City home.

The public may visit the Brewery at King and Division streets all day today, and it will be the setting for the parade awards ceremony. The Comstock Cowboys will be playing a free concert in the parking lot after the parade.