nativelohaus

hey all, just wanting some suggestions/advice on a dance stick. i'm making a dance stick for my son. i have a pretty rough hawk head that was given to us. so i put it on on a dowel rod and made a fringed handle on the other end. i just got some otter and need to make it a little nicer looking. i was going to put the otter next to the hawk head to cover up some of the material used to attach it to the dowel and maybe some otter at the other end near the fringed handle. i've seen a lot of dance sticks that are beaded but i'm not going to do that cuz it's his first outfit. i have two hawk feather hanging at the head and two at the fringed handle. what would everyone recommend as far as filling in the middle. the middle is maybe 5 inches long. i kind of had a design and was thinking about wrapping it in yarn or maybe painting it. looking for other ideas to help me out. what would look nicer yarn or paint of maybe something else. was thinking about matching it to his bustle. let me know. thanks much. laterz

yuchgeha

I would suggest using embroidery floss in the colors to match his bustle. It would take longer to do than yarn, but the finished product would definitely be worth it. Yarn would tend to get snagged easily and probably wouldn't last as long either. Next best thing would be to paint it. My dance stick is beaded, but I also used dome head brass tacks to fill in empty space.

tigger

a buddy of mine used ribbon as fringe on his. he put the knots for them at the bottom of the stick and found a piece of material that he liked, then sewed that on, with the sem on the bottom so the fringe could still stick out.

me i always bead the sticks.

keith