Painting buckskin and rawhide.

[Forty Rod]

I want to paint some items in the Indian style and need to know some things.

I've read of "brush sticks", which appear to be a green stick with the end hammered down until the fibers become brush-like.  Is there something more common, like maybe a cut down chip brush, that will suffice?

What paints are available that will replicate the colors and appearance of the originals and are easy to use?  I can mix colors on my bench if necessary, so basic shades will work.

Do I need to seal after I'm done, before I start, and/or between colors, and what do I use for that?

What else do I need to know, and can someone help keep this child from going astray?

Thank you kindly.

[Camano Ridge]

Forty Rod, this might help http://www.ehow.com/how_8196637_make-paints-like-native-americans.html here is another one
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1950481

[ChuckBurrows]

I get my rawhide painting supplies here - these are the real McCoy when it comes to colors...

http://www.beadmatch.com/beadmatch_materials.html

and that page includes a nice how-to as well as references

[GunClick Rick]

I had a couple of leather paintings and it seemed like acylics were used,they were a good size,but i had no where to hang them then and sold them to a buddy that owns an antique store,wish i had them back now.They were like a pair,on had one canoe with indian in a canoe and the other,two in a canoe sort of behind the first one if set side by side.There was a few areas of cracking from being rolled up when i found them..

[Professor Marvel]

My Good 40 -

The materials and methods to use are entirely dependant upon what Nation and time period you wish to replicate.

Some Peoples rely more upon mineral based pigments (earth paint), some on vegetable based pigments, and others use anything they can find!

Based on what I have learned from my friends from the Lahkota, Crow, Kansa and Sac-and-Fox People,  Chuck's link is excellent and covers a lot of territory, for Northern and Southern Plains and some Southwestern Tribes.

For Eastern, Great Lakes, Southern, Certain Midwest and Pacific Tribes you will find minor variations that are basically dependant upon local materials and some styles and customs. For example, binders and top coat will vary per regional material availability, and if my memory serves correctly certain peoples will never use blood in paint, whilst for others it is de-rigour .

"Paintbrushes" also vary per region and individuals. I have seen museum examples of hard sticks dipped like pens and I have seen Lahkota use thin dried hollow bones cut and used like goose-quill pens for fine work. A soft fibrous stick or plant that can produce a "broom-like end" is almost universally used as a brush. Otherws may make a ball of absorbent material and daub or swipe paint on.

Likewise, I chatted with a Grandmother on the Acoma Pueblo and watched her paint the traiditional coiled pot she had made using a single strand from a Yucca as a brush and black mineral earth paint , producing a thin line  as fine or finer than a rapidograph draftman's pen.

to address your direct questions:

unless you are doing a museum quality replica or restoration, most any brush can work.

earth paint, vegetable paint, and the paints on the link Chuck posted work very well and give the results I prefer.
Avoid hobby paint like the plague!  Some exceptions are quality water colors created from earth pigments.
I highly recommend good earth paint- that is all Unshi (Grandma) Neva Standing Bear used and she regularly
repaired or recreated historical objects for the Denver Museum (among other things).

definitely seal after completion to keep the work from running or smearing. Well made Winter Count Hides have lasted over a hundred years.

look at real examples as closely as possible and try some methods and tools and see if you are satisfied  with your results :-)

yhs
prof marvel

[Mogorilla]

If you get the paint cookies, please write a review.  Would love to know someone's thoughts before I buy them too.

[Professor Marvel]

If you get the paint cookies, please write a review.  Would love to know someone's thoughts before I buy them too.

Mogorilla - I agree, the "cookies" are new to me, thus I have never used the "cookies" myself.  In the past I could only find earth paint "sticks" or ground pigments in a jar. Then being a cheap barstich  frugal sort I woosed out and got cheap disposable hobby brushes.

Perhaps Chuck can chime in with his experience on the cookies? I am entranced by them!

yhs
prof marvel

[Mogorilla]

I too am cheap.     I have some ground pigments and have made paint using hide glue, but I mostly used brushes, and some sticks when doing a couple of parfleches.    I have another one ready for paint, and am still wondering if the cookies might not be a better way to go.   I love all things Native American, I was always the I, when playing C&I as a child.   not to hi-jack a thread, but here are some parfleches I have done.  These are pigment paints, but modern brushes




And a parfleche fix to carrying premeasured vials of powder.

[Forty Rod]

Very nice, Mo.  Where did you get your rawhide?

[Mogorilla]

Hey 40, I am got the rawhide for these by buying the huge rawhide chew bones at a Petsmart.   I soaked and stretched the pieces.  I have since bought half a hide of rawhide (I think Tandy's, that or Crazy Crow)

[GunClick Rick]

Don't forget the bear grease and spit,colors from flowers,cactus beetle for red,clay color from the river,colors from fruits,and the good old yucca plant for brushes,or badger hair,horse hair,put a bunch of horsehair in a cone glue and smash it cut hair to desired shape I did a painting once (took an art class) we used crushed pirite and such crushed in with colors when the light hits it it sort of shimers..Now i cant draw,paint doodle or nothin,i tried,i can see it just can't put it on paper,i did a teepee sittin by itself by a smal bush or tree,inside the tipi was a smoke fire with a bundle of shaft for arrows drying and no one around,called it Gone Hunting It ain't very good but i done it by golly!

try this oleboy he has goat rawhide for 35.00 if i remember right,i want to get some to try some parflech with.
www.theleatherguy.org

http://www.theleatherguy.org/RAWHIDE-LEATHER-141431/6590031-Goatskin-Rawhide-Drum/ProductInfo.aspx