Storyknife Earrings
Sterling Silver, French hooks (Sterling), Antique Trade Beads
|
|
SOLD
The Storyknife
B: Joan Tenenbaum
In Bering Sea Eskimo culture, little girls would gather around a cleared area of mud or sand to tell each other stories using the tip of a storyknife to illustrate the tales as they went. The stories could be myths, tales or stories of their own.
A storyknife was usually made by a father, uncle or grandfather for a young girl in the family, and was made of ivory or wood. A storyknife handle often was carved as a bird or fish head, the shaft decoration being an abstracted lifeline and skeletal motif.
The ivory story knife that inspired this piece was collected by Edward Nelson between 1877 and 1881 in the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta.