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Virtual Bead Loom

Jamie O'Brien

Cultural Significance/ History

Bead loom is based on four-fold symmetry. Traditional bead loom existed before European contact, and new versions are still in use today. There are four different designs: Embroidery, Shoshone, Pawnee, and Navajo.

Embroidery

Embroidery,

Plains Indians

If you have the same shape reflected in both directions, it is called "four-fold symmetry." Four-fold symmetry is a deep design theme in many Native American cultures. It is used as an organizing principle for religion, society, and native technology.

Shoshoni Bead Work

Wampum beads were made from welk shells. Other traditional beads were made from shells, as well as stone, ceramics, and metal. Native Americans gradually adopted European beads as they became available. Today's beadwork styles show both traditional and contemporary influences.

Shoshoni Bead work

Navajo Rug

Navajo sand paintings provide good examples of four-fold symmetry. A medicine man ("hataalii") completes the drawing in one day, using colored powder such as crushed stone. The painting is brushed away later that night, along with the illness. In the Navajo religion, the hataalii heals through the balance of forces. Sand paintings often use reflection symmetry to show these paired forces.

Navajo rug

Mathematical Connections

Mathematical Connections

The bead loom is much like a Cartesian coordinate system. We have beads in rows and columns: the X axis and the Y axis.

Software Demo

Software

Demo

  • put a coordinate in for x and y (that's where the bead will be placed)
  • Depending on the tool you use, you will get different shapes when using: the point tool, line tool, rectangle tool, and triangle tool.
  • The color button allows you to select the bead color

The Triangle Tool:

example

  • "Direction" -- determines in which direction your rows will accumulate
  • Starting at X,Y -- that is the center of the starting row.
  • "After every ___ rows" -- lets you determine how many rows you go through before adding more beads to the end.
  • "Add ___ to both ends" -- the number of beads that will be added on each side of the center each time.
  • "For ___ rows in total" -- how many rows you will bead in this triangle.

Original Design:

Original Design #1

I picked the goal image I wanted and it set up a triangle for me and I filled in the colors that related to the goal image.

Original Design #2:

Original Design #2

First, I used the rectangle function to help set this up. Then I added points to match the goal picture, and I changed the color of the beads so they would correspond with the goal picture.

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