This collection of 72 art activities explores history, ethnic diversity, human rights, and nature and conservation. Each month has six projects centered on a theme: for example, students paint pictures of women in public service for National Women's History Month, make ecology posters for Keep America Beautiful Month, and create freedom sculptures for Universal Human Rights Month. Each activity includes a follow-up idea and a list of suggested books. Grades 3-6. Illustrated. Good Year Books.

Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon have taken an ancient practice and made it new. A String and a Prayer recounts the history and symbolism of prayer beads, teaches basic techniques for stringing beads and a host of other objects into prayer beads, and offers a variety of prayers and rituals to use those beads on a daily basis. Beads have appeared throughout history. Prayer beads are used in the spiritual practices of cultures as diverse as the African Masai, Native Americans, Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, as well as the religious rituals of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism. But prayer is highly personal. By infusing prayer beads with personal associations, we can keep our spirituality fresh. The beads are a device to help build and rebuild meaningful ritual in our lives. With myriad ideas about what makes objects sacred and where to find sacred objects -- from the personal, perhaps beads from a grandmother's broken rosary, to the unusual, maybe seashells from far away found in a thrift store -- A String and a Prayer offers many suggestions for different ways that beads can be made and used, exploring the creative roles they can play in our relationships, ceremonies, and rituals. "You are the expert, trust yourself. Let the instructions be a guide to your own creativity," write the authors.

Presents illustrated instructions on the basics of beadwork and leather crafts of the American Indians and the early frontier.

Spirit Lands of the Eagle and Bear explores advances in the prehistory and early history of Numic hunter-gatherers in the Rocky Mountain West through the presentation and analysis of archaeological and historic research on the period from the earliest established presence in the Rockies and its borderlands more than a thousand years ago to the forced removal of Ute, Shoshone, and other tribes to reservations in the mid-nineteenth century. New research into Numic archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography is significantly changing the understanding of migratory patterns, cultural interactions, chronology, and shared cultural-religious practices of regionally defined Numic branches and non-Numic populations of the American West. Contributors examine case studies of Ute and Shoshone material culture (ceramics, lithics, features and structures, trade and seasonal migration), chronology (dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence), and subsistence systems (hunting camps, game drives, faunal and botanical evidence of food sources). They also delineate different hunter-gatherer “ethnic groups” who co-occupied or interacted within one another’s territories through trade, raiding, or seasonal subsistence migrations, such as the Late Fremont/Ute and the Shoshone or the early Navajo/Ute and the Shoshone. With a strong emphasis on diverse cases and new and original archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic lines of evidence, Spirit Lands of the Eagle and Bear interweaves anthropological theory and innovative applications of leading-edge scientific methodologies and technologies. The book presents a cross-section of field, laboratory, and ethnohistoric studies—including indigenous consultation—that explore past, recent, and ongoing developments in Numic cultural history and prehistory. It will be of interest to scholars of Southwestern archaeology, as well as private and government cultural resource specialists and museum staff. Contributors: Richard Adams, John Cater, Christine Chady, David Diggs, Rand Greubel, John Ives, Byron Loosle, Curtis Martin, Sally McBeth, Lindsay Montgomery, Bryon Schroeder, Matthew Stirn

The classic guide to crazy quilting, now with new projects, stitches, and techniques For nearly 30 years, The Crazy Quilt Handbook has been the essential guide to the fine art of crazy quilting. This newly updated edition brings you more of everything that makes crazy quilting wonderful: gorgeous stitches, embellishments, fabulous crazy quilt photos, and updated beautiful projects to make for yourself. Learn all the ways you can use crazy quilting to decorate clothing and accessories, beautify your home, share family memories, and create heirlooms for future generations. This is the must-have resource for any crazy quilter, whether you are just a beginner or are an experienced stitcher looking to enhance your technique. • The best-selling crazy quilting guide from world-renowned expert Judith Baker Montano (over 230,000 copies sold!), now updated with new stitches and techniques • Includes 12 beautiful projects, a dictionary of 37 embroidery and silk ribbon stitches, and instructions for additional embellishments • Benefit from Judith’s wealth of knowledge on colors, fabrics, piecing, embroidery, appliqué, embellishing, beading, photography, painting, dyeing, and more

Here is everything the beader needs to know about using peyote stitch to create both flat and three-dimensional pieces. Thread, beads, graphing techniques, and five projects are thoroughly explained, and a brief history, with photographs, describes the differences between today's stitch and the Native American original. The highlight of the book is a full-color photo gallery of peyote-stitched beadwork by the authors and 20 other nationally known artists, sure to inspire both the beginning and the veteran beadworker.

A handicraft guide to American Indian beadwork for those seeking the fundamentals of construction and ideas of design—fully illustrated throughout. American Indian Beadwork includes: -Directions for beading stitches -Directions for making and stringing a loom -Fifty-four black-and-white photographs of actual Indian beadwork -Thirteen full-color pages of 132 authentic Indian patterns for your own beadwork