Porcupine Hair Roach
Porcupine Quilled Pipestem
Possible Bags

Anyone who has been in the "hobby" for awhile soon discovers that there is a wealth of information out there on just about any Native American craft topic. Many articles and guides have been written. Most were handed out at Boy Scout meetings, powwows, and other gatherings. Rarely did anyone try to make any money publishing them and most were written to help out friends and other hobbyists. We have a substantial collection of these types of articles. We're not even sure where some of them came from. We wrote some of the articles below and others were written by friends and acquaintances. We have no idea if any of the authors are enforcing their copyrights. If you wrote one of these articles and do not wish it to appear here, please let us know and we'll remove it. Also note that in some cases, the text varies somewhat from the original where we corrected spelling or typographical mistakes.

Beadwork Design - Sioux Style Pipebag
Porcupine Quillwork
The Porcupine & Porcupine Quillwork - By Pat Hartless
Sioux Style Lazy Stitch Beadwork - How to Do It
So, You Wanna Make - Simple craft instruction flyers

The California Indian Hobbyist Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of Native American customs including craftwork, powwows, Hethuska, and other activities. In the 1970's and 1980's, the organization published a series of craft articles for their members. While styles change, the techniques presented are as valuable today as they were then. Most are not particularly detailed, but will give you a place to start in learning these crafts. We are pleased to present this collection of craft techniques for your use. Feel free to copy them and distribute them to others as you desire. The only limitation is that you may not package them for resale in anyway. These are CIHA's gift to the public.

All the graphic art images on this site are of items in our personal collection unless otherwise noted. While we generally do not offer these types of items for sale, similar items are available in the marketplace. If you would like to obtain a similar item, we would be happy to try and locate a museum quality example. Because of the rarity of antiquities and exceptional contemporary items, a search may take many months. Depending on the item, prices can range from a few hundred dollars up into the thousands. Please contact us with your needs and we'll quote a rough price based on current market conditions.

We are pleased to share our collection with you, but please note that we retain all copyright to the images on this site. In the spirit of sharing, you are free to use the graphics for non-commercial purposes. Please include the following credit line with a link to our site:

Native American art images © Matoska Trading Company Inc.

If you wish to use the images on a business web site, please contact us for special arrangements.