Contemporary Makers: 2017 CLF Auction Item: Djuana Tucker Quilled Hatband

Sunday, June 11, 2017

2017 CLF Auction Item: Djuana Tucker Quilled Hatband

Once again the Contemporary Longrifle Foundation is presenting a great auction of outstanding items at the The Contemporary Longrifle Association Fund Raising Live Auction. The auction will be held on Friday, August 18, 2017 in the Grand Ball Room at the Lexington Convention Center in Lexington Kentucky. If you cannot attend or are not a member of the CLA there is an absentee bidding process. Contact the CLA for details. This is an auction item.

During the 18^th and 19^th centuries, no self-respecting gentleman – or scoundrel, for that matter – would consider venturing into public without a hat. For the modern-day frontiersman headed for the range, the rendezvous, or the woods, that hasn’t changed.

For those hoping to set their headgear apart from the crowd, CLA artist Djuana Tucker has donated a unique hatband to this year’s fund-raising auction. Typical of Tucker’s work, the piece is constructed with historically appropriate materials. Linen lined with leather reinforced ends, the band, which is 22” long and 5/8” wide, is tastefully adorned with a striking tribal-inspired pattern executed in porcupine quills. The artist relied on authentic natural dyes to achieve the color palette: madder for orange and a custom blend of osage, indigo, and madder to achieve black. Leather lacing on each end of the hat band ensures that the piece is fully adjustable to fit any size hat.

One of the premier quill workers in the nation, Tucker is a regular donor to the CLA auction. Though the artist is firmly grounded in a knowledge of original quillwork, Tucker is a skilled designer in her own right. “I refer to catalogs of museum collections and photographs of original pieces for reference,” she explains, “but I am also inspired by the world around me.” Such an approach affords the artist a good measure of creative freedom. “I tend to focus on design aesthetic and composition rather than perfection in the quillwork pieces I create.