Wolf Spirit Smudge Fan

This is a wolf spirit fan I completed for a friend. She had things she wanted added to it--and I took it further.

The handle was already beaded. This time was not my work. It had come from an Ojibewe elder that was selling stuff at an estate sale or something. She had bought a lot of bags of stuff. (I got goodies in trade for assembling this fan). I had to take that handle, a pendant with a petrified wood stone in it, and a cheap metal snake ring and make something of it.

I adhered the handle to a grizzled rooster wing. Braided buckskin makes up the base of the wing and the fringe. I added wolf hide (hair on) from an antique sleigh blanket. (No new wolves were killed for this--the blanket is over 80 years old).

I edged the hide with glass seed beads, anchored with turquoise nuggets, red glass e-beads, and sinew. I'll add the other photos tomorrow--but the pendant is hanging below by the leather and the snake ring is wrapped around the handle at the top. The wing itself is anchored to the wood handle with a headless nail then tied with sinew and glued.

I can't wait to play more with the wolf hide. The blanket is nearly enough to cover a queen sized bed. The back was shot, so I cut it off and have a lot of hide now to play with.


This was a wonderful project. Took a week to complete.