In honor of Native American and Indigenous Heritage Month in November, I sat down with Cynthia Masterson, Teaching Artist and owner of BlueDot Beadwork, to learn more about her Native American heritage and why beads are so important to her.
Cynthia moved to Seattle from Tulsa, Oklahoma over 26 years ago when she met her husband and wanted to move to a big city. While she enjoys living in Seattle and is connected to the Native American community here, she returns to Oklahoma three to four times a year to maintain a connection to her family and culture, which are rooted in her Comanche lineage on her mother's side. "I'm a descendant from one of the last great chiefs of our tribe, Quanah Parker," she shares, "He was one of the founders of Native American Church and in his day had gone to Washington to advocate the use of peyote as a sacrament because it was illegal."
Cynthia values her frequent visits to Oklahoma because of its close knit Native American community and family. She explains,
"You're related to so many people and the roots go very deep. I'm always in Oklahoma for our own powwow, for our Comanche homecoming. I love going home just to access my own culture. While Seattle is really Native friendly, the traditions aren't mine... [Oklahoma has] such a strong community that comes together and to hear your songs and dance with people—it's just a really special thing and with a lot of history behind it so I love to go home and participate."
A desire to connect to her culture in a tangible way is why Cynthia started beading about 20 years ago. She learned the 3-drop gourd weaving technique which she explains on her website as,
"A bead weaving technique done one bead at a time around cylindrical objects. The patterns are mathematically based and the designs are impossible without a lot of calculating, counting and re-counting before starting a project. This style is traditional to Southern Plains tribes and is used on dance regalia, ceremonial items & everyday objects."
She is self-taught and learned from watching videos by someone from her church, as well as asking questions on online message boards. While creating her art, she also began teaching beadwork, starting with the Seattle Indian Health Board and working with other groups such as Native American foster youth, Indian educational program, etc. Cynthia especially loves working with Native American pre-med students because "learning beading helps them find balance in a stressful profession while also building skills like dexterity, focus, and problem-solving."
Cynthia eventually gained recognition for her work and participated in multiple museum exhibitions, including the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus, and was awarded several fellowships in the arts.
Cynthia explains the difference between Gourd and Peyote stich for the Burke Museum.
During the pandemic, Cynthia expanded her teaching to include "kit classes." The First People's Fund Fellowship, an arts organization in South Dakota, first brought her the idea. As a fellowship recipient, they asked her to teach online classes and assembled kits and mailed them all over the country. Cynthia loved providing access to culturally appropriate beadwork to everyone, as well as encouraging people to connect to their own culture. She explains that beads are universal and shares, "if you're wanting to learn about your culture, just start by looking at the beads...that's a great place to start." Cynthia loved the work she did during the pandemic, "Doing virtual lessons was great. I really, really loved it. I felt so connected. I felt like I was flourishing and reaching a whole bunch of people."
Cynthia's passion for beading eventually dissipated after the first friend she made in Seattle died from cancer about a year ago. She shares about its impact,
"We knew it was coming. It was a really brutal cancer situation. Just after that, I really could never quite get back that joy I got from beading anymore. I still will do a few things here and there and I'll try. I have this piece that I've been working for for four years that's pretty complex. Ever since she died, I just cannot get that back."
While Cynthia is taking a break from beading, her love and passion for teaching remains. She currently teaches beadwork to companies and schools. She explains her process,
"I am sparking creativity in boardrooms, classrooms, and events with beads. I'll come into your space and talk to you about your goals and meet with your team. Most of the time, they just want a social, relaxing activity while others want team building or creativity. But we can make it what you want it to be and I'll come in with everything ready to complete in whatever timeline you have."
Cynthia shared how much she enjoyed teaching these classes and has a lot of fun seeing people create and use their creativity. She provides materials for projects and will witness people create something completely different than she would ever have imagined.
In addition to teaching classes, Cynthia also started a nonprofit project called "Little Bead Library," which is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. Just like "Little Free Libraries" that populate streets all over Seattle where residents can give or take a book, the Little Bead Libraries are stocked with beads and encourage people to both take and/or give beads to the community. Cynthia explains how this started,
"We've got a puzzle library, a craft library, somebody made a library of sticks for dogs. I just kind of wanted my little spin to reflect my heritage and background. But also, in the pandemic I got so many beads―surplus beads...people who gave me their bead collections and I just wound up with so many."
There are currently two locations, with the first located in front of a yəhaw̓ house and the other in her neighborhood in Ballard. Cynthia is hoping to have more locations throughout the greater Puget Sound area. Whenever she visits the locations and sees that someone has left beads, she feels "a little moment of joy."
You can learn more about Cynthia's beadwork, as well as her creativity classes by visiting her website BlueDot Beadwork. To reach Cynthia directly, email her at cynthia@bluedotbeadwork.com.