Tafloos
A good number of years ago I was working for one of the outfitters close by the town of Silverton in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado. The summer wrangling season was at an end and I was starting to pack supplies into the back country to set up hunting camps. The days were busy, but I usually found a little time to braid. I always kept a few cut strings in my saddlebags. When I finished a hat band or stampede string I'd have no trouble selling or trading it to one of the hunters. It was during that hunting season that I began to braid over irregular shapes. A few hunters asked me to braid over their elk ivories.
When the season ended I drifted to Arizona to find ranch work to get past the winter months. The work was part time, which left time for braiding. I had a few elk ivories left over from the hunting camps, and I got better at braiding over them. I also got a good string cutter/beveller that winter, and it made all the difference over the old one I was struggling with. My time on that ranch passed easily.
My next ranch job back in Colorado was for one of the Indian tribes. I fit in as ranch hand/caretaker on one of their spreads in the four corners area. The workload wasn't very demanding: feed, irrigate, roll up old fence and fix the newer fence. Again, I didn't have to look hard to find time to braid. Until then I was braiding over elk ivories in a random and experimental sort of way. I was getting good results, but with no real direction. Before leaving that ranch things would change.
One of the fellows in the tribe got to asking me about braid work. He showed an interest in learning and I got him started. He absorbed it quicker than most, and before long he was finishing his first projects. One day I showed him the braided over elk ivories. He told me the significance elk ivories had for his tribe long ago. At the higher elevations of his tribes ancestral territory lightning was a real concern. Elk ivories were believed to offer protection from being struck. The flow of information between us was starting to reach a balance. I was gaining a perspective, and my braiding over irregular shapes was finding a direction.