man's headdress

This headdress is created on a raffia structure that is made in what appears to be a wrapped twining technique. This technique involves wrapping a diagonal-downward traveling element over a grid-like structure. The raffia support was likely colored with dark thick pigment on both the interior and exterior prior to the ornamentation attachment. To this structure numerous seeds, various sized mussel shells, and button are sewn with a raffia fiber. There are five types of buttons sewn to one section of the headdress (approximately one quadrant). Eight of these buttons were off-white prior to being coated with a brown-black wash of pigment; they now appear slightly brown or golden. Four of the buttons are green; two buttons are brown, and the largest brown button is located towards the top of the headdress. The shells are likely treated with a similar, but more opaque pigment.

At the top of the headdress a piece of fabric is attached. This fabric looks like a twill weave, which has been coated with either a pigment or dirt. To this fabric 31 beads are sewn, which have also been toned with brown-black pigment as seen in the lower section of the headdress. Erupting from this fabric are 51 strands of elephant tail hair. Approximately 3 1/2-inches from the fabric the hairs are gathered in a 2-inch long barrette created by folding a raffia fiber around the flat bundle of hairs, and wrapping a separate raffia fiber around this initial barrette structure. The hairs are then free to curve down towards the bottom of the headdress.