native american beaded belt - vintage?

[blubirdboutique]

Hello

I have no knowledge of native american art/clothing so I'm not positive but I thought I'd check here to see if anyone had any thoughts. This belt is so pretty and I think even if it's not very old, it's pretty special. But any thoughts on dating? It's made with a very soft, malleable leather with a strip of green suede inserted.

Thanks!

 

[Jonathan]

Its made for an audience who would appreciate Native designs, but its not a traditional style of Native beadwork and the image is not traditional Native aesthetic. I think its quite contemporary - probably 1980s-90s when Western motifs were in and out of fashion.

 

[blubirdboutique]

Thanks Jonathan - I actually did learn a bit about it and yes it is indeed late 80's early 90s. There is a woman who created the template for this design and then artists were free to modify it like mine with the starry sky. Kind of a sad story though, she died of cancer I guess and then soon after her partner died of cancer. Supposedly no one knows what happened to all her inventory and designs.