United States · Hide/Skin Craft / Waterproof Garment Making
Imarnin (Yup'ik term for gut parka)
A precise sewing technique using seal or other marine-mammal sinew thread stitched only partway through sealskin or marine-mammal gut, exploiting sinew's property of swelling when wet to seal the needle holes and produce a genuinely waterproof seam — the functional basis of parkas and boots that predate synthetic waterproof fabric by thousands of years.
Risk level: Endangered · Not Applicable — the United States is not a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; no US technique can be formally ICH-inscribed regardless of significance.
An eight-pointed diamond-pieced star quilt pattern that replaced painted buffalo-hide ceremonial robes after the near-extermination of the buffalo herds, becoming, within roughly a generation, one of the central symbols of Lakota honor,…
A transitional Plains narrative art form in which warrior-artists adapted the older tradition of painting personal exploits on buffalo hide to the pencil, ink, and colored-pencil pages of trade or captured account ledger books, flourishing…
The painting of bold, symmetrical geometric designs onto stiff, dampened rawhide before it is folded into an envelope-style carrying case, developed to meet the portable-storage needs of horse-mounted nomadic Plains life.
Hand-quarrying and carving of the soft red pipestone (catlinite) found almost uniquely at a sacred quarry site in southwestern Minnesota, worked into ceremonial pipe bowls used in prayer and, historically, treaty and diplomatic ceremonies…
The oldest Plains embroidery technique, in which softened and dyed porcupine quills are sewn or wrapped onto hide, birchbark, or sinew-strung bases in geometric and symbolic patterns, largely supplanted by glass-bead trade goods in the…
A Plains-originated beading technique in which short strung rows of glass beads are tacked to hide or fabric in regular parallel lanes, producing a distinctive ribbed, slightly raised surface well suited to the bold geometric designs…
The saddlery and bridle-making tradition of Walsall — the West Midlands town that is Europe's largest saddlery production center, responsible for approximately 70% of all UK saddlery and significant global export.
Leather bags hand-painted after construction with original artwork (abstract color blocks and textured brushwork) applied with brush and palette as on a canvas, so that an industrially finished leather piece is artistically 'intervenido'…
Capal is the traditional Malay leather sandal worn as part of formal Malay dress — the baju melayu outfit worn at Hari Raya, weddings, and official Malay cultural occasions.
The Greenlandic sealskin craft tradition — the making of the traditional Inuit/Greenlandic garments (amauti mother's coat, kamik boots, and kapatak trousers) from ringed seal skin using traditional Inuit processing and sewing techniques.
The Greek sandal making tradition — the production of the distinctive Greek leather sandals whose designs are drawn from ancient Greek sandal forms documented in Classical sculpture and vase painting.
The making of working and decorative horse harness, saddles, and leather equipment in the South Tyrolean Alpine tradition — combining functional precision with the decorative vocabulary of Tyrolean folk art (painted floral motifs on…