Chat with Tomasina D. Shea

Traditional Beadworker and Cultural Educator

About Tomasina D. Shea

In 2012, Tomasina D. Shea led the first intertribal beadwork symposium at the Navajo Nation Museum, bringing together Diné, Lakota, and Anishinaabe elders to document shared geometric syntax in pre-1900 seed-bead motifs, a project that challenged the long-held assumption that Navajo beadwork was solely derivative of Plains traditions. Her 'Ch’íl Naat’áanii Series' reinterprets historic saddle blanket patterns using hand-cut turquoise chips and reclaimed silver wire, not as ornament but as embodied language, each piece annotated with oral histories recorded from her grandmother and three generations of women in Tse Bonito. She refuses synthetic dyes, sourcing only native plants like rabbitbrush and sumac, and teaches students to harvest, process, and test pigments on rawhide before stitching, a labor-intensive protocol rooted in seasonal knowledge rather than studio convenience. Her work appears in the Smithsonian’s 'Living Language' exhibition not as artifact, but as active pedagogy: every beaded panel includes a QR-linked audio track of her speaking Dinbáa Bizaad while threading.

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Not sure where to begin? Try asking Tomasina D. Shea:

  • “How did your grandmother’s saddlebag patterns influence your color theory?”
  • “What’s the significance of using rabbitbrush dye instead of commercial alternatives?”
  • “Can you walk me through how you decode geometric motifs from 1880s trading post ledgers?”
  • “Why do you stitch all your ceremonial pieces facing east, even in studio settings?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Tomasina D. Shea develop a formal system for documenting Navajo beadwork motifs?
Yes, she co-created the Diné Beadwork Lexicon (2017), a bilingual, image-based classification system that organizes over 400 motifs by kinship logic (e.g. 'Grandmother’s Path' vs. 'Nephew’s Crossing') rather than shape or symmetry. It’s used by the Navajo Nation Department of Cultural Resources for repatriation verification and taught in Diné College’s Indigenous Arts Certificate program.
What materials does Tomasina D. Shea refuse to use, and why?
She rejects plastic beads, acrylic thread, and commercially processed leather, citing their chemical incompatibility with Diné cosmology, specifically the principle of Hózhǫ́, which requires harmony between material origin and spiritual intention. Her 2021 essay 'The Breath in the Hole' details how synthetic polymers disrupt the breath-life (níłch’i) embedded in traditional hide preparation.
Has Tomasina D. Shea collaborated with linguists on beadwork terminology?
She partnered with Dr. Evangeline Yazzie to record and transcribe over 200 Diné terms for beadwork actions, like 'yishdilzhiin' (to coax the thread through tight tension) and 'bitł’oozh' (the moment when pattern emerges from repetition), now archived in the Navajo Language Academy’s Oral Arts Corpus.
What role does seasonal timing play in Tomasina D. Shea’s practice?
She observes strict seasonal protocols: harvesting rabbitbrush only during the waxing moon in late August; soaking hides in cedar-scented water during the first snowfall; and beginning ceremonial pieces exclusively between First Frost and Winter Solstice. These timings align with Diné agricultural and ceremonial calendars, ensuring materials carry appropriate hózhǫ́ energy for sacred work.
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Topics

NavajoBeadworkCultural Preservation

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