Tortilla/bun warmer (a lidded bowl) by Kasin Hunter, August 2001

Although I started this tortilla/bun warmer last year, with the move of residence, this project had been put aside until this month. The piece below is finally about 95% done.

The first shot below is a full frontal view. Depicted is an American Indian female dressed in a pattern-rich cloak and skirted bottom. The lid - the cloak portion - lifts off so the tortillas can be placed inside the bowl - the skirt portion. Food will rest on a hot pack to keep it moist and warm during dinner.

The warmer has several distinct images, mostly each of the views are separated by trails - borders of either walking family members, woven bands, or enameled copper ribbon.
Featured scenes on the skirt:

a front corn/feather pairing,
a vista of pollinating bees,
a large stylized ear of corn,
butterflies and geometric forms depicting butterflies,
a chicken feeding on corn kernals,
and my stylization of the Maze of Life.

Featured scenes n the upper cloak portion (the lid):

8 ears of corn,
a large stylized butterfly at the nape of her neck,
a copper inlaid bird on her collar,
a silver enameled earring in the shape of a female.

Between scene segments and continuing onto the bottom are trails of mountains and figures found in muliples symbolizing her family, her tribe, if you will - the people in her life who are important, people who she has fed and taken care of; people who have in turn, taken care of her. An example of their walk can be seen on the Bottom picture below.

Panning from left to right, the left image shows a close-up of her head, textured strands of hair, silver earring and an inlaid piece of copper sheeting shaped as bird-shaped button clasp.
Although the pictures can't translate its beauty, her blouse is a sparkling red-copper enameling. Most of the scene images have been enameled on this piece.

The trails wrap around to the bottom.

A close up of the Maze of Life segment:

A close up of the chicken and enameled butterfly on the nape of her neck.

I'll be working on a wrap for inside the warmer - a woven, gourd-colored cloth, 20 X 20 inches with the same corn seen on the gourd. When done, I'll post it. To date, that's the progress on this piece.

August 25th UPDATE As promised I put a wrap together. I chose an off-white color linen then imaged four corns on each corner. Then I flipped it over and mirrored the same. So if you flip the corners up, you will see corn on both side in each of the corners. I did this with Tulip Puffy puff paint only because I had never worked with puff paint before and wanted to try it. It's fun.

Here is the wrap cloth inside the lidded bowl. To use at a meal, you would take off the lid, place the tortillas or rolls inside, then turn the corners in over the food, then replace the lid to keep the food warm during the meal.

Here is a close-up of the cloth. The corns on the cloth are minics of the ones on the warmer basket itself.

(By the way, I took these last two photos with my new digital camera. What fun! No film to process and immediate gratification!)

I'm going to find the right heating stone/element next.

Thank you for visiting.
Kasin.

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