Indigenous jewelry designer Tiffany Vanderhoop was introduced to the idea of craftwork when growing up in Aquinnah, a coastal town located on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. When she was younger, Vanderhoop—who is Haida and Aquinnah Wampanoag—was taught how to weave two types of traditional textiles by her mother, Evelyn Vanderhoop, and her sister, Carrie Anne Vanderhoop (her great-grandmother and grandmother were weavers too). “Raven’s Tail is an older style of weaving that uses geometric patterns,” says Vanderhoop. “Naaxiin is another technique that evolved from the geometric weaving, and enabled [makers] to depict family crests and supernatural beings on the garments they wove.”
Learning how to create these styles ignited Vanderhoop’s love of design and adornment. And even as her interests shifted to jewelry making, the artist still wanted to honor the teachings that she learned in the textile space. So when she launched her jewelry label, Huckleberry Woman, in 2018, Vanderhoop began creating beaded statement earrings that incorporate those same Raven’s Tail and Naaxiin techniques. “The Naaxiin ancestor face [earrings] are one of my signature pieces,” says Vanderhoop. “I consider the Naaxiin faces to hold the historical value of the weaving art. This art is held in high esteem and should be known and celebrated.”
Today, Vanderhoop’s colorful, graphic line of earrings are certainly instant outfit-makers. All of Vanderhoop’s earrings are made-to-order using materials such as colorful beads and golden brass. The designer considers herself a bead obsessive. “I use cylindrical beads, and I really enjoy working with the smallest beads I can get,” says Vanderhoop. “My beaded fringe earrings are woven onto a brass frame with tiny brass charms at the bottom, to give a fluid movement to them.”
Even better yet, each piece bears a special meaning behind it. Her Raven’s Tail earrings, for instance, signify a reclamation of culture—especially given there was a time when Indigenous people legally weren’t allowed to engage in their own cultural practices. “There came a point in our history when no one was weaving Raven’s Tail anymore, [though] it has since been revived,” says Vanderhoop. “I like to think of the Raven’s Tail–designed earrings as a tribute to the survival of the weaving. Now we are using fashion as a way of restoring our power; It is all interwoven with cultural revitalization, language reclamation, and social justice movements.”
Within the Indigenous community, Vanderhoop’s earrings have since become a popular accessory. The label’s Instagram page often features wearers of her designs. The designer says jewelry can act as a cultural signifier—a way for wearers to proudly display their heritage and community. “Native peoples have always been immaculate in their attention to detail,” says Vanderhoop, “And have used fashion as a way to display their crests and clans, and tell their family stories.”
