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Listen: The Blues ProgramMary Billie threading a Seminole doll body to prepare for the head - Big Cypress Reservation, Florida
Image Number
Date Note
Rights
Collection
Seminole Slide/Tape Project (Palmetto Dolls)
Geographic Term
Subject Term
Personal Subjects
Physical Description
General Note
Mary B. Billie has been a dollmaker since she was 17. She learned the skill by watching her mother, who had learned it from Mary's grandmother.
"Mary often saves time by stuffing the bodies with cotton instead of fiber, 'since the body doesn't need much sewing.'"
Accompanying note: "Mary stuffs the head with pieces of palmetto fiber. 'If she uses something else like cotton, the needle won't go through that cotton. So she uses that palmetto fiber. Then she would put the palmetto fibers inside the doll to make it stand.'"
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