Deciphering Seminole Patterns

The people who’ve been joining me for the Seminole Patchwork with Paper series were just treated to learning this chain-link pattern during session 9. They were also treated to hearing me go on and on about how difficult it was for me to decipher this pattern. Then yesterday Greta, a regular participant, emailed, asking if I would share how I decipher the patterns. I’m going to attempt to answer this here.

The most straightforward way to learn a pattern is to have some one else explain it, which is why I’ve referenced books. Below is page 36 from The Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork by Beverly Rush with Lassie Wittman, published by Dover, 1982.

Page 36 from The Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork by Beverly Rush with Lassie Wittman, published by Dover, 1982

Even when looking at diagrams there are a few key concepts to keep in mind.

The first thing to notice is that all of shapes in the pattern have a whole number relationship to each other, meaning that each shape is the same, twice as long, three times as long, four times as long, or some other whole number as long as the smallest square shape.

The next thing to keep in mind is that the orientation of the shapes as they move horizontally across the page are either vertical or at a 45 degree angle.

Cut strips of paper are aligned either vertically to the page, or at a 45 degree angle.

Next, I have to imagine each section of the diagram as the continuous band it was cut from. The center design in the diagram above from the book is made from two bands, one with seven strips, the other with three strips. I know this from counting, or from the label 2 (7,3) which is above the diagram.

Bands of color used to make the strips for the center left design on the book page above

It was fairly simple to decide how wide each strip of color should be for this pattern because I could look at a gridded diagram. I just had to imagine the grid as being upright, and count the number of squares in each section.

Thinking about everything in terms of a grid of squares is key.

I know that the making of these designs requires cutting bands into strips. It was fairly simple to decide how wide each strip of color should be for this pattern because I could look at a gridded diagram. I just had to imagine the grid as being upright, and count the number of square in each section. From the diagrams in the book, I’d be able to figure out how wide to make the bands of each color. Remembering that the strips would be straight up and and down or laid down at a 45 degree angle, I also have to consider whether or not the strips need to be rotated by a half turn.

Half-turn rotation of the strips is another key concept.

As I browsed through every resource I could dig up, I’d come across motifs that there were no diagrams for. I would have to imagine the grid on the pattern. The chain link at the top of this page and below was one that I I couldn’t find diagrams for.

The first thing to notice is the smallest square. I can trust that the length of the other blocks of color will be a multiple of this square. and not a particularly large multiple, which is nice to note as I can’t make very many wrong choices. If you look at the small light blue square above, can you assess how many of the will fit into the longer blocks of color? If you can, then you are deciphering the width of the colors. that are needed to make this pattern.

Turns out the chain-link pattern uses just two bands, all cut the same width. The tricky part is seeing how to rotate the strips in relationship to each other. You just have to keep looking and analyzing what’s the same and what’s different.

Some patterns are easy to decipher, as they only require cutting the strips the same way and laying them down next to each other at a 45 degree angle. It’s when multiple bands are used which are different widths, and which utilize rotations that things start getting confusing. A bit a tenacity, a willingness to make mistakes, and having lots of paper and glue is recommended.

The week 10 design in this this series will have all of the above.

As a closing note, I have to say that all the time I spend deciphering the structure of the Zhen Xian Bao, which is also based on squares and the diagonal of squares, as well as all the time I spend working with patterns from Islamic Geometric Designs provides me with a good foundation from which to work from when I look at the Seminole designs. Then there’s math, which has been my foundation for all it. What I like to say about math is that it’s empowering. Can’t overstate that enough.