secrets revealed part 3
Unit one
Intro
Welcome to the Secrets Revealed Class Part 3. I am so excited to have you join me on this journey. What started many moons ago as an idea has grown to a now three series online class.
As I slowly take you though my process of bead embroidery and art planting seeds of inspiration ideas and techniques along our path. I wanted to add a new seed the seed of spirituality. My spiritual path is such a part of my art that they are one. I started practicing shamanism over a decade ago and though I practice shamanism I am not a shaman. Shamanism to me is honoring the Earth and all her being, every being has a spirit and when one connects to those spirits we gather allies that can help us along the journey of life.
Please don't feel you need to practice any of the spiritual practices I will share with you, just as you don't have to make every project I share. Gather what resonates with you and water those seeds.
Peacefully Heidi Frieda Kummli
part one
smudging
The first time I learned to smudge with sage it was like a coming home, something in my DNA was rekindled.
It was sacred, it was grounding, it was humbling.
I smudge often not only does it cleanse your space and mind, it grounds you and frees the thinking. In the video below I show you how to smudge or cleanse your space with sage or whatever herb you desire.
part two
birthday earrings
These earrings were inspired by the beautiful woven baskets in the first slide, these baskets were made by women in Africa using telephone wire. I wanted to share how using different colors and geometric shapes to your bead work can give a tribal or ethnic feel to your work.
We are also going to be exploring how too bring healing medicine and energy into your work by incorporating natural gemstones.
That's where I came up with the name for this project "Birthday earrings" as I was thinking about using birthstones as a starting point.
The photos above are for your inspiration of how changing the color of your beads in a specific way can add so much to your pieces.
I have attached a PDF with the some healing stones and their medicine.
Please watch the video on how to make your Birthday earring or make them into a pendant.
Cut your patterns using the templates in the PDF or make your own. You can use colored pencils to fill in your design.
Pick your stones and bead coloration's. Bead embroider your creations. You can make earrings or a pendant with the template.
Edge your pieces and add metal rings to hang them from.
birthday earrings video
In the beginning, the Creator organized and created all living things. As human beings, we come to our Earth Walk and as our spirit enters our body with our first breath, we begin our journey as individual souls. As our artist ways begin to take shape, indigenous people through out the world began their quest for creating. As a Lakota/Assiniboine woman, an artist, storyteller, musician, I began to learn and understand the masters before me. The elders who have been beading and bending porcupine quills, making dyes from plants, and began trading with the white men, for the beads they brought with them from Europe. It is our way to show humility to the Creator, to show a flaw in our bead work. It expresses how we know we are not perfect, only the Great Spirit is.
By Rose Red Elk-Red Feather Woman
Light Woman anxiously awaited the arrival of the Blue Coats. They would have with them, a group of white traders who traveled from the strange land across the waters. She had dealings with the traders, many moons ago. She made leather pouches in exchange for bags of glass beads. She expected them to have more beads, and they did.
Carefully after bargaining with the white men, she hurried back to her camp to complete her beaded cradle board. Quietly she strung her sinew (thread), caressing the board placing her design together. As she weaved the beads with her thread, she thought of her new grandchild.
With each bead she placed a prayer for the unborn child. Each bead held a prayer for good things to come, protection, well being and a healthy long life. As she strung the bead, she purposely left a color off center, adding an additional bead to the pattern, a spirit bead. A flaw was created.
This flaw communicated to the Great Spirit her humility, proving she was not perfect, nor was her beadwork. The spirit bead was special, the connection to the unseen world where the ancestors live, guiding Light Woman and her people.
light women's spirit bead
Copyright © 2026
by Heidi F Kummli
All rights reserved. This course or any portion there of it, may not be reproduced, or taught in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author.