Tournier’s Creations: Where Métis Beadwork Meets Fashion

Christine Tournier of SS River Designs (South Saskatchewan River) gave us a fun behind-the-scenes look at how she brings her women’s wear collections to life! With support from our Craft and Visual Arts Production and Marketing grants, she’s taken her work to amazing new levels. 

“My name is Christine Tournier. I’m an artisan from Saint Louis, Saskatchewan, and I wanted to tell you a little bit about the next collection that I am working on. I do French Michif beadwork inspired by the land and by the South Saskatchewan River. And this collection is inspired by the bison, as you can see. The bison were return to the Métis homelands specifically to Batoche in 2023, and that really had cultural significance for many people, and it really inspired this collection. I live in Saint Louis, which is near Batoche and seeing the bison being returned to the land inspired this collection and the effect that it has on, community of Métis people.

I usually bead several beadwork pieces in one collection. This is going to be the largest piece of this collection of the bison itself. I’ve incorporated the traditional, usually five petal or four petal flower is common in Métis beadwork. So this would have been like the large five petal flower. But just poking out here at the top of the bison. And then I’ve got a few smaller flowers in here and other florals. Often the Métis beadwork had “mouse tracks” as well, which are the little stems with the little pieces coming out. So I’ve got a bit of that incorporated into this piece as well. And it’s really just a stylized version of, a floral inspired by traditional, Michif beadwork. But, I know mine is sort of a more stylized approach, I guess. I still try to keep the pieces balanced. Often, Métis beadwork was like a mirror reflection from one side to the other. So I use that concept. Not that it’s, exactly mirrored, but that everything balances from side to side. So to sort of have that nice balanced effect.

I use a lot of pink in my collections. For some reason, pink always reminds me of land. It feels like earth or land to me. So in this piece, I used brown for the bison and then, as you can see, a lot of pink. So in addition to this, like I mentioned, this will be the largest piece. And then I also have several five petal pieces that are also featured for the collection. So there are smaller pieces. So typically what I do is, do the pieces and then take photographs of the beadwork in various stages as I’m beading it. And then I use a software to create a pattern that I can then have them printed on to fabric, and then I use those fabrics and incorporate them into my women’s wear collections that I do.

I often use fabric that’s either deadstock or vintage or in limited quantities. And then each piece tends to be really unique itself, or it’s more like a one of a kind, or in very limited quantities so that every piece, sort of feels unique and sort of stands on its own.”

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