Headdress, Junkanoo

1994 FAF: The Bahamas

The headdress is comprised of several components. Described from the bottom up: there is cardboard strip meant to go around the neck, several vertical strips of cardboard that would have covered the face, a crown with two appendages shaped like elongated fleur-de-lis’s extend on either side of the face, and a swan emerges from the crown. Each component is elaborately decorated with paint (coral, lite pink, white, indigo, green, and yellow), tinsel, half-spheres of Styrofoam, glitter (in the shape of snowflakes), and plastic jewels of assorted colors and shapes. From the crown, there are three additional crepe paper decorations: at the top there is an additional crepe paper decoration of a flower / star / sun with a large blue jewel at the center; on the back there is a flap extending at the base of the crown (which shields the neck and back of the head of the wearer); and on the top of the back of the crown is a design of three circles meeting at the center point on the crown. Finally, there is a black elastic attached to the inside of the headdress for fastening to a person’s head and the words "Puckas Cowbell" written in black marker.

Handmade; crepe paper painted onto cardboard

Made before the Festival, but solely for the Festival. Used during the Junkanoo Parade Demonstration and left by a participant

50 Years | 50 Objects: Storied Objects from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. June, 2017.

http://festival.si.edu/50objects