Melissa Fowler, owner of Creatively Indigenous is an Anishinaabe birchbark and beadwork artist. Melissa is inspired by traditional designs and art forms of the Great Lakes regions and enjoys incorporating them in her design process. Melissa renders her own floral patterns and designs by creating her own floral stencils, tracing her patterns on to birchbark, and then cutting her floral patterns out into individual pieces. She then sands and prepares each individual piece to be used in her artwork. When she creates her birchbark and buckskin purses, she layers her prepared birchbark pieces onto a birchbark sheet and then sews them down into the desired design with sinew. Melissa loves to embellish her birchbark art with contemporary and traditional materials such as gems, rocks, stones, ivories, crystals, and antique trade beads.