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Maxine was born on November 6, 1956, in Alert Bay, British Columbia. Her family is originally from Turnour Island, B.C. Maxine is the granddaughter of Chief Henry Speck, a famous Kwakwaka'wakw artist and chief. Her lineage is the Tlauitsis-Mumtagila people. This translates to the angry, growling bear people from Turnour Island.
While Maxine grew up surrounded by the culture, she did not start producing button blankets until 1984. She learned the technique from her mother and grandmother. One of the distinctive features about Maxine's blankets is that there is no appliqué. All of the design work is done in buttons. She does most of her blankets this way, thus creating distinctive signature pieces of her own.
About Button Blankets
The button blanket, which came into use after contact, has now become the most popular piece of contemporary feast attire. At first, crest designs decorated with dentalium shells were sewn onto wool blankets acquired from maritime fur traders and later the Hudson's Bay Company. By the middle of the last century, the favored blanket was made of blue duffle, with the designs appliquéd in red stroud. Squares of abalone shell were sewn to the eyes and joints of the crest figures to reflect bits of light as the wearer danced around a fire. When pearl buttons obtained from fur traders came into use, they proliferated onto the formlines. Today, buttons are sometimes used to fill entire zones of the design elements and even the whole field of the background.
A modern potlatch can bring forward a hundred or more button blankets from the participants. At a traditional naming ceremony, it is now considered essential to present the recipient with a special blanket decorated with a family crest. A century after the button blanket was first developed, it has become a symbol of social and artistic rebirth among the Haida.
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