The rope is sinew and cedar root?. The paint is red and black.

Wood, stomachs, bladders, and skins were used by Northwest Coast fishermen and sea hunters to make floats of many sizes. The largest and most impressive were whaling floats made of the skins or hair, of harbor seals. Painted designs on most whaling floats are similar to these. Concentric circles in various combinations of red and black, with simple geometric elaboration, make up the patterns. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

Cedar bark mat with concentric square pattern. [CAK 28/05/2010]

Cedar bark to be used in the Tseyka, the Kwakwaka'wakw Winter Ceremonial, was dyed an orange-red with the inner bark of the red alder. This dyed bark was used alone or mixed with undyed bark to form red and pale buff stripes or patterns according to the traditional arrangement for each Tseyka participant. Principal participants wore cedar bark neck rings as part of their insignia: some of them simple lengths of shredded bark tied into a loop and hung with bark tassels, some plied into red or candy-striped ropes, and others of varying degrees of elaboration in twisted, wrapped, and plaited work. This triple neck ring is one of the most elaborate. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)