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Bella Custom Frame Gallery's February 2001 show featured the photographs and textile collection of Phila McDaniel, second from left with visitors to the gallery for the opening of this exhibit.

Stella, left, with Steve, co-owner of Bella Gallery, host of Phila McDaniel's show.

Phila, a local resident of Lake Elsinore, California, talks to Joyce, co-owner of Bella Custom Frame Gallery, located in Lake Elsinore.

Phila, second from left, recently returned from an expedition to Guizhou, China. There she collected folk art, costumes, and ornamentation from the minority Miao and Dong peoples of southwestern China.

In photographs and examples, the Miao people's extraordinary skill in fabricating silk and silver costumes is featured here. Many of the guests attending the show opening have participated on Phila's tours of these remote areas of China. Guides on Phila's tours speak English and Mandarin. A local guide speaks the native Miao language and Mandarin.

Joyce shows some of the ornaments Phila collected from remote Miao villages in southeastern China.

Steve, Joyce, and Phila enjoy telling the guests about the people who made the items, the fabrication of the textiles and ornaments, and how these works of art were used by the people.

Many of the older and rarer ormaments are available for close inspection. The Miao people process silk by hand to make it appear shiny, black, and green all at the same time.

This silver relief with inlayed copper shows fine detail.

Embroidered silk elephant.

Steve, in front of photographs of lilies, helped Joyce frame and hang the works in the gallery.