The last week of March was Spring Break for local teenagers. I took the opportunity to drive to visit family and sights in Nebraska. Two hours out of Winnipeg we encountered the floodwaters of the Red River in North Dakota. Arriving in Omaha we checked out the new pedestrian bridge, it sure looks like our bridge in Winnipeg, minus the restaurant in the middle. We then drove Interstate 80 going West, in search of Sand Hills cranes. We were not dissapointed. Continuing on West, at the recommendation of my brother, we took in ‘Carhenge’ Our next destination was Mt Rushmore. Sadly the weather fogged over. More exactly a blizzard hit. We could hardly see the road. My teenagers got the driving challenge they had asked for. Mount Rushmore was invisible. Back in North Dakota, the weather cleared. The boys were satisfied with their Spring Break escape. Pretty amazing what you see when your teenager takes over the camera on a vacation. All in all it was a pretty amazing trip
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I will be attending the Society for Arts in Healthcare annual convention in Buffalo in late April. It occurs to me that the Great Lakes Region was a hotbed of fingerweaving two hundred years ago. I’m scouting out possibilities of visiting sashes in collections along the way. Already I’ve contacted the Royal Ontario in Toronto, Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls, Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. I’m still in the planning stages, but have to firm up plans soon. At present I’m still open to suggestions for places with interesting sash collections, fingerweaving and sprang.
I attended the North American Voyageur Council Fall Gathering last weekend, Nov 6-9, at Ft William, in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Had a lovely time. Gave a fingerweaving workshop. Once again, folks who long ago decided they can’t fingerweave, just plain didn’t have me for a teacher. Some of the sessions were held in Grand Portage, in northern Minnesota. I had the opportunity to see my sashes on the mannequins. I also had the opportunity to examine 3 very old sashes, made in the style of ceinture fleche in the 1800’s. I’ll add their statistics to my collection.
Another beginning fingerweaving workshop started up on October 5, at the Musée de St Boniface Museum. Six keen adults are working their way through the patterns with me on Sunday afternoons learning about ceinture fleche. October 8 found me on an AmTrak train, heading towards Chicago. I stopped in to visit my cousin, niece, and nephew, en route to Mississinewa 1812. Located near Marion, Indianna, the event was lovely, as usual. I had my camera with me, but never thought to take any photos. If any of you out there have a pertinant photo of me, send it on in, and I’ll post it here. Mississinewa is a lovely opportunity to network. So nice to keep in touch with youall. Back in Winnipeg, I’ve finished up a commissioned work. Friday, October 24, I spent filming bits and pieces that will go into a DVD version of my book. We’ll see what the first draft looks like, and I’ll let you know how soon the finished product will be available.
My next project is a series of loom-woven neckscarfs. Hopefully there’s a market here at our winter festival, Le Festival du Voyageur. Met with the folks from the BBC the morning of Sept 3. They are currently producing a six part series presented by Ray Mears about Canada, its history, indigenous cultures and people. Ray Mears is a Bushcraft specialist and Woodsman and the programmes will reflect this expertise as well as Ray learning new skills from other experts. The six programmes are about the Boreal Forest, The Fur Trade, Samuel Hearne, David Thompson, Dr John Rae and the people who live West of the Rockies who have made Cedar wood a huge part of their culture and history. The programmes will be an hour long and will have a mixture of Ray demonstrating traditional living skills, living from the land and meeting various First Nations people and exploring the history of Canada. This morning Ray Mears interviewed me on site in the Atrium of the St Boniface General Hospital concerning my work, creating Assomption sashes, the technique called fingerweaving or ceinture fleche. The resulting program will be aired in the Fall of 2009. That afternoon, I went with my daughter to visit the sheep farm, the Seine River Shepherds. A visit with the shepherdess, Solange, is always a treat. Back to Winnipeg, for the concert Terre Ouverte, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the community of St Boniface. As a member of the Maison des Artistes, I helped in the collection of donations for the new sculpture gardens. Today, Sept 4, the 2nd edition of my book was delivered to my house. I’m down to fewer than 150 copies of the first edition (1260 copies printed). The second edition no longer has the ‘staple together’ or ‘saddle stitch’ binding. Rather it has the kind of edge that displays the title when the book is on the shelf, they call it ‘perfect binding’.
This weekend I’ll hang out with Manitoba Living History Society, as they hold their annual Fall Gathering in Whittier Park. We’ll be celebrating with the Scottish folk of Winnipeg, participating in the St Andrew’s Society Selkirk Settler Parade. As well, I’ve prepared some indigo, and hope to dye 2 lbs of yarn, from pale blue to dark navy. While in Edmonton last week, I had the honor of examining 5 sashes that were fingerwoven in the 1800’s. Very interestingly, 3 of the 5 were strikingly similar. All of the 3 had stories consistent with having been manufactured between 1860 and 1900, all had the same bright colored thread, and a very similar pattern. Striking to me is the looseness of the weave. I’ve been collecting data on sashes. I calculate the number of threads across the width of the sash. Often this means counting the number of threads per ‘lightning’, and multiplying it by the total number of lightnings across the width. I add in the number of threads in the central arrow and voila, total threads. This number, divided by the average width of the sash gives me ‘warp threads per inch’. I find that 20 to 30 threads per inch is common among modern sashes woven with knitting yarn. Tightly woven sashes in museums tend to have 50 to 57 threads per inch. The tightest I’ve examined had 66 threads per inch. I’ve woven a small band with some wool given me by a weaver friend that ended up at 80 threads per inch … something I’m not too keen to repeat. Even more telling is ‘weft threads per inch’. I calculate the number of rows to complete each pattern, and multiply by the number of repeats. (For example if it takes 9 rows to complete an arrow, and there are 60 arrows in the sash, then there are 9 x 60 or 540 rows in the sash. Number of rows divided by length gives me ‘weft threads per inch’. Tightly woven sashes have upwards of 12 wefts per inch. The 3 sashes I speak of in Edmonton had 4 to 6 wefts per inch. I have seen similarly loose sashes in other collections. I find little information in the litterature concerning the origin of these. Has anybody out there noticed this. Anyone have a theory about the origin of these? I find it darn difficult to weave that loosely. Two of the 5 were exquisite, fine thread, tightly woven, excellent condition. One was the sash from the Southesk Collection, recently acquired by the folks of the Royal Alberta Museum. The other was a silk sash, also collected and taken to England by a gentleman, then returned to Canada.
The Pavilion Canadien-Français ran from Aug 3 to 9. Next week, Aug 10 to 17, was the Métis Pavilion. Dressed a bit differently, I gave a similar demonstration, allowing folks the pleasure of making a ‘friendship bracelet’. The project teaches the basics of fingerweaving …. straight out of my book, page 12 & 13. Booksales have been going so well, I’m just about sold out. Fewer than 100 from the original 1200 are left unsold. I’ve ordered another printing, this time doubling the order. This time Friesens will print 2000 copies. The second edition will have ‘perfect binding’ (as opposed to the ‘saddle stitch’ or staple-together-construction of the first edition). Bookstores and libraries tell me that the staple-together binding disappears on the shelf. To be honest, I’ve found this all to be true. I chose the ‘saddle stitch’ wanting the book to lie open on a table while the student is working. I am hoping that the ‘perfect binding’ is perfect enough to allow for both: book will lie open on the table, and will have a spine that is visible on the shelf. Meanwhile I’ve been weaving a one-of-a-kind special order for a special someone. This is a sash and leg ties combo: Next week I’ll be in Edmonton, Alberta, giving a workshop for the folks of Fort Edmonton and St Albert. Later in the week I will be priveleged to tour the Southesk Collection in the Royal Alberta Museum.
Evenings you’ll find me at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Hope youall are enjoying your Summer. Carol July 8 I travelled to Atikokan, Ontario, and Quetico Provincial Park. A lovely place, breathtaking scenery, I was treated to an amazing tour by Val Fraser. Val showed me a sash that had been found in the area, a lovely example of 19th century work. Old Fort William in Thunder Bay was the site of a RendezVous July 9-13 and I was there. The David Thompson Brigade made a spectacular arrival on July 12. Canoe after canoe paddling up to the shore. I was honored to meet Professor Kirk Wipper, Founder of the Canadian Canoe Museum. I also had the pleasure of chatting with Barry Wolframe, retired carpenter at Old Fort William, and fingerweaver extraordinaire. I’ve just competed a pair of suspenders for a client who intends to wear them at a Big Event in his life soon. I have also been corresponding with Steve Pretty of the Braid Society in the UK. We are working on an article to appear in the Braid Society publication ‘Strands’, featuring the technique for the ‘bias weave’ or ‘oblique method’, as well as a biographical piece on Carol James
Canada Day I spent time at the Mint, Citizenship ceremonies, as well as featuring the new coin commemorating the arrival of Samuel de Champlain. July 5&6 Olivia hosted Viking Days in Gimli, Manitoba. I prepared two tablet-woven strips, between which I worked some sprang to form a cap. For perspective, that’s a chop stick in the shed of my sprang. Today, July 9, I finished weaving #8 of the 8 fingerwoven pieces for the Manitoba Heritage project. Now to finish up the fringes, and I’m DONE! Now on to other projects, weaving more sashes, catching up on orders.
I’ve been working on recording the book Fingerweaving Untangled, putting it onto a DVD, along with pertinent video clips. Actually I began voice recording while at Convergence. Unfortunately the mechanism we were using yielded a less-than-desirable product, lots of machine noise in the audio track. So, later this month I intend to actively seek professional help … for the recording of the DVD. Tomorrow I’m off to Thunder Bay, for the Old Fort William RendezVous. Hoping to meet up with the David Thompson Brigade folks again. En route I’ll be stopping by Atikokan, and Quetico Provincial Park. Hope youall are having a pleasant Summer. Flew to Tampa, Florida, for the Handweaver’s Guild of America Convergence 2008. Workshops of all stripes, to totally expand my weaving horizons. Amazing people. Mind blowing exhibits. It seems that the book Fingerweaving Untangled is a hot item. All the vendors had copies, and were wanting more. The 120 copies I had shipped to my hotel room were spoken for immediately.
On the way back I stopped in Minneapolis for the book launch at Ft Snelling. A very pleasant Summer day, lots of visitors to the Fort, a great deal of interest in making a ‘friendship bracelet’. Back in Winnipeg, I’ll be finishing the 8th sample for the Manitoba Museum set. |
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