Once again the Sashweaver attended the St Boniface, Winnipeg annual winter celebration, the Festival du Voyageur. The sash, an important article of clothing for the men who transported trade goods into and out of the Great White North in the days of the Fur Trade, the sash still holds significance to Canadians. Snow sculptures at the entrance to Voyageur Festival Park depict voyageurs portaging their canoe, and the voyageurs always wear a sash And another snow sculpture I’ve been busy with fingerweaving workshops and demonstrations: Stationed in the temporary museum at Festival Park, I talk with the public about weaving and other skills commonly practiced in the early 1800’s weaving at Festival du Voyageur
0 Comments
The Winnipeg Public Library requested a series of workshops for interested members of the public. The first one was held on Thursday, Feb 5. In two hours, participants mastered the basic technique, and learned to finish off with a fringe. The workshop will be repeated Saturday, Feb 7 and a third time on Saturday March 14.
Local schools who have invited me for the month include École Saint-Joachim, École Héritage Immersion, Viscount Alexandre, John Taylor Collegiate and École Sainte-Anne Immersion. The University of Winnipeg, Materials Culture Class will host me on Friday the 13th where I’ll talk about distinguishing loom woven from fingerwoven. On Louis Riel Day, Febr 16, I’ll give a fingerweaving workshop in Maison Chaboillez, inside the Festival du Voyageur park. 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.
Bruce Middle School hosted me last week. I brought along my display of sashes to help explain the variety of patterns. Students then were given the opportunity to practice the basic method in fingerweaving, each creating for him/herself a ‘wrist sash’. Photos thanks to the students of Bruce Middle School.
Trying to demonstrate the variety possible in this arrow sash genre, I began playing with acrylic yarn, and created several short pieces. Calling them neckscarfs, I’ve been selling them locally, encouraging folks to ‘design your own sash’. I was invited to the Canada Revenue Tax Center yesterday for their Aboriginal Awareness Day. I put up my display of sashweaving, and sold several books. Nice to know that the folks who collect your taxes have a human side to them. I’d like to think they have hobbies, relax, and are sensitive to cultural awarness issues. A friend came over today and we spent the afternoon with her tablet weaving, troubleshooting her problem with a brocading technique. At long last success! Come to find out, the problem was the direction of the threading in the cards, not with the brocading picking at all. I got the pattern working, then we got to chatting, and my attention wandered, and the pattern got a bit muddled. I went from using the two upper threads, to a single upper thread, and back to the double threads in the brocading. Quite interesting, and a nice change from the fingerweaving and loom weaving.
The current ‘Beginning Fingerweaving Class’ is about to end. Students are keen to set up their own sashes and start weaving away. It looks like they’ll continue to meet at the Musée de St-Boniface, so I’m thinking this is a great opportunity to start up a Fingerweaving Club. Anyone out there in the Winnipeg area is welcome to bring your sash and join us on Sunday afternoons, 1:30 to 3:30 PM. I received word yesterday that my next Mega-Project has been approved for funding by the Manitoba Arts Council. I’ve been intrigued by sashes I’ve seen, 4 of them now, all indisputably dating to the 1800’s and very loosely woven. How would someone weave that loosely, was my question. I am now going to test out a theory. This is my ‘two in one’ project. I will set up an extra long warp and fingerweave a sash, never un-doing the false weave. I’ve got the perfect extra long studio, the atrium of the St Boniface Hospital. I’ll shove every row of false weave all the way to the far end, causing the build-up of a second sash at the far end. All this is scheduled for the New Year. I’ll keep you informed. 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 class at the Musée de St Boniface teaching the technique of ceinture fleche. Six very apt students in my fingerweaving workshop. One of them had an idea I just have to share with the rest of the world. Literature my husband procured from the fingerweavers in Quebec, when I started out, insisted that the proper way to keep an even tension is to tie the warp at both ends. The upper portion is tied to a hook in the wall, the lower end to the chair, or to a hook on the floor. One of my students this time around came up with another very clever alternative. She brought along a piece of elastic, which she ties to her thigh, above the knee. She tucks her weaving in to the elastic, and adjusts her tension there. My students find they can adjust the tension by raising or lowering the leg.
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. 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. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|