Jun 8, 2015 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Raven Button robe is a collaboration of designer Preston Singletary and sewer Clarissa Rizal
A couple of years ago, I wanted to make some button robes, but I didn’t feel like designing them. I guess I was just feeling lazy! So I did what I’ve never done before – I asked another artist for designs! I called up my friend Preston Singletary and asked him if he had any designs on hand that were suitable for button robes. He sent me two; one of the robes is now owned by Crystal Rogers Nelson and the other one is this one: Raven. Made with black and red wool melton cloth and some of the thousands of antique mother-of-pearl buttons I have been collecting for a good 25 years. Little does Preston know that we are 2 of 11 Native American artists invited to submit something for an exhibit that is traveling Russia for over a year.
“Woven Together” is an exhibit intended to share a small part of Native American culture with Russians in the Urals. This will likely be the first exposure to Native American culture for many who visit the exhibit. Typically, the Consulate supports such artistic exchanges in order to encourage contact between Russians and Americans and to promote interest in the diverse people that inhabit the U.S.
Clarissa Rizal sorts antique mother-of-pearl buttons for the Raven button — a collaboration between designer Preston Singletary and button robe maker Clarissa Rizal
The exhibit will travel to three cities in Russia – Yekaterinburg, Orenburg and Surgut. In all three cities there will be opportunities to show objects in display cases as well as on the walls.
Yekaterinburg is an industrial city and the capital of the Urals. Previously, they have hosted an exhibit of Native American photography.
Orenburg is a remote city in the south of the Urals that is simply interested in learning more about other cultures. This will be their first time hosting an exhibit the American consulate and they are very enthusiastic.
Surgut is a city located in a region that is home to the Khanti and Mansi peoples. The region is committed to preserving and honoring the cultural heritage and traditions of the Khanti and Mani peoples, and they are particularly interested in the Woven Together exhibit to learn more about Native peoples in the U.S.
Corners of “Raven” button blanket made by Clarissa Rizal designed by Preston Singletary 2015
May 21, 2015 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Latest Art Projects, Relationship Overdrive |
Apron patterns of various sizes from babies to adult laid out to be cut
My children’s paternal grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday this past Sunday on May 17th with her 2 children, 6 grand children and 8 great-grandchildren. For her birthday present, I sewed up Alaskan-inspired aprons.
Sewing the pockets
10 years ago I had bought $600 worth of fabrics for a large wall mural that I was supposed to create for the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, but they re-nigged on the project so all the fabrics hung out in my attic until most recently. Out of the collection I chose a few fabrics with colors of the Alaskan landscape, particularly the blue-berries!
The stack of finished aprons
The sizes of aprons ranged to fit people who were 4, 6, 9 and 16-month to 3 and 5-year old and two 7-year-olds and of course one for Great Grandma Shirley! Though I was on a time crunch with all my other projects and business, I had such a blast during the making of these aprons! I am reminded once again how much I love to sew for those I love and I get a kick in the pants dressing up people, whether for a birthday party, wedding or a traditional Native ceremony!
All the kids and great grandma wear their aprons….Left to Right front row: Violet Hudson, Great Grandma Shirley, Amelie Haas, Louis Hope — L to R back row: Ursala Hudson holds Simone Haas, Rowenn Kalman holds Aisley Salas, Elizabeth Hope, Lily Hope holds Eleanor Hope, Ishmael Hope holds Mary Goodwin
May 7, 2015 | Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
A roll of Seminole Indian Patchwork waits to become borders for button blanket robes designed and made by Clarissa Rizal
Back in 2005, I was given the honor to design and create a button blanket robe for a prominent elder in our community, Ethel Lund. The border of the robe was a Seminole Indian patchwork trimmed out with Navajo ribbon work. The robe is called “Frog Speaks” — it is part of my button blanket collection on my website at this link: http://clarissarizal.com/gallery/button-robes/
I have several feet of this roll of Seminole Indian patchwork wide enough for the borders to a couple of button blanket robes — with all the designs and options of fabrics, etc., it’s so hard to make up my mind how I want them to turn out! The possibilities are endless! You ever have that problem!?
May 2, 2015 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
A collection of antique fishing lures were hooked into becoming the embellishment to the next button robe designed and created by Clarissa Rizal
I’ve been collecting antique fishing lures from garage sales, antique and 2nd hand stores since 1999. While fishing with my father off shore at Outer Point back in the early 90’s, I had this notion that I would create a button blanket to honor my two older brothers and my father who were all commercial fishermen and also to just honor fish in general, especially salmon! Well 16 years later, my oldest brother and my father are now gone, and the other brother no longer fishes for a living because even that profession has nearly gone by the wayside too.
The salmon are disappearing; when our mother said that years ago, I didn’t want to believe her. Yet, we who are older than 50 have seen it with our own eyes. And the waters are so contaminated, that I will eat salmon maybe once a year because even though I crave our fish, I don’t trust what salmon are carrying.
I plan on creating a series of salmon button robes to mourn the loss of our salmon, however also to inspire faith our salmon will one day return in great numbers — maybe not in our lifetime, but possibly in our grand-children’s lifetime. If you, dear reader, come across antique fishing lures like those above, bring them to my attention so I can fetch them OR better yet, send them my way to my Alaska address or Colorado address – either way they will get to me! Thank you!
Apr 23, 2015 | For Crying Out Loud, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market, Tools-of-the-Trade |
Northwest Coast Tlingit graduation cap designed by Clarissa Rizal painted and modeled by Ursala Hudson at her BA graduation — 2014
I have a new website with a few new tweaks to my blog, just launched last week on April 13th; I HAVE GRADUATED to a simpler, cleaner, and easy-to-navigate format to update: It’s time to celebrate! (Most artists that I know would rather spend their time creating instead of working on the computer, so the easier and faster computer time, the better for us all…!)
This is my fourth website since 1998; the first was created by my friend Cecil Touchon (www.ceciltouchon.com) nearly 20 years ago when there were not very many Native American artists’ websites.
I have been blogging since July 2010, nearly 5 years! Unlike the past blog entries randomly posted when I could fit in the work, I will post new blog entries 3/x weekly with this schedule:
- on Mondays and Thursdays and Saturdays by 12 midnight (Alaska, Pacific or Mountain time — all depends on where my business travel takes me!).
Blog posts will include the usual latest projects, art business travel, tools of the trade, people, classes, health topics, etc., though to continue helping out my fellow weavers in a more efficient manner, I have added a new section to my categories (column on the right) called “Tricks-of-the-Trade.”
All photographs on my website and blog were shot by myself unless otherwise noted.
- For over 20 years, most of the photographs of my button robes and my chilkat weavings were taken by professional photographer Jeff Laydon at www.pagosaphotography.com.
- I make an effort to give credit to any other photographers.
- Thank you to my ceremonial robe models the late Russ Eagle and my grand-daughter Amelie Haas.
- My friend Russ had been modeling for me for nearly 15 years until his passing in 2009.
- Five-year-old Amelie had her debut this past March modelling my “Chilkat Child” 5-piece weaving ensemble.
I have begun formatting my photographs larger; people want to SEE!
- I also will aim towards shooting more interesting shots, maybe at different angles
- maybe I’ll even tweak them too, because I CAN!
- Click photos on my website to enlarge; the blog photos are what they are
- Ursala says I ought to buy myself a SLR camera to produce better photos, though at this time I cannot afford spending $500-$1000.
- Blogs and websites are much more interesting with better photography and golly, shooting from my old iPhone I guess just doesn’t tickle anybody’s fancy does it!
- Hold on, dear readers, the money for a real camera will come some day!
As time permits, I will be adding one more topic to my website: a “Tributes” page to honor mainly Tlingit elders who have helped me on my path as a full-time Tlingit artist for nearly 40 years. My “Tributes” page will include those of have passed including:
- grandparents, Juan and Mary Sarabia
- parents William and Irene Lampe
- very first mentor/teacher Tlingit chief from Yakutat, Harry K. Bremner, Sr. who gave me my very first sewing lessons along with Tlingit song and dance instruction, and
- mentor/teacher of Chilkat weaving, Jennie Thlunaut
- my apprenticeship with Jennie Thlunaut
Thank you to my daughter, Ursala Hudson for working hard last weekend to create and launch my website by my deadline! Check Ursala’s graphic design/web design work on her website at: www.whiterabbitstudio.us
Apr 13, 2015 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa begins preliminary sketch of her next Chilkat robe entitled “Egyptian Thunderbird” – © Clarissa Rizal – March 2015
I have started weaving my next Chilkat robe for the Thunderbird Clan. This is all I am saying for now. Stay tuned for periodic blog entries on this robe for this next year…!
Approximately 750 yards of 10 e.p.i. warp is needed for this Chilkat robe measuring 60″ w x 51″h – all warp prepared and spun by Clarissa Rizal
Clarissa’s weaving loom, balls of warp, weft yarns, warp stick and weaving supplies – April 11, 2015
The first 6 to 7 rows of a Chilkat robe are always done in white; this depth is to accommodate the fluffiness of the fur trim added to the top edge of a Chilkat robe. – Clarissa Rizal – April 2015
Feb 2, 2015 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off |
Hand-painted mini-coops in Chilkat yellow and Indian red! by Clarissa Rizal
Let’s go for a quick road-trip in one of these “Chilkat Mobiles” zipping through the Redwood Forests and out across Canyonlands and Arches National Monuments sliding into Sedona across the Mohave dessert and up towards the Rocky Mountains! Yep, zippidity do dah at your fingertips in the miniatures of miniatures!
Jan 27, 2015 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Tools-of-the-Trade |
Donna Beaver Pizzarelli, Al Pizzarelli, and Clarissa Rizal — street bench near Basin Road, Juneau, Alaska
For whatever reasons, my blog crashed on November 18, 2014. I didn’t know about it until three weeks later when I received a call from a total stranger out of Minnesota who was roaming my website and could not pull up my blog and thought he’d better bring it to my attention — like how cool is that!? How many people would go through the trouble?
In between her full-time job working for the USGS and doing her own creative works especially in Haiku poetry, and assisting her husband’s creative endeavors, Donna worked hard getting my blog up and running again, finalized today! YAY!
Check out Donna and Al’s poetry: www.haikuchronicles.com
Dec 26, 2014 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off |
From a 22″ half circle, Clarissa irons the “Christmas Tree” napkins
Using my daughter’s cutting/work table, you can see the black foam core template and the cutting tools and the stacks of fabrics in the back ground with the already sewn half-spheres
Napkins for the in-laws — the Ellis’
When Sue Shotridge and I went into the “Island Quilter” store on Vashon Island to buy some sewing notions for a button blanket, we noticed a napkin in the shape of a Christmas tree – suddenly we just had to buy some fabrics to make ’em for ourselves and Christmas gifts of course!
Christmas Tree napkins made for the Hope Family
First thing you gotta do is choose a selection of colors you like; before you do any cutting, make sure you pre-wash the fabrics and then iron all the fabrics folded in half, right and left selvages matched up. Then cut a template from a piece of smooth cardboard, cut a half circle that is 22 1/4″ long and 11″ wide. Lay out your fabric with salvage edge on both the left and right sides. Lay the straight edge of the cardboard along each salvage. You will get 2 double sets of half-curve; with right sides together sew along all the edges except leave about 4″ open, this enables you to turn the fabric right side out. Press. Topstitch along the entire edges. Then fold the half circle into the “trees” (shaped above). Voile’ ! Christmas trees!
After pre-washing the fabric and drying, then iron all the fabrics you intend to use
I had a stash of about $500 worth of beautiful textured cotton fabrics I had bought about 10 years ago when I was commissioned to do a large 25′ x 15′ wall mural, which got “vetoed” at the very last minute. so finally I put them to use. Sure I could have sewn a huge mural (if I had someone else paying my bills while I sewed), or used the fabrics for something that would have brought in an income, however, I have great pleasure in making things for people, and it’s been since 1989 that I have done that. So I cut into all the fabrics without any harm!
A beautiful selection of 100% cotton fabrics
I made 150 napkins during the week of Christmas. It was very nice to take a week off from any kind of business and just do a sewing project for my family and friends. Sewing always has a calming effect with lots of joy felt within me — very healing. I gave some away for Christmas, gave some away for birthday presents and will give some away for wedding gifts this year.
Another nice selection of Christmas tree napkins – these ones for K & M !
Nov 14, 2014 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
Charcoal by Clarissa Rizal
Here’s my Winter Schedule for upcoming Art Markets, presentations, classes and demonstrations. If you are in any of these locations, come by and visit; I’d love to see you!
1) One-day Chilkat/Ravenstail Weaving Class, Juneau, Alaska, Sunday November 23rd, 10am-4pm with potluck lunch — this class is for experienced weavers who have a project on their loom and need assistance, comraderie, support and a feast! Class is limited to just 10. The Northwest Coast Weavers’ Supply will have weaving/spinning items available for sale BEFORE the Public Market sales; so you will have the privilege to be the first to purchase your supplies for your next weaving project — Interested? Give me a call at 970-903-8386 or email me at: clarissa@www.clarissarizal.com
2) Alaska-Juneau Public Market, Thanksgiving weekend Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, November 28-30th, Booth #P-15 in the main room of Centennial Hall on Willoughby Avenue in Juneau, Alaska – Click here to see the list of some of the items I will have available for sale
3) Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon Presentation of “The Making of Resilience Chilkat Robe”, Friday, December 5th; I will also have Chilkat-related items available for sale AND I will have two woven ensembles on display only during this presentation
4) Evergreen Longhouse, Olympia, WA, — The Holiday Market is open Friday and Saturday, December 12 & 13; I will only be selling on Saturday! — Click here to see a list of some of the items I will have for sale.
5) “Raven’s Nest” Gallery (owned by Sue and Israel Shotridge), Vashon Island, WA — I will be demonstrating Chilkat weaving on a child-size robe; I will also have on display two child-size woven ensembles, “Little Watchman” a 4-piece Ravenstail outfit woven by my daughter Lily Hope, and my 6-pience ensemble “Chilkat Child.” I will also have items for sale as well; click list here to see list of some items.
6) Chilkat Weaving Class, Corvallis, OR – December 15-19th; for experienced weavers with a project on their loom. — This class is currently full.
7) Heard Museum Juried Indian Art Market & Fair, Phoenix, AZ – March 7-9, 2015
