Feb 23, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Skeins of Ravenstail warp
Depending on the size of your robe, apron, leggings, etc., the following are the AVERAGE amounts needed for projects in either Ravenstail or Chilkat weavings:
Pouch …………………… 30 yards
Leggings ………………. 60 yards (both leggings)
Apron ………………….. 150 yards
Blanket ………………… 800 to 1000 yards
(and for Chilkat robe, add 200 yards for the side braids)
To determine the amount of warp needed for any project:
To work out the amount of warp you need for a project, use the following equation. First decide what size of piece you want to weave (Remember to give yourself a little extra length so you have enough to trim the ends straight. On a weaving without fringe, add at least 3” to the finished length so that you can work the bottom rows easily.
The Equation:
– Width of piece x number of warp ends per inch = total number of warp ends
– Length of piece x number of warp ends = number of inches needed
– Divide total number of inches needed by 36 (# of inches in a yard) and the resulting amount is the number of yards you will need for your piece.
Example:
Width of piece = 30”
You will use 10 (epi) ends-per-inch warp
Length of piece = 18”
So 30” x 10” warp ends-to-the-inch = 300 warp ends
300 warp ends x 18” long = 5400 inches of warp
5400 inches divided by 36” (in a yard) = 150 yards
You will need 150 yards for the project.
Need warp but you don’t want to spin your own? Just a reminder, I’ve got a couple of friends who are spinning both Chilkat and Ravenstail warp for us! You may place your order any time…!
Feb 13, 2013 | Class Act, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To See or Not to See |
Notice the slightly darker shade of the braids than the weaving in both the yellow and the blue – that’s Jennie Thlunaut’s Chilkat trick-of-the-trade #1… (please forgive the blurred photo: I’ll replace it one of these days!)
Back in 2006 when I was visiting the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum collection of Chilkat robes, one of the staff members had pointed out that during another weaver’s visit to their collection earlier, they had noticed a difference in color of the braids from the weavers in a very old robe and wondered why that was…guess what I told ’em?
Jennie Thlunaut’s “Trick-of-theTrade #1” – While we are weaving, sometimes we mistaken our braids for our weavers. To avoid this annoying blunder, use a slightly different shade of braid, lighter or darker, than your weaver. Oh boy! Happier Weaving!
Feb 12, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To See or Not to See, Tools-of-the-Trade |
The late Jennie Thlunaut’s hands showing Clarissa a trick-of-the-trade…photo by Clarissa during her apprenticeship with Jennie – May 1986
In the next few weeks, I will be posting a variety of weaving “tricks-of-the-trade” – many of those that Jennie taught me and a few I devised from my years of weaving experience. Some of the tricks are conveyed in my Chilkat Weavers’ Handbook, however, I am too busy to revise and update the handbook, therefore no handbooks. However, I am on a Chilkat weaving roll right now – anything to do with Chilkat and I’m on to it – and I want to assist my fellow weavers, and any past or future students of mine. I want you to be a happier weaver as these tricks will help ease your process of weaving – So, stay tuned!
And hey, if you have any weaving tricks, I welcome you to share them!
Feb 10, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Uncategorized |
Hans Chester (in the background) brought out a Chilkat robe in a protected container to show to the 2003 Chilkat Weavers’ Gathering of 2003 including, L to R: Shgen George, Catrina Mitchell, Pat Walker, the late Elaine Etukeok, elder Bessie Coolie, Yarrow Vaara, Darlene See and Liana Wallace – July 2003
I am happy to announce a Chilkat/Ravenstail Weavers’ Gathering in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory held during the fabulous Adaka Festival at the new Kwaan Lin Dun Cultural Center on the Yukon River June 21-26, 2013. The Festival program includes: a gallery exhibition, artist demonstration tent, traditional and contemporary Indigenous music and dance, fashion, workshops, cultural presentations and more. Festival coordinators are currently working on this year’s line-up however you may check out last year’s information on the week-long Adaka Festival on their website at: http://www.adakafestival.ca/
Clarissa Rizal and Darlene See – the best part about the Weavers’ Gatherings is the sharing of laughter…it’s real good Chilkat medicine!
The Chilkat/Ravenstail Weavers’ Gathering is a wonderful venue where weavers from all levels of skill congregate to share in techniques, tricks-of-the-trade, establish life-long friends and gain spiritual and emotional support just by being together! Past Gatherings have been held in Hoonah, Juneau, Sitka, Haines, Alert Bay, Prince Rupert, and Pagosa Springs. We are excited to be hosted in Whitehorse. Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver, Ann Smith, Wolf Clan of the Kwaan Lin Dun people in Whitehorse, will be our local weaver “ambassador.”
Ann Smith begins weaving a Ravenstail robe while a Navajo weaver looks on – she is demonstrating weaving at the Heard Museum’s Indian Art Fair & Market – March 2003
The Gathering will be held in the Cultural Center’s Elder’s Room kitty-corner on the left from the main hall where all the festival performances will be held. The room is all glass allowing an ample amount of natural light.
The Adaka Festival Co-Executive Producer, Charlene Alexander is very excited about hosting the Weavers’ Gathering as part of their festival activities this year. Currently, Charlene is working on finding a large house where all of us may stay, and/or depending on number of participants, she will find locals who are willing to host us. However, if you need your space and privacy, there are several hotels and motels available, and I would suggest you book sooner rather than later.
As in the past, each weaver is responsible for their transportation to and from the Gathering. If you want grant assistance, applications for Alaskan residents may be obtained at the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation are due in just three weeks this coming March 1st. Also the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Native Arts Program has a travel grant with the stipulation that they must receive your application 2 months before travel date. It’s a fairly simple application and these people are helpful and generous. (In the past four years, I have applied and received this travel grant twice.) Because I am not Canadian, I am not familiar with the Canadian grants available, but I KNOW they are out there! Please do whatever it takes to help one another out in attending this wonderful Festival and Gathering!
If you are traveling by car, think about coordinating your travel plans with other weavers, just in case several of you want to car pool a drive from Haines or Skagway up to Whitehorse or a carpool from British Columbia. Spread the word about this Gathering!
You may take part for the entire week, or just for a few days or weekend – it’s up to your time and dime.
Bring whatever project you have on your loom, however, if you do not have a project and would like to begin one, gather your materials together to begin one. At past Gatherings, there is always someone who will assist you.
I will be conducting a weaving workshop during the Adaka Festival; I will mainly focus on teaching beginner students, however, if you want to brush up on your skills or obtain tricks-of-the-trade, you are welcome to attend.
If you need warp to begin your new project, you may place your order with me; I formed the Warped Bank, a team of people who spend part of their time spinning Chilkat and Ravenstail warp!!
If you have any questions about the Adaka Festival, please contact Charlene Alexander – her email address is: calexander@northwestel.net
If you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, etc. about the Weavers’ Gathering, please contact me via email at: clarissa@www.clarissarizal.com
I know many of us have time constraints due to jobs, family, fishing, etc. Just remember, you are not required to attend the Gathering during the entire week of the Festival; you may attend for a day or two if that is all your schedule allows.
We look forward to seeing you at the Gathering and Festival!
Jan 30, 2013 | Class Act, Relationship Overdrive, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Huddling together, Darlene See, Jeanette Tabor and Jean Lampe weave Chilkat headbands on the portable mahogany looms – 22 years ago in January 1991
How is an apprenticeship different from a workshop or class? As I understand it, in the old sense of the word, “apprentices” would learn from a “master” artist craftsman by getting acquainted first through various tasks, i.e. cleaning up the shop, performing menial tasks for the master, sometimes making the meals, doing the errands, etc., and then when the apprentice became “worthy” (by the master’s definition and time frame), the apprentice would assist the master creating works without pay. An apprentice could work with the master for several months to several years.
Two of Jennie Thlunaut’s grand-daughters, the late Phoebe Warren (left) and Louise Light (right), with Darlene See (center) and Clarissa – all three are weaving Chilkat aprons – in March 1992 in Clarissa’s “Juneau studio”
According to my definition of apprentice, in the very beginning, the woman jumps through a lot of hoops if they are going to spend time with me; I am not easy to pin down nor get to – I live in a remote place of Colorado and my Alaska home these days is wherever I can lay my hat (although I still plan on making a home in Haines…(sigh)…someday soon). I am also not going to waste my precious time with someone who just wants to dabble in Chilkat weaving, so she has to prove herself to me and mainly I want her to prove herself to herself. An apprentice is someone who pays (in Jennie’s words) “big money” to have me to themselves, one-on-one. The apprentice has such a strong desire to learn the intricate art of Chilkat weaving, that before she even contacts me, most have already bought their loom, drafted up a pattern, purchased Cheryl Samuel’s Chilkat weaving book, and have the wool and cedar to begin spinning their own warp – and if they don’t have any of their materials just before they get a confirmation from me, they get their materials together real quick!
Vanessa Morgan weaves her very first Chilkat project: a pair of leggings in the shape of a copper T’naa (Chilkat face above/Ravenstail pattern below)
It is okay for my apprentices to be “loyal” to me (meaning: they shall have no other instructor other than me). However, I do not require this nor do I suggest it, the reason being first, that I am not a “god” and there have been many”gods” before me (LOL), the second being that I believe it is a good thing for students to learn from at least another instructor, and of course, the students will learn from other fellow students. I encourage my students to share their experiences without fear of “doing the wrong thing.” There are four techniques in Chilkat weaving: the 2-strand twine, the 3-strand braid, the interlock and the drawstring. Everything else that we learn are tricks-of-the-trade, and we can learn these things from watching other weavers, learning from other weavers, and listening to other weavers. Jennie had more than one teacher. She learned Chilkat weaving first from her mother, and when her mother passed when Jennie was 12, she learned from her aunties. Note the plural. And who knows how many other fellow weavers she learned from in her 84 years as a Chilkat weaver!
Vanessa Morgan and Clarissa Rizal with their Chilkat “T’Naa” Leggings
Also understand that if you are a beginner, intermediate (or master?) Chilkat weaver, be easy on yourself. As you are a student in learning about life, you will always be a student in learning the vast “seen and unseen” intricacies of Chilkat weaving. There’s more to Chilkat than meets the eye. I am weaving my 5th Chilkat robe; this is the first robe where I feel like my fingers are flying through the robe as if I know what I am doing; what(!?)…it’s taken me nearly 25 years to FEEL like I KNOW what I am doing! Hahahaha! And although there are some shapes I am not familiar with weaving, I am figuring it out just by logic and reason and having an artistic eye (which really helps!), and I have asked myself why it has taken myself so long to begin to feel “comfortable in my skin with Chilkat”…that answer is unfolding as I write. So if you think I am a master weaver, you can quit that. I tell you what, even after 96 years of being one of the most prolific Chilkat weavers in Chilkat history beginning at the age of 12, Jennie did not call herself a “master” weaver – other people called her that to which she replied at the 1985 class she taught in Haines: “…me a master weaver? I am not a master weaver…I am still LEARNING!”
Vivian Land – one of Jennie’s four granddaughters who began to learn Chilkat weaving during Clarissa’s first Chilkat weaving class in 1989.
I encourage my students to pay attention to their emotional and spiritual parts of themselves; this is one of the most important aspects of Chilkat weaving that Jennie taught me; these are things that are not easily conveyed in anything written on the history of Chilkat. According to Jennie Thlunaut “…it’s the spirit of the person that counts,…not just anybody belongs to Chilkat…this is not to have big heads about it…that’s not what this is about…this is about our people, this is about our precious land, this is about our relatives, the animals of the ocean and land and sky,…this is about appreciating this that has been gifted to us, given to you…always give thanks for what you got, for what you have been given…before you go to your loom every day, first thing you pray and give thanks…go to your loom clean – clean mind, clean heart, clean body…”
Nov 11, 2012 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Uncategorized |
Just enough room to fit 7 students learning to create a buttonblanket robe sampler in the cozy Raven’s Nest Gallery owned and operated by Sue and Israel Shotridge on Vashon Island, Washington State
Almost 30 years I’ve been designing and creating button robes. It never occurred to me to teach a class until Sue Shotridge dropped the first hint a couple of months ago. She bugged me some more until she got a real commitment. Golly, I’m sure thankful she insisted. As usual, like anything a teacher teaches, we just get better at it. With the tricks-of-the-trade I learned from my students, I shoulda been teaching classes long time ago!
Tools of the trade: thin sock filled with baby powder, pounce wheel, rotary cutter, snip scissors, Elmer’s glue, paper pattern, straight edge, antique mother-of-pearl buttons and of course, your fabric…!
The pounce wheel creates tiny holes along the design lines which will allow the baby powder to filter through onto the wool
Cindy Leask using the rotary cutter to cut the pattern in her black wool
…cutting out the design. The entire class pretty much kept up with one another…impressive!
A few of the students worked late into the evening…
After sewing down the design with a blanket stitch, the buttons are carefully laid out
Each button is carefully glued in place. This trick I learned from the late Agnes Thlunaut Belllinger back in the late ’70s when I never even thought of making robes – one day during dance practice, out of the sky blue, Agnes said “…Clarissa, when you are making button robes, do the layout of all the buttons and then one-by-one glue each carefully with Elmer’s glue…” Little did she know I couldn’t stand sewing buttons onto even a shirt let alone a robe with hundreds of buttons, but somewhere along the line, she musta known what my spirit many years later would go into…
It was great to see enthusiastic students play with buttons…
Clarissa’s first button blanket-making class – L to R: Clarissa, Anne Kelly, Michelle Ruelas, Paul Barry, Marilynn Short, Cindy Leask, and Steven Seto
Nov 7, 2012 | Class Act, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Back in 1983, I was commissioned by SEARHC (Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau, Alaska) to create a poster design for their alcohol rehabilitation program – “Step Into the Light” – we hand-silkscreened an edition of 50 prints. – This image is a painting on a wooden box
I also did a version of this design into a full-size buttonrobe that SEARHC owns for their “Raven’s Way” program. Over the years, I have noticed other versions of this design that other artists have gladly used; I decided that I would do the same thing! I will be teaching my very first button robe class held on Vashon Island, Washington State and I am basing the class pattern on this original design. Like the designs of old, when they were good, there were versions of them done in a variety of mediums…by the original artist!
The design tells the story of the “Box of Daylight” where Raven “steals” each box from the chief of the Nass River (in B.C.) that holds the sun, moon and stars; Raven then opens each box and breaks light to the world.
This design shows Raven being the actual box; the lid of the box is open and it is simultaneously Raven’s head with the Sun coming out of the box. The chief is the profile face within the main body of Raven. Three potlatch rings are shown on his brow.
Drafting up the button robe pattern based on the original design – will be used as the pattern for a button robe sampler class I am teaching this coming weekend in Vashon, WA
Oct 29, 2012 | Class Act, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
A canvas spinning pad is strapped to the thigh and moistened to provide friction for spinning Chilkat warp. Yes, the pad was made my Clarissa today while Teahonna split cedar bark and prepared wool to begin spinning her first 100 yards of Chilkat warp!
Oct 23, 2012 | Class Act, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
The back side of two child-size Chilkat robes side by side on Clarissa’s front porch – yes, it is past mid-October and it’s warm enough to weave! Where are we? Well…the color of the sky is the big give-a-way! We’re NOT in Southeast Alaska…
As I demonstrate on my robe, Crystal learns on hers. It’s the perfect pair. In this way, I don’t weave her experiences – she weaves her own experiences. The weaving looms are quite portable and compact. They were originally designed by my Ex and I years ago; these ones were created by local woodworker, Bill Hill.
Front view showing the borders of the child-size Chilkat robes
Crystal Rogers weaving her Chilkat robe; it is almost ready to begin weaving the design field – how exciting!
Drawing upon other Chilkat robe designs Clarissa has designed laying about her drafting table, Clarissa draws preliminary sketches for Crystal’s Chilkat robe.
Sep 30, 2012 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa’s grand-daughter helps spin Chilkat warp with wool and cedar bark
Back in 1986, when I was apprenticing to master Chilkat weaver, the late Jennie Thlunaut, she relayed the story of how she began weaving. She said she was around 5 years old. Her mother and aunties were weavers and of course, spun all their own warp and weft. Jennie had no other choice but to “play” with the warp and weft, “weaving her own creations…” Jennie advised: “…so that is how I started, and that is how many of us can start…let the real little ones “play” with you…watch how they become…you will see whether or not they become one of us…” Jennie giggled and smiled real big “…heehee, you will see…”
Amelie has her own method of placing markers on the warp ends…at two years old, she is already demonstrating her innovativeness (is that a word?…well it is now!)
I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but I am weaving a child-size Chilkat robe. I am hoping I can help inspire other Chilkat weavers to do the same. I imagine a whole slew of them to be woven this Winter/Spring into Summer and to be completed in time for Whitehorse, Yukon Territory’s Adaka Festival the last week in June next year. Imagine little Chilkat robes being danced by little ones of the 1st Nations people of Yukon. Just way to cool. I think Jennie would be pleased to see this.
