Clarissa with a latest painting based on a button blanket robe "Frog Speaks"
A few readers wanted to see more photos of me on this blog. Okay, okay. Here’s a couple. Now are we satisfied? Thanks to Lis Saya for the photo shoot.
Clarissa weaving on her latest Chilkat robe; cedar bark strips hang in the foreground ready to spin with wool to create the warp for Chilkat weaving
I dare say this is the shortest blog I’ve written since I began over 2 months ago.
Weaving "Jennie Thlunaut's face" in my Chilkat robe "Jennie Weaves An Apprentice"
Upon seeing me, I’ve had local friends ask, “Hey, how long are you in town for…?” I moved back in June. Surprised, “Really? Huh? I haven’t seen you; where you hiding out?” I am weaving a robe and it is due the first week in November…
Above is a photo of part of the robe. I cannot show the rest of the robe because it is a tradition of ours to not let the owner see the robe before it is finished. So as much as I’d like to share with y’all and as much as my students would love to see the progress, I cannot expose photos of the robe until it is complete. Even then, I will not have time to post the completed robe until December because I’ll be on a business trip and doing some other projects. In the meantime, here’s a glimpse. If you see me out and about, there are such things as other aspects of life that require my participation.
A wooden box captures all the necessary little tools when jumping from weaving loom to weaving loom, whether they are looms in a class setting, or my own looms in my studio
Artists employ all kinds of tools for their trade and we never really pay homage to the tools that assist us in whatever the art we create. I’ve taken photographs of few of my most trustworthy “friends” who are with me on a day-in day-out basis, making business all that artfully simpler.
Very Important Paperbooks (VIP): A Franklin Covey planner and two notebooks, one for computer skill notes and website updates, and the other to list all the projects with "to-do" listings under each project category
Folks wonder how I accomplish so many things, like where do I find the time for it all? Well, besides not having much of a social life, nor owning a television all my adult life, nor taking vacations or looking for entertainment outside of myself, I have lots of time to organize, speculate, design and create (as well as the bookkeeping, note-taking, email responses, website updates, blogging, etc.). Outside of having creative time, and the usual paperwork, keeping organized is the key to accomplishments. I am a left-brained, right-brained person, can you tell?
Keep organized. It's a joy to reach out and select what you need in the very moment of its need instead of searching through stacks of paper strewn about the desk top - like just reach out and touch...the very thing you need
Let's face it you backwoods, artists - get with it! The wave of this future is right now and guess what, if you don't have a computer or laptop, the world of business is going to leave you way behind...as much as I resisted for many years to the technological world and the hubbub, I was forced to get on board by sheer pressure
This HP Officejet 6500 Wireless is not as quiet and smooth as my Canon MX700, but it does the job when i need to download, print and fill out applications to submit on the double!
Peppermint tea English ala creme with Vitamin Bs and C and a dash of cellphone radiation is a way to start a vigorous day
Love seats are a necessary tool to accommodate to sporadic visitors and late-night Netflix videos while spinning Chilkat warp - this is the first time I've owned a love seat - they are not sprawling like a couch
I am presently working on a portfolio of my first fifty Chilkat & Ravenstail weaving robes and button blanket ceremonial robes. My goal is to have this book available for sale at the “Alaska-Juneau Public Market” held in Juneau at Centennial Hall during Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Between 1983 and 2010, I designed and created 50 Tlingit ceremonial robes in the button blanket style, Ravenstail dance robes and the Chilkat dance robes. Keeping with the Tlingit tradition, each robe conveys a message, story or clan identity. The first 25 robe photos were snapshots before I got the idea I would document the latter half of her robes by a professional photographer! Like Duh!?
You will find the copy of this book available for sale on my “Shop and Buy” page of my website; check in with me periodically through this blog or my website. Or better yet, email me your email address so I may may put you on my list to send you the announcement of this book when it comes hot off the press! My email address is: clarissa@www.clarissarizal.com
Clarissa inspects the final version of her Chilkat robe design "Jennie Weaves An Apprentice"
I am working on several Chilkat designs at once. Some of the designs are just “generic” Chilkat patterns I’m drafting up for my students and folks who just want a new pattern to weave; some of the designs are for actual Chilkat robes. I am designing a series of robes called “a robe-within-a-robe.” It’s obviously a Chilkat robe within a Chilkat robe. I presently am working on one that I’ve wanted to weave for the past 24 years, and am finally doing it! The story of the robe is based on my apprenticeship with Jennie Thlunaut back in 1986 called “Jennie Weaves An Apprentice”, the same name given to the handbook I wrote.
Traditionally, a male artist painted the pattern board on wood and the weaver used wooden templates for the given shapes that she would hold up to the robe as a guide. Of course, we now create the actual robe image onto paper and most of us use paper templates as a guide. Yet, being the innovative people that we are in our modern times using resources at hand, I conjured up a simpler step. Several years ago, I developed the use of clear transparencies as the guiding template. The template has all the design elements (i.e. eyebrows, eye, nose, mouth, etc) within an 8″ x 11″ sheet of paper. Below is an image of Chilkat pattern transparencies; the one I am holding in my hand is a headband pattern I have used in my most recent Chilkat weaving class for beginning Chilkat students:
Clarissa holds a Chilkat pattern transparency; a modern adaptation used as a guide in Chilkat weaving.
I am both a Northwest Coast designer AND a weaver, which puts me in a unique category amongst Northwest Coast Native artists. As a weaver, I understands the intricate, Chilkat design elements that are workable and weavable in the unique Chilkat design style; as a Northwest Coast designer, I understand the form line elements – both are required to create a Chilkat design successfully. I would not say that I am an excellent designer of Chilkat, because I am still learning (in the words of Jennie Thlunaut), yet there are very few of us who understand how to design Chilkat and feel confident enough to create original designs. It is not as easy as it looks.
As I mentioned earlier, I am weaving the robe “Jennie Weaves An Apprentice.” I always base my designs on a historical/personal event or clan emblem. It is a commissioned robe where my clients and I got create with a payment plan suited to their pocketbook. I am open to doing trades or partial trades depending on whether or not the client has something to offer that I cannot do without! We set the deadline for the end of September or October. Based on the various things going on in my life, it looks like end of October. I must complete it by the end of October because I want to finish up the manuscript and photos for my robe book in time for publication and distribution by Thanksgiving!
I am in the process of editing this handbook that I wrote and self-printed for a class I taught at the University of Alaska Juneau back in the Summer of 2005; and I’ve had this handbook available to my students since. I hope to have the edited version completed by this Winter 2010.
This practical guide provides Chilkat weavers of all experience levels pertinent information gained from my apprenticeship in 1986 with the last traditional Chilkat weaver, Jennie Thlunaut; combined with my experiences as a weaver and a teacher of this traditional art form since the mid-80’s; topped with additional information from Jennie’s daughter, Agnes Bellinger. Most of the information in this handbook can also be applied to Ravenstail weaving. With black & white, color photos and drawings, some of the information includes: Jennie’s astounding fingering technique (for speed, accuracy and tension), her philosophies, traditions, values and tricks-of-the-trade; including my apprenticeship with Jennie, preparation of materials and supplies, natural & commercial dyeing, weft color samples, list of suppliers, a traveler’s weaving loom pattern; designs and descriptions; and, keeping with traditions, some of the information is shared with a touch of storytelling. This handbook is intended for use by either an experienced weaver who is seeking some additional information in Chilkat weaving, or utilized as a supplemental guide with a weaving instructor.
You will find the copy of this handbook available for sale on my “Shop and Buy” page of my website; check in with me periodically through this blog or my website. Or better yet, email me your email address so I may may put you on my list to send you the announcement of this book when it comes hot off the press!
