Jun 25, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa’s latest Chilkat robe “Diving Whale Lovebirds” danced by Wayne Price during the “Weavers’ Dance” at the Adaka Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory – photograph by Ken Kaushansky
Well…I finished this robe on Summer Solstice 2013 in Whitehorse, Yukon just before it was hung as part of the Northwest Coast art exhibit at the Kwaanlin Dun Cultural Center. The owners of the robe rendevous-ed with me at the Festival to attend the ceremony, meet carver Wayne Price and have the robe placed in their arms. Again, it was not easy parting from another “child.”
The following photographs show the weaving progression from end to start – yes, sounds backwards don’t it, but just wanted to give you an artistic experience of “thinking backwards!”
In the professional photographer’s studio! (and no I’m not THAT big; the shirt is just big on me…hello!
According to my weaving teacher, the late Jennie Thlunaut, who passed at the age of 96 in 1986, she said that I must NEVER show my weaving-in-progress to the owners if the robe is commissioned. They are not to see the robe until it is completed. I never asked “why” because it was futile, I’d be wasting my words. To the best of my abilities, I did not, and have not, shown the progression of my robes as I have honored Jennie’s request.
Completed weaving the robe June 15th – then there were the side braids to be done – yum, yum, the side braids are the best part of weaving a Chilkat robe!
So now that I have completed the robe, and have delivered it to the rightful owners, I can show you the progression of the robe…
On the Alaska ferry from Juneau to Skagway…
Ursala weaves the side braids; Amelie “helps” too!
Close-up of how I finished the bottom yellow border
Whooooheee – finished the design field of the robe, just need to weave the borders, weave the side braids, weave the signature tie-offs, block the weaving, etc. – (a foreign language?)
One last portion to complete!
Started the form line of the last pair of eyes to weave
Close-up of weaving the borders down to match the left corner of the design field
Three-quarters complete!
A vivacious Chilkat face!
Beginning to weave the bottom of the top and bottom of the beaks – the left one is Eagle and the right one is Raven…of course!
The robe is a bit more than half-way woven….
A few weaving details….now, I have never considered myself a very good weaver, although there are many who say otherwise. In so doing and being, I can say that I am progressing at it…every time I weave I get slightly better…in ways, i get better, my dear,…in ways!
yep, the colors of this robe are brilliant…(unlike the weaver who has lost her brilliancy as she has aged…)
more details…the circles are pretty good…not too bad….not too bad! Always pay attention to the braids…the braids are what shape the shapes…!
I can say that this Chilkat robe is one-third complete!
No we do not weave straight across; this photo just makes it LOOK like we weave straight across…!
It is still winter time…had to wear my fleece topped by my Japanese quilted jacket with my hand-sewn Ainu headband…weaving, weaving, weaving…
The loom is in the guest room where I am borrowing the space cuz my studio is way too cold to work – it’s gotten down to zero degrees out there! — The plastic transparency “templates” are clipped to the warp…
Well, if you aren’t a friend of mine on Facebook, then you haven’t seen this photo take by my son, the film-maker…
Not a good idea to weave day and night like I can. Else you get to be a boring person; like I can be. And then you just want to stare at everything else except the weaving…and the grand-children! I don’t mind staring at the grandchildren! heeeheee!
…come to think of it, my eyes rest easy and well on my grandchildren!…so nice to have this one around while weaving…a real treat!
The ravenstail border is completed – yeah!
Bright and white day today…that’s because the spirits know there’s a new robe, a new “skin” that has been “born” most recently. good medicine.
Here’s a sketch of the proposed robe. It’s a ‘Diving Whale Lovebirds”
The preliminary sketch of the Chilkat robe I’m about to start some day soon – I drafted this design just three weeks before my mother passed away…June 2011 – it took me two years to complete this weaving; of course, though I was doing all kinds of other major things as well in that time period (i.e. burying my mother, moving to Santa Fe to attend IAIA for BFA degree, commuting to Colorado to spend time with my daughter and family, an exhibit, taught a couple of classes and three different apprenticeships, not to mention travel, etc. etc. You know, it’s called an “artist’s life.” I would not recommend this lifestyle for the weak of heart…!
Jun 24, 2013 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Honoring Others, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Ravenstail robe “Grandmother’s Time” woven by Ann Smith, Whitehorse, Yukon danced by her son Shawn Smith, and a Chilkat robe “Diving Whale Lovebirds” woven by Clarissa Rizal, Juneau, Alaska, danced by fellow artist Wayne Price. They were both “hired” to dance the robes with the “Weavers’ Dance” on Sunday, June 23rd during the Adaka Festival main stage.
Ann Smith carefully adjusts her son Shawn Smith’s collar of “Grandmother’s Time” Ravenstail robe
A couple days before the “coming out” of four woven robes that were in the Adaka Art Exhibit, Crystal Rogers and I were in the Elder’s room (where the weaving class was held during the Adaka Festival); I was playing with the warp stick using it like a walking cane pretending i was an old old elder – then I began to dance with it like a man holding a dance staff and wouldn’t it be fun if all of us weavers had one of these and danced with it like this – suddenly Crystal excitedly exclaimed: “…no, let’s hold it like a woman, soft and demure as if we are holding a precious item in our hand…” – we were so dead set on doing this during the “coming in” dance of the woven robes that we asked Ann Smith if her son could make enough warp sticks for all the weavers…and so was born the use of the warp sticks during the “coming out” dance of the woven robes…!
Clarissa adjusts the closure of Crystal Rogers’ “Eagle Raven” button blanket (a collaboration of two artists: design by Preston Singletary, hand-sewn by Clarissa Rizal
“Grandmother’s Time”, “Copper Child” (collaboration Lily Hope and Clarissa Rizal) and “Eagle Raven”
Front views of all three…
The following photos are of Whitehorse’s weaving class members dancing the “weavers’ dance…”
Ravenstail and Chilkat weavers with their “warp sticks” – a hand-made wooden stick with notches to measure the warp yarns for a dance robe or dance apron – these sticks were fashioned after the late Jennie Thlunaut’s warp stick
Thank you very much, Everett Smith, for crafting an additional 10 wooden warp sticks with short notice of two days so we may dance the “weavers’ dance!”
While the narrator introduces the next song, the dancers keep their backs to the audience waiting for the next dance song to begin
The “Raven” robe on the right is also designed by Preston Singeltary and sewn by Clarissa Rizal
Clarissa’s “Diving Whale Lovebirds” Chilkat robe danced by Wayne Price is dead center stage…
“Diving Whale Lovebirds” Chilkat robe and 4-piece Ravenstail ensemble “Copper Child”
“Weavers’ Dance” with our warp sticks made by Ann Smith’s son, Everett Smith – there were 13 of us – lucky number….!
“Weavers’ Dance”…
Wayne Price in Chilkat robe, Tristin Primozic in 4-piece Ravenstail ensemble, and Shawn Smith in Ravenstail robe
Tristin Primozic of Champagne and Aishihik First Nations is a member of the Wolf moeity and he is a young song leader in training with the Dahka Khwaan Juniors Dance Group. He is wearing “Copper Child”, the 4-piece Ravenstail ensemble woven by Lily Hope and Clarissa Rizal.
After the Weavers’ Dance, outside in front of the cultural center for a photo shoot for the local newspaper
Backside of dancers with robes…the fourth robe on the far left was woven by Ann Smith, danced by Ravenstail and Chilkat weaver Charlene Baker
And thank you to all our models for dancing our robes for us: Charlene Baker, Tristin Primozic, Shawn Smith and Wayne Price
Four robes – Two Ravenstail robes woven by Ann Smith; Chilkat robe woven by Clarissa Rizal, and child-size 4-piece child-size Ravenstail ensemble woven by Lily Hope and Clarissa
Owners of the new robe, Ken and Lauren Kaushansky with dancer Wayne Price and weaver, Clarissa Rizal
Jun 16, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
Pinning the border of the button robe – the design in the background is waiting to be cut out
Couple of years ago I asked my friend Preston Singletary if he had some images suitable for making button robes; I didn’t feel like designing any robes, I just felt like getting down to the nitty gritty and get going on sewing ’em!
Preston’s design of this robe is based on our legend “Raven Steals the Sun”, bringing light to the world.
with a wet cloth placed over the cut-out applique, the heat from the iron fuses the image to the robe body
Lily Hope helps her daughter Bette (SikiKwaan) Hope take out the basting threads
With the help of Lily and Bette in April, and later with my friend Lis Saya who helped lay out the buttons and sew them down, I finally finished this robe to this point by mid-June (though it still needs the circle of buttons about the body).
“Raven and the Sun” is a collaboration between designer by Preston Singletary and seamstress Clarissa Rizal — the robe is not quite finished; it still needs the circle of buttons that goes around the entire body of the Raven
The robe worn by a dancer
Jun 14, 2013 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa finalizes her button blanket design for the Huna Totem’s celebration of their 40th anniversary
Back in February, I was given a week deadline in a competition to draft up a design that reflected one of Southeast Alaska’s Native Corporation’s 40th anniversary vision statement: “…sailing the canoe of our ancestor’s into the future…” I don’t know if I have ever been successful at drafting up a winning design in that short amount of time, but somehow the image came very easily to me and within a day I had the proposal and design done – that’s unheard of in my experiences.
“Stitch witchery” iron-on interfacing assists in applying the cut applique to the robe body – however, this stitch witchery must have been old because the fusion to the wool fabric did not work – alas, I had to hand-baste the design down before sewing it.
The robe was presented during the Huna 40th celebration at the Cannery Point in Hoonah, Alaska on Saturday, July 27th. Click here for the blog entry.
The unfinished robe; still needs the face in the Copper T’naa, the teeth on the shark and the “mountains”
The name of this robe is based on Huna Totem’s request: “…sailing the canoe of our Grandfathers into the future…” The Design explanation is as follows:
…there are four clans in Hoonah whose crests are depicted on the canoe L to R: The Chookaneidi clan’s octopus crest, the WooshkeeTaan clan’s Shark crest, the Kaagwaantaan clan’s wolf crest and the T’akDeinTaan clan’s black-legged kitty-wake crest. In the canoe are the Raven and the Eagle moieties each holding the Copper T’naa which represents the history, culture, wealth and arts. The Eagle and Raven moeities each share in the responsibility of carrying our culture in the canoe of our Grandfathers’ into the future…”
What the robe looks like when it is on a body! – by the way, my model’s name is Dan Shanks
The cool thing about this commemorative 40th-year robe is that it can be worn in ceremony by any one from the four main clans from Hoonah, AND it can be hung on the corporate walls of Huna Totem…I really like the idea of its versatility.
After laying out the buttons under my direction, Lis begins to glue down the “Mt. Fairweather range”… which completes the robe
I never got a professional shot of the completed robe, not even a snap shot of the robe – so I cannot show you the entire robe until somebody sends me a photograph! Quick! – If you happened to be at the 40th anniversary celebration event in Hoonah and you have got a photograph of me doing the presentation, go for it and email me an image – and of course, I may want to use it in this blog entry and of course, I will give you photo credit! Thank you!
Jun 13, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Tools-of-the-Trade |
I place up to 15 feet of a 5″ wide strip of yellow or red cedar in my 22-quart pressure cooker to cook all the sap out so I avoid sticky hands while spinning the thin strips with wool to create warp for Chilkat weaving. Notice the tin foil “wind breaker” around the bottom edge of the pot – I learned this from my (all-too-temporary) assistant, Lis Saya
You don’t need to cook the sap out of cedar bark if you are going to weave baskets or hats, etc. You will want to cook the sap out of the bark if you are spinning warp for your Chilkat weavings.
Set up your kitchen outside. Use a propane two-burner hotplate.
First, oil the lid and entire inside of the pot. (This prevents the sap from sticking heavily to your pot.) Do not oil the gasket of the lid. (You want to avoid having the gasket slip out of place.)
Then fill pot with 3/4 amount of water, place your strip(s) of cedar in the water, cover and place weight in its position. How much cedar do you place i this amount of water? Use your discretion based on the size of pot and the size and amount of cedar strips – there is no hard and fast rule here.
After water begins to boil, turn heat down to a rolling simmer and let boil for at least an hour up to two hours at 10-pounds pressure.
Let out pressure; let cool down (I wait until overnight), then remove lid.
Take cedar strips out of pot and place on paper bags.
DO NOT POUR CEDAR BARK water down any internal drains (sinks, toilets, tubs, etc.). Pour the sap outside in your driveway or in an area that you do not want anything to grow.
Let cedar completely dry out before placing in paper bag or cardboard box. NEVER use plastic bags are containers unless of course, you know that cedar is completely thoroughly dry. (Let’s avoid mold)..
Jun 12, 2013 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Tools-of-the-Trade |
My temporary assistant Lis Saya is preparing 2-oz. skeins of weft yarn for dyeing Chilkat yellow
If you’d like to know my recipe for dyeing the Chilkat golden yellow weft, just give me a call and I’ll give it to you over the phone. I am feeling too tired to think about placing the recipe on line here right now. Forgive me for being lazy in this moment.
Golden yellow weft hangs to dry in the sunshine after it has been lightly washed in Ivory dish soap. When dry, we’ll put up the yarns in balls instead of leaving the yarn in skeins.
The best Chilkat gold!!!
Jun 11, 2013 | Acting Out and Musical Chairs, Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Honoring Others, Showing Off |
Though they’ve have known one another for over 35 years, Clarissa and Lis have never played music together until this evening at the “Open Mike” sponsored by Pagosa Brewing Company owned by friend Tony Simmons – David Chambers is on the congas – photos by Dan Shanks
Our sons have been friends since they were two years old; mothers and sons met at the co-op preschool in Juneau, Alaska. Lis has been a celtic musician her entire adult life and has produced many concerts bringing Irish music to Juneau. I used to play music in my early adult life until I began having children; the house was too small to practice and play because it would wake up the kids; it wasn’t until after my kids grew up and I divorced that I finally had the time to play again; I took up the ukelele!
Lis on guitar, accompanied Clarissa on ukelele, played 3 songs: a traditional Tlingit song, a Northern rendition of “Jeremy Row the Boat Ashore” and Clarissa’s first song she wrote over a year ago “Shifting Shanks”
Lis came down from Alaska and spent three weeks helping me get certain deadlines done before I returned to Alaska for the Summer. The two of us worked, worked, worked the entire three weeks – While I was finishing a Chilkat robe with the same deadline as all of the work, Lis helped me dye weft yarns, cook bark, split bark, wash warp to make my weaving kits for a class; she helped lay buttons and sew them down on two button robes; she helped weed and water the garden. It was wonderful to have full-time help with the things I would normally do if I didn’t have the time crunch of “getting outa Dodge” on time!—I’ve always said that women need a wife; a woman like myself definitely needs one full time all the time. When I make enough steady money (hahaha!), I will have a steady wife! — Playing this open mike together was about the only “free time” thing that Lis and I had time for! Lucky us!
Two friends of mine who had never met until this evening: Lis Saya and John Tarbet enjoy the last act of the evening.
Celtic guitarist Lis Saya, accordian and saxaphone player John Tarbet, ukelele-ist Clarissa Rizal and guitarist Dan Shanks watched all the acts to the very end at the Open Mike; that’s why they are acting like this…!
Jun 10, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Using two shades of blue weft, this Ravenstail zig-zag pattern is a nice inspiration for weaving “water” in Clarissa’s next Chilkat robe called ‘Resilience”
In each Chilkat robe I’ve woven, I have always played around with trying something new, like weaving “electric eyes” or “making waves” – in the robe I am presently weaving, I wove the above in a “split-u” shape. I’ve woven this before, but in a different color combination and in a different shape – this particular color combination is an inspiration for future weavings. I really like the colors.
Jun 7, 2013 | Acting Out and Musical Chairs, Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa and her uke
Like most of the performers at the Adaka Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory June 21-27, I will play a 20-minute set. I will sing Tlingit songs and my own originals accompanied by my ukelele on Saturday, June 22 at 1:45pm. Check out the line-up of performers and artists on their website. The Adaka Festival features traditional and contemporary Canadian 1st Nation performers and artists mainly from Yukon and British Columbia, with an occasional Alaskan(!).
I’ve been playing the uke a little over a year – this tool has become a spiritual/emotional life-saver – in my opinion, if you need to be “saved” in any way, this is the instrument that can help bring you a sense of balance. I think that if everyone in the world played ukelele, even if they just strummed a few chords every day and didn’t sing, that eventually, the world would have consistent peace! Yep.
As I mentioned, the Adaka Festival also features artists from the Yukon/British Columbia/Alaska region. During the Festival week of June 21-27, I will also be teaching an introduction to Chilkat weaving class along side Ann Smith who will be teaching Ravenstail, and Ann and I are spearheading another Indigenous Weavers’ Gathering . On Friday, June 21, I will also be a part of a group art exhibit featuring a Chilkat robe I am recently completing, my latest button robes, a contemporary painting, along with a few Giclee prints and my button blanket series greeting cards.
If you are in Whitehorse, Yukon, come out and visit us!
Jun 3, 2013 | Latest Art Projects, Ravens & Eagles, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Clarissa Rizal weaving a “Diving Whale Lovebirds” Chilkat robe – May 2013
One morning in early January, I woke up thinking about all the Chilkat weavings I started a year or two (or even three(?) ago: the Chilkat robe for a couple from Seattle, the leggings for my friend Preston, a handbag for Cherri, the doll started with my daughter Lily, etc. Incomplete projects tend to nag; they drag down energy . No one likes a nag; and I surely don’t like to be dragged down. I was once a nag, but learned it didn’t do any good. Yet did any of these Chilkat weavings learn not to nag to their maker? No, because it’s not the weavings that are nagging; it’s that other part of me that’s nagging – so really I hadn’t ever given up the art of nagging – what a revelation! So, that early morning in January, I said to myself: “…this is my year for Chilkat weaving. I’m going to complete all that I started…and then some…” And I am doing so. I’m quitting the nag business!
May 31, 2013 | Class Act, Latest Art Projects, Showing Off |
Sitting on my weaving bench I include important tools of the trade: laptop with remote, plate of scissors, needles, measure stick, and a notebook with pen
While I am weaving, I always have the necessary tools next to me to avoid having to get up from my bench; no one likes to be interrupted while in full concentration and when “on a roll.” I make sure my laptop is open to my email page, my necessary tools for tending to my weaving process are easily accessed and I have a small spiral-bound notebook and pen always at hand. This notebook allows me to immediately write down thoughts while weaving. Those thoughts can be about household and garden duties I must perform within the next day, week or month, or they could include another task to complete another project I am weaving or painting, or a reminder to contact another weaver to be included in a Weavers’ Gathering, or call the kids to remind them to send a birthday wish to their sibling. In fact, I carry one of this notebook on my person, in my purse and I place one by my bedside each night. Okay, call me a “type A” personality; am I offended? Only if I cannot make note of it!
May 27, 2013 | Adventures of Rear-Mirror Rissy, Honoring Others, Showing Off |
Clarissa sits next to her portrait by photographer/artist Rosalie Favell
During Indian Market 2012 in Santa Fe last year August, Rosalie Favell photographed many of the artists, including myself. Initially of course, when asked to participate, my automatic response is to hesitate and I begin to ask myself questions, but with a little bit of encouragement and because Rosalie is a Metis from Canada, I figured why not?
At the show opening last Friday in Santa Fe at the Insitute of American Indian Arts Museum, I recognized a few portraits of fellow artists and classmates or instructors at the Institute of American Indian Arts; to name just a few they included Jeff Kahm, Stephen Wall, Linda Lomahaftewa, Daryl Lucero, and Crystal Worl. The odd thing about these portraits that I realized soon after viewing the entire show was that outside of them being in B&W and the same format, upon first glance, I did not immediately recognize these people, even my own portrait. I found this very odd; like, okay what’s going on?
One of several groups of portraits taken by Rosalie Favell in her recent exhibit “Facing the Camera” – a growing suite of photographic portraiture that documents individuals from a growing indigenous arts community – IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico – May 24, 2013
Rosalie Favell is a photo-based artist born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba whose significant work has received international recognition for her mapping of self and community within a global society. Through these images, Favell sees the photograph as a performance space, where identity is constantly worked and reworked, represented, and perhaps hidden. —- hmmmm….”hidden” maybe be the key word here – maybe it is why I initially did not recognize myself and the others – maybe I saw the “hidden” part of our personalities…eh?
