Adaka Festival: Porcupine Insertion

I'm combining the last several days spent at the Adaka Festival. They have been pure magic. Heaven for a person like me. As I overheard one of the participants say, "I wish this could go on all summer."

Sunday, July 2

My first class was in Porcupine Quilling. Having seen TWO porcupines last night, I figured the powers that be were bestowing blessings on my upcoming project.

Set up and materials for porcupine insertion. The pin is very important!

Our class was limited to about 10 people, which was a delightful number. Our teacher, Naomi Smith, told us how to be careful of the porcupine quills. She does collect her own quills, usually from a dead animal. She didn't say it, but that usually means roadkill. Some people do collect quills from live porcupines by putting a blanket or pillow over a live animal, but Naomi does not really recommend this.

One of the undercurrents about these classes was the deep respect that all the teachers have for the land. You ALWAYS thank the animal for giving you the skin or parts to use. You express gratefulness for the privilege of using the animals in your artwork.

Samples of Naomi's work

Nowhere else have I come across this, and the concept has deeply affected me. Consider how much different our world would be if we were truly grateful for what we eat, or how we get our energy for to heat our houses or run our cars. Does anyone remember saying "Grace" before meals? I said it so often, it became rote, and I didn't really think about what the words mean... Perhaps we have to go through a lack of something in order to appreciate it, but it would be so valuable if we could just be grateful.

Naomi Smith demonstrating quilling insertion.

So we learned about the porcupine, and thanked Naomi and the porcupine for giving use the quills to use, and the birch tree for the bark we were using, too.

Porcupine quills have two ends: the end that is in the animal, and the business end that is barbed and can work its way into dogs' noses if left untreated. We were admonished to be VERY CAREFUL when working with the quills: no quills in an area where food is being served, and hold onto the ends when cutting so they don't fly across the room. Just be mindful and not careless.

As an aside, just after doing this class, I learned of a rare case where a woman had ingested a porcupine quill, and it punctured her aorta. Sounds like it can't possibly happen, but you really, really do want to be careful of these things!

My project, in progress

Porcupine quills have to be soaked in order for them to be pliable enough to work. They harden up again readily when dry, so they can go through many wet/dry cycles, just like your hair. Indeed, porcupine quills are a specialized kind of hair.

It does make one wonder how the porcupine evolved...

The process is fairly simple, but it does take practice.
- You mark the birchbark where you want the quills to go.
- You poke two holes with the pushpin, where the two ends of the quill will go in.
- You poke pointy end of the quill from the back to front of the birchbark, pull it through to the front with the needlenose pliers, then poke the pointy end of the quill from the front to the back of the birchbark again, and pull it tight.
- You clip both ends of the quill, and then push them aside so they are kind of flat.

My finished feathers

You repeat this for each quill.

There is an art to choosing quills. They are not standard. There are short, fat quills and long, skinny quills. Quills with brown; quills with white. Some of us tried to be use these features (on the sample above, I tried to keep the dark bits to the outside right), but with random success.

Once one gets going, one does get faster. On learns to make SURE to clip all of the ends, otherwise one will get poked.

In my sample, I wish I liked the feathers, but they weren't close enough. I should have made the sides of the feathers closer to the stems, and I wish the feathers had overlapped more.

But for a first project, it was fun and educational.

This "flatpurse" is a sample of Naomi's work, based on traditional design

Then we started the beading part of the project. Naomi was an excellent and patient teacher. Her instructions were so clear, and you could tell that she was experienced. She even demonstrated the beading with large pony beads so all ten of us in the class could see the technique.

She is Senca, of the Six Nations, and is passionate about teaching and sharing traditional projects. She does beading work or all kinds, and her work is nothing short of amazing, in the craftsmanship and choices of pattern and colors.

She particularly enjoys the history of beading, and incorporates traditional designs in her work. It is unbelievably beautiful and so well done. It's evident that she's been doing this for years. She credits her mentors for teaching her.

Beading, in progress.

One of the exciting things about this class was that we also made deerskin thimbles! Naomi told us that we would need this, and boy, was she right. I used it the next three days, and am using mine still!

We also learned how to make leather (suede) lace. Instead of cutting a long piece of leather, you actually cut a circle, and then cut a spiral from the circle. Naomi explained that this way you can get a long piece of lace from a relatively small piece of leather! Genius! It also has more give in it, because it's being partially cut on the bias.

My own work went pretty well, but what she had us doing was fairly simple. Really good for a first project. It was enough that I managed to make three feathers!

Another sign of an excellent class and experienced teacher was that we actually ALL FINISHED IN CLASS. (Although I will admit that we didn't all go home at 5pm. Some of us stayed until 7pm to finish, but still!)

My finished pendant.

One of the class members was Lisa Younger from Haines, a Tlingit artist specializing in copper and silver jewelry. (One of the benefits of the festival is that presenters and invited artists get to take classes!) I was strongly tempted to get a set of her copper earrings that were for sale in the gallery, but $199 was a little above my comfort level. But I'm still thinking about them! She is so well thought of that her work commands very high prices. Here's another sample of her work. It was fun to see an accomplished artist struggle with a new medium, just as the rest of us were doing!

I really loved doing this work, and am glad that I got more quills in Dawson City to experiment with. I would really like to do more of this!

You can also dye the quills, and use them in tufting (like moosehair tufting), so the possibilities are broad.

I will leave conclude with the group of very happy people with their pendants.

Class admiring all our pendants; Naomi on right.

Takhini Hot Springs Hostel

I was a little nervous because I was so late. I'd told the Hostel staff that I wouldn't be checking in until after 5pm, but it was probably closer to 9pm by the time I got out of the class, did a little food shopping, and then went out to the hostel.

When I contracted for the place, I didn't realize that it was quite so far out of town — it took about 40 minutes to drive in and out of town every day. This could be a good thing or a bad thing: on the one hand it was nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of Whitehorse, but on the other it wasn't like I could bike in (something I'd considered). Biking would have taken quite awhile, especially as there were two big hills (one of them the famous "Two Mile Hill") to get up returning to the hostel.

I ended up driving.

At the hostel, it was pretty empty except for one young woman who was in my room. "Oh, you're my roommate," she exclaimed, in a charming French accent.

She was from Quebec, on a wilderness journey in memory of her father, who had died earlier in the year from cancer. They had planned this trip, but he was not able to make it, so she was doing it herself, carrying his photo with her. She had worked as a wildlife interpreter/educator for one of the parks in Quebec province; she was going to be starting a new job as an environmental project manager when she got back home.

We made friends easily. I told her what I was doing, showed her the pendant I'd made that day, and she thought it so wonderful that she asked about classes. Since she was backpacking and didn't have a car, she felt a little "stuck" out at the hostel. I said that I was sure she'd be able to take something, as they did have on-site registration.

It was lovely to meet someone like this... she reminded me of myself when I was younger.

Well, I'm not combining entries! On to the next day!