Workshop on tufting
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Mar 30/01) - Hair is snipped from the caribou hide, then held within a loop of thread and set snugly against a garment.
The artist then delicately snips the hair.
The process is repeated until a flower or some other pattern springs forth.
This was the scene for three days last week at the NWT Training Centre where Twyla Wheeler of Carmacks, Yukon, was holding a tufting workshop.
The focus was primarily on caribou hair, though some moose hair was used. Wheeler showed eight students how to do tufting, and dye hair into many colours.
Student Paula Lannon said she loved the different colours and how they blended.
"I'm just amazed by all the colours available," Lannon said.
Lannon spent time in Inuvik in the 1970s, but didn't get into tufting then. She became interested after returning to her native Newfoundland. She saw and was "blown away" by a tufting display there by a Mountie who had served in the North.
"This is a beautiful art, and I think it's just incredible."
Lannon does many crafts, and said interacting with the other students made the workshop even more enjoyable.
"Now we're all enthused about what we can do with it," she said. "We can incorporate it into anything."
Wheeler said tufting is pretty well a lost art in this area, but workshops could help reintroduce it.
"It's the old way of decorating, like, before beads," Wheeler said.
She said designs can be made on slippers, jackets, hats, gloves and other items.
Wheeler, whose parents are of Cree and Metis descent, grew up in Carmacks and saw tufting at a young age.
Wheeler learned the art from Gladys Lavalee, and often teaches tufting at the school in Carmacks.
"It's very social," said Wheeler.
