Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Mar 25/02) - The finished work of three-dimensional flowers, framed in an oval, tells nothing of the messy, labour-intensive process behind it.

It takes a special person, one immune to tiny particles of flying hair, with strong fingers and endless patience to become skilled in the traditional art of caribou and moose hair tufting.

Such a person is Twyla Wheeler, a 45-year-old artist from Carmacks, Yukon, who was in Inuvik last week to hold a class on caribou and moose hair tufting at the NWT Training Centre. Here's part of a conversation she had with News/North about her craft.

Twyla Wheeler works on a tufting at the NWT Training Centre. -- Lynn Lau/NNSL photo

News/North: How did you get into tufting?

Twyla Wheeler: I was always interested in all kinds of traditional art and I have a friend, Gladys Lavallee, who taught me to tuft. It's an art that when you're doing it, you're by yourself -- for one thing because it's so messy. I felt that Gladys was kind of lonely, all day by herself. So I'd go and help her. I used to tuft with her, pretty well everyday.

N/N: Where does tufting come from?

TW: I don't know -- I know it's a Athabaskan traditional art.

N/N: Is that in your heritage?

TW: I'm Metis. It's not something I grew up with but I was raised in the same community as the Northern Tutchone people and they do a lot of beading, slippers, drums and stuff like that. I've done all that. Tufting is something I just seem to like and something other people don't do. It's a dying art.

N/N: What do you like about tufting?

TW: The finished product is so beautiful. And there's lots of things you can do with it. Right now, I'm doing flowers, but this winter I'd like to try to tuft wolves. So we'll see how that goes.

N/N: Do you do this full time?

TW: I have a full-time job besides this. I tutor at the high school in Carmacks. But if I had my way, I'd quit my work tomorrow. I want to stay at home and do my art, but I can't seem to make that decision!

N/N: How much time do you spend tufting?

TW: I get up at four o'clock in the morning and I tuft until eight. I come home at four, and then I make supper. I work from 6:30 until 10, and then I'm back at it at four o'clock in the morning. I do that when I'm actually tufting. But you're not always tufting. Sometimes you're working on skins. That's when I get a bit of a break.

N/N: How long have you been doing this?

TW: About 15 years. It took about five years to perfect it. When you're learning, you get frustrated, so you have to put it away. After a time, you learn there's no use getting frustrated.

N/N: Can you tell me the process?

TW: Renewable Resources brings me hides off the Dempster -- from hunters when they just leave the hides behind. I thaw them out in the garage and I brush them -- brush the blood off the hair side, and I take all the meat and fat off the skin side. Then, once they're dry, they're ready to dye. You can dye the hair around the neck for the light colours and down the back, it's more the greens because the hair is darker. Moose hair is tougher and it doesn't take dye as well, so it's for the stems and caribou hair is for the tufts.

N/N: Then when the hides are done you can start tufting?

TW: Right. Each one is different. I draw out the stems in chalk and the rest I just free-tuft.

N/N: How many hides do you go through?

TW: I'll dye four or five caribou hides a year. That will take a couple weeks because once you get it dyed, you have to look after it, you have to hang it out. People laugh at me because I have blue and green and yellow, all these little fur tufts hanging out on my clothes line outside. They always ask me what kind of laundry I'm doing.

N/N: When you're tufting, you have to trim the hairs a lot. You must be inhaling some of these little bits.

TW: Every once in a while, I have a real coughing fit. If I go out and get some fresh air I'm OK again. You get it everywhere, in your mouth, in your throat, in your coffee.

N/N: Do you do other types of art as well?

TW: I bead, I paint, I do pottery. I've made my husband slippers, jackets. I do a lot of different kinds of art. But this one seems to be the one that held my attention for the longest.

N/N: What do you get out of art?

TW: Peace and quiet.

N/N: Have there been times in your life you really felt the need for it?

TW: I have to do it everyday. I have to do something with it everyday. If I'm not dyeing, I'm tufting. Or I'm drawing, or beading, or sewing. I'm always doing something. No idle hands, ever. If I go on holidays, I try to take it with me. I always have my little packsack with my stuff in it so I can take it out and start.

N/N: Has it always been that way with you?

TW: Always, always. We never had TV as children. My dad is quite an artist and he filled our days with drawing, painting, carving. My mother is a seamstress and she does quilting. It just kind of wore off on me I guess.

N/N: That sounds like a good childhood.

TW: The best.

N/N: What are you thinking about when you tuft?

TW: I think about a lot of things. It's an out for me. It's very relaxing. It's a real stress relief. It's something I enjoy.