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Hand-made warmth Northern News Services Published Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Alain-Lilly has perhaps been better known in the community for her artistic talents in beadwork, which has been featured at Yellowknife trade shows in the past. She held a workshop for braided mitten strings at Northern Images last October and has held similar demonstrations at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik for the last two years. She makes and sells various crafts and writes scripts for Yellowknife Films. Mitten-making is a recent addition to her lifelong passion for art. "Last year a friend of mine and I just wanted to start making mittens," she explained, adding that she was able to find a pattern and various materials to begin. "I found that I really liked making mittens and so I have been making a lot of them since." She showed Yellowknifer various mitten styles she has made over the last year. She said she has made about seven pairs. Some of her mittens feature extensive ribbon patterns and beadwork. Participants all said their afternoon was well spent. "It was a fun, good day and Charissa was an awesome teacher," said Mary-Ann Doering. Doering attended the Pelt Handling Workshop and Traditional Arts and Crafts Sale at the Behchoko Cultural Centre on Dec. 17. There she bought four sheared beaver pelts and one seal pelt to use for her mittens at the workshop. "My husband used to trap when we lived in Manitoba, but I wanted to learn about the quality of furs," she said, adding that she wants to now apply this knowledge to making mittens for her family. While it may be a bit too close to Christmas this year to complete them in time, she aims to be good enough by this time next year to provide her seven grandchildren with mitts. Alain-Lily said she encouraged students to purchase recycled items because material in Yellowknife tends to be in short supply. "This is not a big emphasis, but I have said it might be better for practical reasons," she said, adding that old leather or wool coats are good examples of used materials that can be used. "It is good to just improvise and find material at the flea market or Salvation Army." Sarah Bannon, for instance, showed off her glorious mittens that began from leftover materials she had, such as scrap duffle, wool linen, beaver fur and leather. "I had just wanted to learn how to sew with fur," she said, showing large furry pair of mitts. "It was not complicated and I accomplished it." Kumari Karunaratne was making a pair of mittens for her sister in Ottawa for Christmas, using a bit of muskrat, beaver and rabbit from Just Furs. "I am hoping she will wear them because she is a vegan," she said.
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