INUVIK
Inuvik artist Jennifer Lam is a dynamo of activity with great passion for her craft, creating creates stories from what she experiences and those tales come out in her art.

Jennifer Lam shows off one of her favourite creations, a sweater made from merino wool, silk and qiviat. - Mark Rieder/NNSL photo

"I believe that our stories change us. When you bring an idea into your mind, it changes some aspect of how you see it. The fact that you even see it changes you," she said.

Lam's medium is yarn, or string as she sometimes calls it with humour and humbleness.

"I've been a knitter since I was a child, my mom taught me as a form of punishment," Lam said, laughing.

Originally from Vancouver, Lam came to Inuvik in 2008 for a visit with her partner, Kevin Floyd.

As a result, Lam's imagination is boosted by what she sees around her in the North.

"We live in an incredible land and there has been a lot of inspiration I have gained from being up here, just by walking through the land," she said.

Lam began creating art with yarn while still in British Columbia. She remembers going into small town church basements to practice and perfect her knitting with the older women there. Her personality was different from the others she met there.

"There was a stereotype of what a knitter was, and it was definitely not a 19-year-old with a blue mohawk," she said.

In the early days, Lam experimented with various methods of making yarn, going as far as mixing material, such as the tape from cassettes with the

wool.

"I got into dying my own yarn, and I started pushing the boundaries of what yarn can be and I went through a period of using natural dyes and experimenting with different types of plants, fungus and berries," she said.

Once she had perfected the making of the yarn, she began expanding on how she uses the yarn to create different textures.

"I tend to think of knitting in three dimensions," she said.

Once she has determined the basic idea behind what she is going to knit, Lam will sit down and sketch a storyboard of what the design will be.

"I do what I call story sweaters," she said, adding that she created a sweater inspired by her honeymoon at Kyuquot Sound. It symbolizes the beach, sunsets, waves and trees she saw during the visit.

At first, Lam was frustrated by the lack of wool fleece to work with up here, due to the lack of sheep or alpaca. She had to rethink where to get raw materials from. It didn't take long for her to realize that there is a source of a special kind of wool in the region.

"What we do have up here is muskox and one of the things I was excited about finding is that muskox provides qiviat," she said.

"Qiviat is what all textile and fibre people adore. It's the pinnacle of all the luxury fibres," she said,

"Most people say it's about eight times warmer than wool, it's the softest thing around."

In the tradition of her ancestors, Lam appreciates the fact that using the muskox wool is an extension of the belief that nothing goes to waste.

"It's a matter of being able to use what's around you," she said.

"Here we have this strange creature that is not only wonderful to knit, but wonderful to eat."

There is also a spiritual link that Lam appreciates when she works with yarn.

"It's that connection you have to the environment, but also the mythology around it. I take a delight in it. Most crafters want to have some sort of tangible connection back to the creature that they are using," she said.

Lam is often commissioned to make sweaters, she likes to personalize her creations by getting to know something about her client.

"I'll ask, 'What is this person like. What are the characteristics you want to show in the sweater,'" she said.

"Within that information, you will find some sort of guidance or style, the aesthetics of the story."

Lam will be among more than 50 artists featured at the Great Northern Arts Festival, July 17 to 26 at Inuvik's Midnight Sun Complex.

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