By Eva Luther
St. Lewis, LabradorAll Photos by Eva Luther
The grass that we use for grass work in Labrador is called sea grass. This grass can be found along the road side but the best grass is found near the salt water.
This picture shows the seed head and the grass. Sea grass is also known as salt water grass, beach grass, water grass, sewing grass, lyme grass, basket grass, shoe grass, squaw grass, wild rye and ivik.
Although the grass can be picked and used when it is green it is usually harvested in the fall after a few frosts have changed the colors to straw, yellow, pinks and purples. You pluck the grass away from the stem. Some people prefer to cut it using scissors but I prefer to pluck the grass.
Another picture showing the nice pink color of grass that has been touched by frost. Rain and snow will make the grass moldy and have black spots.
This picture shows the beautiful array of colors of fall picked grass. Gather lots of grass in the fall, it will keep forever if stored in a cool dry place.
After you have gathered your grass place in on a nice surface to dry. I prefer an ironing board so air can get all around it. Move your grass around several times a day to make sure all the grass get dried, sometimes you may have to separate the strands of grass as they will curl when drying and take their neighbors with them.
This is the grass once it is dried, you can still see the colors.
Before you begin to sew, soak the grass in water for about 48 hours. If it isn’t soaked enough the grass will crack and break during sewing. If you soak more than you can use in a day, just wrap it in a towel, put it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. After it is frozen just take out as much as you can sew in a day and wrap in a dampened towel to keep moist.
The tools of the trade are: thimble, needle, scissors. This is all you need to start grasswork. Just add grass!
Prepare the grass for sewing by cutting off about an inch on the thickest part of the grass.
To prepare the grass for sewing you must first unfurl it to make it flat. You can see the center spine this way.
Use your needle to separate the two sides from the center spine. We use the sides pieces to sew with and the center spine is used to make and continue the coil.
Another way to separate the grass one side at a time.
To begin your basket, take 4 or 5 blades of grass and shred them with your needle to make smaller pieces of grass, then tie a knot in the middle.
Thread your needle and go through the middle of the knot you prepared, leaving a small bit of grass on the end.
Use your finger to keep the end of the grass in place as you sew. When you start to sew, use the end as part of your coil.
Using an over cast stitch, sew around and around your coil, making sure every now and then that it is indeed round.
The grass coil being formed.
When you shred your grass the middle spine is used to add to your coil to keep it uniform, or if you don’t have enough of the spine, you can shred grass into three pieces and use that. It is just “poked” into the coil to continue making your basket.
Start the second round by sewing into the top portion of the coil row below.
Grass coil, starting the third row.
Bottom of the grass basket.You can still see the different colors of the grass. Anytime you have to leave the basket for any length of time, you can leave it to dry and soak it again before you start to continue sewing.
Beginning the sides of the basket.
The way the coil is handled decides the shape of the basket. If you hold it directly above the row below and continue in this way, the sides will be straight. If you hold it away from the center, it will get wider. If you hold it toward the center, it will get smaller.
This basket is almost finished.
When you have decided the basket is big enough, you cut the coil on a slant and continue with your overcasting until all the ends are sewn in, then take another couple of small stitches to end it, cut off your grass thread. Use a good pair of scissors to cut off any ends that are sticking out.
I carved a soap stone handle for this basket.
This picture shows the underside of the lid.
You have to make a separate grass coil and sew it to the bottom of the lid, this is very tedious to do and fitting is not always easy but worth it in the end.
This is the finished little basket with the lid. It took a week to make and became a Christmas present for my sister.
This is a basket I made using the green sea grass. Embroidery thread was used to make a pattern. You could also use raffia or even dye the grass to get the color you want for your pattern. This one was a Christmas present for my other sister.
Notice the flat “handle” made of grass.
Notice the lid made of all grass.
Visit our Heritage Videos page to see a grasswork demonstration by Labrador craft maker Garmel Rich.
Ruby Cabot
West St Modeste, Labrador
In this recording from the Coastal Heritage Collection from July 2008, Ruby Cabot tells Gertie Fowler how she makes skin boots. Ruby was taught to make skin boots by her husband’s grandmother, Aunt Lou Cabot. She has been a volunteer with many craft related organizations over the years, including the Women’s Institute, the Labrador Straits Museum, and Labrador Craft Producer’s Association. Ruby resides in West St. Modeste.
A transcript of this interview is also available: Ruby-Cabot-Sealskin-Boot-Making (PDF file, 56 KB).
The resources on this page are part of SmartLabrador’s Cultural Heritage Experience (CHE) project and are used with permission.
By Cynthia Colosimo Robbins
Forteau, Labrador
All Photos by Cynthia
There are lots of places on the internet to find good information about taking photographs. The Etsy Blog is a great place to start. I am not a photographer, so the things I’m suggesting here are not technical, and they’re easy to do.
Two important things to consider when taking pictures of crafts are background and lighting. The other important thing is to experiment a bit and take lots of photos to find out what works for you.
I like to find a background that shows off the craft item, but stays in the background. If I am taking photos of small items, I want to be careful that nothing distracts from them. If I am taking photos of larger items, I try to make sure that there is nothing accidentally in the background that distracts viewers (e.g. the cat’s tail, my own shadow, or seaweed on the beach).
Neutral backgrounds – white, black, grey, beige can be useful. You can make a background by draping a piece of cloth – a tablecloth, sheet, or a piece of cotton duck – over a chair to create a backdrop for the item you are taking a photo of.
You can use contrasting backgrounds to help show off your crafts – a dark background for a light object or light for a dark object. We’ve all seen how jewellery is displayed on black or dark blue velvet in a shop. A piece of black paper can work, but sometimes it isn’t dark enough. You can try using a dark piece of clothing tied, or pinned to a chair to make a darker background. Make sure you check for lint and other imperfections before you set up your photograph.
You can also create contrast by using pattern and texture. You could try using a patterned paper, or a quilt behind a solid coloured object. You could also use a texture like wood or sand behind a smooth object. Placemats can make a good background for small objects. Be careful that the background isn’t so noticeable that people miss the object you are taking a photo of. Try a few different things until you find what works.
You can make a smooth white background very easily with a piece of bristol board. Curve the bristol board gently and tape it in place, using a chair, or table and wall. If you use a chair for photographing small things, you can move it around and try it out near a window or near a lamp to change the light. You can also try it with black or coloured bristol board or paper.
Some items look better photographed from the top, others look better photographed from the side. The colour of the tablecloth cloth or table top creates a surface for your object. The wall colour behind your object can be a contrasting colour.
Natural backgrounds can be really beautiful. A piece of driftwood, weathered boards, or a sandy beach can really set off your craft item. Make sure there is nothing distracting in your background. A small piece of seaweed might attract the viewer’s eye more than your beautiful necklace draped over the driftwood. Wherever you chose to set up your work, the craft item should be the most noticeable thing in the picture.
Daylight can be the easiest light to use. If you are set up near a window, even the light on a cloudy day is enough to take a good photo without a flash. If the light from the window is too strong and you are getting really shiny reflections and dark shadows, you might want to draw the curtains, or put a light coloured cloth or paper over the window. This diffuses the light.
When you’re buying lightbulbs you can chose bright or warm bulbs. Warm light is yellowish and if you are photographing indoors using a lamp, your photos might have a yellowish look to them. Daylight is brighter and usually colours look more natural.
A camera flash is often very harsh and can make the picture too bright to see the textures and details of your craft item. Try taking pictures without the flash in different types of lighting.
This is a whitebox. It uses the same idea as a curved piece of bristol board, but it adds white sides to the box. This helps to create a setting with softer shadows. The light reflects a bit from the sides, lighting your craft evenly. You can easily move it around – near a window or other light source to experiment with different types of lighting. And even in a messy studio, you can always have a clean background ready to use.
Watch out for distracting shadows and reflections in your photographs. Often you don’t see them while you are taking the picture but find them when you are looking at the pictures later. If you are between the light and the object you are photographing, you can end up with your own shadow in the picture.
Sometimes you can reflect the light to soften shadows and light an object more evenly. In the same way that the white sides of a whitebox help to reflect the light evenly, you can use a white piece of board or cover a piece of cardboard with tinfoil to reflect and even out the light around the object you are photographing.
You can take a really good photo with your phone or tablet, but make sure you have lots of light. Photos taken with low light can be grainy. Try setting up your display near a window and using daylight. Experiment with different types of light and see what works for you. Try not to use zoom with a smartphone or tablet, just move in closer. You want the clearest picture possible.
You don’t always need a fancy camera to take good pictures, but it can help, especially in situations where the lighting isn’t great. You also have more options with a camera. For example, most digital cameras have a Macro setting. The setting shows a picture of a flower. It is used for extreme close-ups and can be very useful for taking pictures of small objects or close-ups, for example a close-up of needlework or beading.
Be careful what you focus on when you are taking close-up photos. When you are very close, the objects you don’t focus on will be blurry. Sometimes that creates a lovely effect. Learning about Focus, and Depth of Field is a whole other chapter in learning about photography, and something I’ll leave to the experts!
Etsy has resources for people who plan to set up an online shop. The Etsy Sellers Handbook and the Etsy Blog are good resources.
Resources from the Etsy Blog:
An Interview with Serena Etheridge, Quebec Labrador Foundation
Interview recorded by Craft Labrador.
Photos by S. Etheridge, J. Pye.
Lately there has been an interest in finding ways to develop experiences for visitors to Newfoundland and Labrador. For example, in the craft sector, we might be looking for ways to show visitors how crafts are made and ways to let visitors try out the craft themselves.
From 2000-2010, the Quebec Labrador Foundation (QLF) did just that – they had a project called the Traditional Skills Network that told the story of craft making through demonstrations to visitors. The project operated in the Strait of Belle Isle region and included craft makers and communities in Southern Labrador, on the Northern Peninsula and on the Quebec Lower North Shore. Local individuals demonstrated traditional crafts and the crafts that they made were sold to support the salaries of participants.
We talked with Serena Etheridge of L’Anse au Clair, who managed the project for the QLF.
The concept came about because of an identified need to preserve traditional skills that were in jeopardy of dying out. We wanted to find a way to revive these skills while providing local employment – and so the idea of the TSN came to be. We started off with 9-12 people at different sites. The sites included local businesses, museums and visitor centres. Over the years, the number of participants changed – it went as high as 30 participants and as low as 3 over the span of 10 years.
We started out by identifying what skills were in jeopardy of being lost versus which skill sets were still being practiced or available in each of 3 regions (Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Southern Labrador and the Quebec Lower North Shore). Our hiring process was based on the skills that residents were able to offer in relation to the identified needs, ranging from quilting to boat building to seal skin crafts.
The goal was to revive and preserve traditional crafts and to create local employment in the process. We tried to have the craftspeople working in high visitor areas that had a tourism or cultural focus. We developed partnerships with these local businesses and tourism sites – they allowed the various crafts to be demonstrated at their locations, and once finished, the products were then placed in their corresponding gift shops. In addition to having a cultural heritage activity at their sites, the businesses were given a small percentage of each sale.
The basic concept behind it was that the crafts person would:
A small portion of the money would be given to the site, but the remainder would be reinvested in the Traditional Skills Network toward material costs and salaries of those who developed the products. Typically, the craftspeople would work between 8 and 12 weeks during the summer months when tourism season was at its peak.
There was always a focus placed on trying to tell the story behind the craft. If it was boatbuilding, it wasn’t just about the boat, it was about the fishery and its history or heritage. Most often there was something the visitors themselves could try, so it was a way for them to take.
We would set up a scene at each site, with a sign identifying the name of the program. Visitors were intrigued to see the craftspeople in costume, the scene set with lanterns on the table, samples of the finished crafts placed around, and accessories to help enhance the storytelling aspect. As an example, with the hooked mats, the crafts person would talk about where the materials came from, the patterns and the ideas behind them. They really told the story which enticed visitors to buy. Ultimately, it was the story they were selling as much as the product.
It was a learning process. We did get some initial pilot project funding to hire craft demonstrators in the Strait of Belle Isle region. We found that we needed to determine participants’ skill sets and identify our target markets. In order to make it sustainable we had to focus on products that would give us the best return. For example, crocheting didn’t work because you could buy the same thing somewhere else for $2, when it took 15 hours of someone’s time. We had to find the products that were in demand, find the people who would produce them and sell the story behind them, and make it work. Our research showed that with a one on one demonstration, more sales were made.
One area that was totally self-sustaining was the sealskin products.
We sold at a couple of auctions in Boston that were connected to QLF. They also made some custom orders, knowing the types of products we were producing. That spread by word of mouth across Canada and we had people from as far away as Alberta contacting us, looking for specific types of hand-made crafts.
We also sold products at a museum in Sept Iles and in Montreal. We participated in several craft fairs in the Labrador Straits and on the Quebec Lower North Shore. We likewise sold various products at a high-end craft store in St. John’s – including trigger mitts, carved wooden paintings, wooden boats, sealskin products and landscape quilting items.
The goal was to revive and preserve traditional crafts and to create local employment in the process. We tried to have the craftspeople working in high visitor areas that had a tourism or cultural focus. We developed partnerships with these local businesses and tourism sites – they allowed the various crafts to be demonstrated at their locations, and once finished, the products were then placed in their corresponding gift shops. In addition to having a cultural heritage activity at their sites, the businesses were given a small percentage of each sale.
The basic concept behind it was that the crafts person would:
A small portion of the money would be given to the site, but the remainder would be reinvested in the Traditional Skills Network toward material costs and salaries of those who developed the products. Typically, the craftspeople would work between 8 and 12 weeks during the summer months when tourism season was at its peak.
There was always a focus placed on trying to tell the story behind the craft. If it was boatbuilding, it wasn’t just about the boat, it was about the fishery and its history or heritage. Most often there was something the visitors themselves could try, so it was a way for them to take.
We would set up a scene at each site, with a sign identifying the name of the program. Visitors were intrigued to see the craftspeople in costume, the scene set with lanterns on the table, samples of the finished crafts placed around, and accessories to help enhance the storytelling aspect. As an example, with the hooked mats, the crafts person would talk about where the materials came from, the patterns and the ideas behind them. They really told the story which enticed visitors to buy. Ultimately, it was the story they were selling as much as the product.
We had a Youth Apprenticeship Program. Every summer we hired local students who worked side by side with the craftspeople for the duration of the summer. They went on to learn about the craft and develop it themselves. The goal was to instill some of these traditional skills and to help carry forward the knowledge of these traditions. Among several success stories, we had a young girl who built a model boat and went on to build a couple of them for her family. There were also a few young girls who learned to make quilts and hook mats.
We did a lot of workshops – everything from product development to pricing and promotion. We thought it was important to know how each price came to be, or how to adapt a traditional skill to more modern products. Not everyone wanted to buy a $400 quilt, but some people wanted to take little wall hangings with them- representative of the skill, but more practical to carry. We had workshops in Newfoundland, in Labrador and on the Quebec side. The people who were involved in the Traditional Skills Network in the three regions were always exchanging and connecting.
With the goal of helping tell the stories behind the products, we developed little write-ups and hang tags to accompany the crafts. The tags identified who the craftsperson was, what the item was used for in earlier days, and how it was made. Whenever possible, we attached it as a souvenir for the visitor to take home. It also helped tell the story at times when we didn’t have the demonstrators available.
Value the Work: One thing that I keep coming back to, and found it the hardest to really convince participants of, was the incredible value of their work. We went to an auction and a lady from Newfoundland was making a beautiful quilt by hand and I asked her what she thought she would get for it and she said, “$100 if you’re lucky.” I went to the auction (in Boston) – and without hesitation – we got $1400 for that quilt. A lot of people say “I’ve always done it, there’s no value in that,” but sometimes it takes an outside perspective to point out just how incredibly valuable their work is.
Identify Skill Sets: Identify available skill sets and build on that. You’re not necessarily going to have a seal skin product factory if there’s nobody who knows how to make seal skin products. You need to assess what’s available, and how those skills can best be utilized. Adapt those skill sets to what’s in demand. Of course, you’re going to want to create what’s going to sell, and what will help generate a profit if you want to make the initiative self-sustainable.
Be Aware of Trends: Be aware of trends and know your market both locally and globally. We were surprised by how many locals bought as well. There were some differences in what they were looking for. Locals did not want to hear talk of mittens knitted with 100% wool, they wanted the softer synthetic yarns, whereas visitors would only buy them if it was 100% wool. Based on what customers are looking for, you can always adapt existing skills to new products.
Identify Key Products: Identify the proper products to create – products that are in demand and can sell, but are also unique. By the time visitors get here they’ve seen a lot of knitted goods, but if you are able to create something different with that skill, it will help move your products. Customize it so that it’s specific to the story that you’re selling instead of something very general. Understanding the market demand and adapting products around that are important to keep in mind.
Enforce Quality Control and Standards: Some people make things differently; it all comes back to having the right people involved. Don’t be shy to enforce quality standards. It only takes one or two not so good items to diminish the value of the work that’s being done in the organization. With this being said, offer skills training and reinforce quality products. It helps build participants’ confidence and steers you in the right direction.
Develop a Pricing Strategy: Be careful of pricing- don’t undervalue but don’t overprice. If it’s too inexpensive it undermines the value and sends the message that it is of poor quality. In the same token, if it’s too expensive, it will be more difficult to sell. You need to make sure that it fits within the market standards, that you are covering your basic costs and able to make a profit from.
Our pricing model at the time was: Cost of materials X 2 + a percentage of labour/hour.
Help Tell the Story: Always try to add that special touch. Tell the story through the exchange somehow – whether it’s through demonstrations or hang tags. Visitors don’t want to find the same souvenir here that they would find somewhere else. It needs to be authentic and representative of the region that they are visiting. Again, the story conveyed or meaning behind a product might be the selling point as much as the craft itself.
It depends on the season and the extent to which you would like to build the business or venture. It could mean selling off a couple little things left over or preparing for the subsequent season. But you need someone to oversee the project, whether it’s enforcing quality control, or selling, collecting and buying materials. The craftspeople are busy focusing on the demonstration and production of crafts. There is little time for them to work on coordinating or organizing the administrative aspects of the initiative. In my opinion, it always helps to have a project manager who can oversee the human and material resources, and then help pull everything together to make it a successful venture.
As part of the Traditional Skills Network, we also did a cookbook, a traditional music CD, and a series of “Inter-generational Exchanges”. This included local seniors going into schools and teaching youth traditional skills (net mending, quilting, cooking, boat building and square dancing), while youth taught seniors some things they were interested in (mandolin, computers, and modern dance). It was a really nice addition to the program, which connected people at a community level, encouraged learning, and was not so heavily focused on the ‘sale of goods’, but rather the sharing of information.
The Quebec Labrador Foundation (QLF) is a non-profit, registered charity in both Canada and the United States. Founded in 1961 by Rev. Robert Bryan, the organization has been working on the Quebec-Labrador Coast since it was first created there some 57 years ago.
QLF’s mission is “to promote global leadership development, to support the rural communities and environment of eastern Canada and New England, and to create models for stewardship of natural resources and cultural heritage that can be applied worldwide.”
In this capacity, QLF works with a broad range on partners all around the world, with a focus on projects and programs that foster leadership, conservation efforts, and stewardship of both natural and cultural resources. It is through QLF’s cultural heritage program that the “Traditional Skills Network” came to be in 2000-2001.
An Interview with Sherry Penney, Labrador West Indigenous Service Centre
Interview recorded by Craft Labrador.
Photos by Sherry Penney.
How can you organize a craft workshop in your community when there is no funding to do it? Often we have a lot of interest in our communities about learning a certain type of craft but don’t know how to go about it. In this article we will learn from Sherry Penney how she organized a workshop to make sealskin mukluks in Labrador West.
Sherry Penney works at the Indigenous Service Centre in Labrador West where she often facilitates craft workshops. When they did the duffel slipper workshop they were given a mukluk pattern and Sherry tried it out. That generated the interest – people saw her work and wanted to try it themselves. So many people were interested that she didn’t even have to advertise the workshop.
Sherry is not an expert in making mukluks, or a formal instructor, but was willing to share what she knew. When she facilitates a workshop, the group learns from each other. There were too many people for her to do the workshop alone, but another person who also had a bit of experience agreed to co-facilitate the workshop. Sherry felt that with the amount of work involved, six participants per facilitator would be enough.
They had a meeting of all the participants before they started the workshop to agree on what the expectations were for the workshop and what practices they would follow during the workshop. They also agreed that once the practices were decided upon, they would not change them.
One of the things the group decided on at the initial meeting was the type of mukluk they would make. This helped the facilitators to plan the amount of materials to purchase and how to implement the workshop. They also thought that it would be too difficult to facilitate if everyone did a different pattern.
Another thing they decided on was that each person would have to do their own sewing. The facilitators would demonstrate how to do something on their own mukluks, but wouldn’t do any sewing on the participant’s projects.
The facilitators had a lot of work to do beforehand to plan the workshops. They didn’t want to do a workshop longer than six weeks, so they did a six week outline and planned out what they had to show the group in each week. If participants didn’t finish up in the workshop, they would have to finish at home during the week in order to stay on track.
They decided to just work on one boot during the workshop. If participants could learn to do one well, they could do the other at home afterwards. People who did a lot of work at home were able to do both boots in the six weeks.
The pattern they used had a strip of hide at the front and participants were free to make their own designs on this so that each project was personalized. One night of the workshop was spent deciding what each person wanted. Participants did the decorative work at home. Some did beading, some embroidery – each one was different. This gave everyone a chance to be really creative, even though they were working on the same project.
In order to determine what materials they would need for the workshop, the co-facilitators met with each participant individually to finalize each pattern so that it would fit the person who was making it. They estimated that they would need $200 per person for the materials. At the first meeting they agreed that any extra materials they needed would be added on top of that.
In fact, they later added a seventh week to the workshop to add a rubber sole to the boots they had made and they needed to order extra materials for that. They were able to save on shipping for the first order of materials because someone was able to bring them from Goose Bay. They had to pay shipping on the additional materials for the rubber soles. Participants paid for materials up front and Sherry ordered them. Sherry ordered everything on her credit card and because she did that for them, the group decided that she could keep the leftover materials.
The Aboriginal Service Centre didn’t have any funding to pay for the workshop, but they provided the space for the workshop and Sherry was able deliver the workshop as part of her work there. Part of the money that participants paid for materials covered the materials for the co-facilitator because she had donated her time to help plan and deliver the workshop.
The workshop was very successful and Sherry says that she would use the same process again.
The workshop went well because the facilitators did their homework – they planned ahead. Sherry says that meeting with the group up front and deciding on the workshop expectations was the most important thing – and deciding that the expectations wouldn’t change. For example, one of the things they had decided up front was that they cleaned up as a group during the last 15 minutes of each session. It was also important for the facilitators that the group agreed to stick to the process they outlined at the beginning. If the process changes part way through, it can make things very hectic.
The facilitators met individually with each participant to size the pattern. This was important to participants because it helped to build a rapport with the facilitators and helped to ensure each participant had a good final product. It was also a good idea to do this outside of the workshop because it was less stressful one on one. When working with costly materials, people are concerned about the fit until they are able to try them on.
