Last summer Dad, a family friend, and I heard the sockeye were running so we hopped into the boat and went fishing out on the Chilkoot side.  I remember the cool salty air against my face, the spray of the water, sitting while the net lay in the depths, waiting and watching for the bobbing corks.  I remember hearing dad’s laugh and the jokes we all told as the mosquitos and horseflies flew around us.  It was a successful day on the water, and we had a lot of cleaning to do once we came ashore.  I remember how at the dock I joked with our friend that he probably hadn’t planned on spending his evening cleaning all this salmon, instead of with his family.  I knew that being on the boat and catching fish had to be so much more enjoyable than cleaning it to him. His response was quiet and steady, “You know Gwen, it’s all just a process, every part of it.”

I have thought of those words while sitting in front of my small piece these past couple of months.  Each step is a process worthy of honor and time and my sister and I knew we wanted to delve into some of those foundational aspects as they spoke to our childhood and memories. My siblings and I grew-up with dad often telling us of how he would help to gather the shedded goat wool pulling it from the bushes off mountain sides and bringing it home for his grandma.  Hunters would climb the mountains to hunt and bring the hides and goats home.  Then you have the cleaning and preparation, pulling the wool from the hide, separating guard hairs, creating rovings, and thigh spinning, dying your wool and also the harvesting and trading for natural dye colors, the harvest of the cedar, the preparation of the cedar, trading items for the cedar, the loom creation and setting-up, and finally, and I know I am missing steps, the weaving, with so many profound and complex steps within itself.  Marsha has been deepening our appreciation for each step and introducing us to new concepts or helping us to think deeper about the connections and day-to-day reasons of creating and life.  We really can’t do it all, but I am starting to see a community of people who move in who they are and what they love: harvesters, spinners, traders, weavers, amazing dreamers and doers.

I began a small piece while my sister was still in Juneau so that when she arrived in Haines I would be a little familiar with weaving as Cara has done some Ravenstail projects in the past.  The piece is 4 1/2″ x 6″.  It may be small and my tension isn’t great, but I learned so much in this small piece.  This piece was created using merino wool and cedar.  The warp was made by Marsha and was beautifully done. Many weavers today use merino wool as mountain goat wool isn’t as easily accessible today. To me it’s a picture of the flexibility and resilience of the people to continue on in this artform.

One of the things that I found the most difficult, was that you change hand motions depending on whichever way you go.  My mind would start to wrap around the motion from left to right, and then all of a sudden I would find myself at the end of my piece and thinking hard about right to left and the motions to go the other way.  We were originally going to do four braids around the piece with just a yellow middle and I could add a little button or beaded piece in the middle.  (Marsha said the circle will be made in another piece with Cara, it was important for us to all be together).  However, we decided about midway through to add-in another technique and created colored squares.  Those were a lot of fun to make.  I enjoyed that process a lot and feeling the weft yarn “lock” into place.


Cara made it to Haines last weekend and we took my finished little piece off the loom.  I’m a little embarrassed as I see the imperfections, but I am also proud of my accomplishment; it’s all a part of the process.

Tonight my family will be nourished by some of the sockeye we caught last summer.  Today, my hands will be working with goat wool and cedar, brought in and harvested by people who desire to honor our past, present, and future.  I will work in my garden. My boys and I covered homeschool lessons. It’s all a process, take time to see, appreciate,                                                                                                                  and learn.