Bark, Bark, Bark

My husband and I took our baby camping this past weekend in Fundy National Park, New Brunswick. May-long is always a great time to get out and celebrate the start of summer and this year the weather actually co-operated.

We did a fair bit of hiking and because I harvest my bark in early summer, I'm constantly keeping an eye on the trees to see if they're close to being ready.  I was really excited to see the state of the birch throughout the park; they're starting to shed which means it's almost harvest time!

In the old days, it was time to harvest when the fireflies came out. These days, it's not quite that straight forward. The weather patterns have changed quite a lot and as a result, I find that harvest times fluctuate. Last year, our spring in Nova Scotia was cool and wet so the trees weren't ready until July; the previous year, I was out in June.

This year, we've had a warm spring so I'm hoping that I'll get out early. I'll be over in PEI in a few weeks and it would be great to harvest while I'm there. My mom usually comes with me and it's great to get out and exercise our Aboriginal rights together. Last year we harvested on Lennox Island First Nation, which is where my grandmother was from and where my mom lived when she was little.  There is nothing quite like the feeling of being out on the land doing something that Mi'kmaq have done for centuries to give you a sense of the strength of our culture.

I've not always been able to time things as well as I did last year. The window of opportunity is quite small and I have to harvest when the trees are ready regardless of what's going on with life.  I'll never forget the year my mom and I were helping my sister with her new baby and had to head out to the woods because the trees were ready.

Fortunately, I still have enough bark from last year to see me through the next couple of months. When I first started, I didn't know how much to get and I ran out in February. I called around to the few people I could think of who harvest bark and might have some stored mid-winter. Luckily, work took me to Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland. The Chief had just made a birch bark sweat lodge and let me help myself to the leftover bark. I'll always be grateful for that and hope he enjoyed the quillwork I sent him in exchange.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that the trees are ready when I'm on the island!

Homeward Bound

I'll be heading over to PEI for Abegweit First Nation's 14th Annual Mawiomi (Pow Wow) on June 9 and 10. I don't attend a lot of Mawiomi's but I'm really looking forward to this one. Abegweit is my community and it will be nice to visit family and watch the dancing.

I used to sell my work at the Alderney Landing Farmers Market in Dartmouth and later at the Historic Farmers Market in Halifax. However, ever since my son was born last year I haven't been selling in person. I miss speaking to people about quillwork and explaining my designs and how I gather the materials.

The #1 question I hear is: "Where do you get your quills?" In case you're wondering, I get my quills primarily from roadkill...and yes, there is what I refer to as the "yick factor". However, I'm a firm believer that if you can't handle where the quills come from, you shouldn't be doing quillwork. That being said, on the rare occasion when a live porcupine does waddle by, a blanket thrown and then pulled off will leave you with a blanket of quills and the porcupine with slightly less than the 30,000 it started out with. A much cleaner option but not always as convenient.

At a Mi'kmaq event like the upcoming Mawiomi what I really look forward to is chatting with other Mi'kmaw. I find it a great way to learn about designs and hear stories from other people who know about quillwork. I usually have a display of quills, birch bark, sweet grass and spruce root: all materials I use in my art but which have an incredible array of uses within our culture. You would be surprised what I hear with such fantastic conversation pieces!

After talking about it for far too long, I finally launched my etsy shop last night!

www.MikmaqQuillArt.etsy.com

Up to this point, I've been selling my work at the Nova Scotia Art Gallery Shop and various forums around Halifax. That's been great, but I didn't have a website or a way for people to see what I've been working on. I've taken commissions in the past but have found that my job hindered how many projects I could take on. Ironically, I find that having my son has increased my time-management skills and I'm actually producing more quillwork!

This year, I've decided to expand my business and to try reaching new markets. I added a page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/MikmaqQuillArt and am going to start a Twitter account as well. Quillwork meets the technological age!!

I'll be blogging regularily to keep people updated on what I'm working on and where I'll be selling this summer.

Stay tuned!