Month: February 2013

Moccasin making

Materials
These beautiful beaded uppers were made by a Dene woman in Hay River NWT (we are still trying to track down her name), rabbit fur for the cuff, sheepskin hide, thick suede for an extra sole
Pattern
Lay out all the pattern pieces to trace and mark the holes – I used the “Fringed Boot Pattern” by Tandy with some alterations
Ready to cut
Ready to cut
All cut out
All cut out
Stitch the beaded uppers onto the vamps
Stitch the beaded uppers onto the vamps, all the holes are punched out with a good quality leather punch, and also the shearling has to be trimmed on the underside before you punch the holes
Assembling
The suede soles are hand-sewn onto the bottoms with nylon thread, then the pieces are laced together with artificial sinew
Continue lacing the pieces together
Continue lacing the pieces together
Fur
This shows how you hand stitch the fur cuff on. Cutting the fur strip was a big learning curve and I finally figured out I had to cut it crosswise and sew two pieces together to make the cuff. Cutting the hide was made easier by using a very sharp x-acto knife and very carefully parting the fur so as not to cut it along with the hide.
Finished!
Finished!
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Setting Goals

DSCN4143I just finished reading Chris Tyrell Loranger’s editorial in the February issue of the Opus Art Supplies “Visual Arts Newsletter”. I found it was a very timely topic: “Making Resolutions Work”. I recently made myself a number of goals in my art life that I want to work towards. Now this sure isn’t the first time I’ve made goals, some have been reached, but recently, many haven’t. In his article Chris goes over a number of points but the one that caught my attention concerns disclosure “…It is this involvement with others that leads to my second point: disclosure. Telling your friends and colleagues, writing on your wall on Facebook, or Tweeting about your (carefully developed) goals is a vital part of a successful resolution or pledge. Your friends provide support, direction, encouragement, and reward. Resolutions or pledges that are not shared are secrets and easy to abandon. But disclosed resolutions are far more successful. Whereas it takes a lot of time and hard work to find the right artists with whom to exhibit and together develop a compelling artist statement, it is easy to disclose. All you have to do is make a few calls, write a post, or contact a few friends.”
I’ve started this process by telling some friends and family some of the ideas I’m working on, but I figure it’s time to push ahead and take more of a risk and say them out loud so to speak. So, here goes:
– create a blog/website with galleries of my art
-finish some pieces of art that have been hanging around for way too long
-finish creating and framing art for my “Birds, Bones & Butterflies” show idea & find somewhere to show it
-create some products to sell on my website
Stay tuned for progress reports……
Anyone else have goals they would like to disclose?

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