I am reading a stack of secondhand Wild Fibers and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot magazines. They're great, if you can get over feeling insignificant because you are not herding yaks in remote places and promoting your artwork to galleries. I copied out several quotes defining art, design, and craft.
There was an article on harvesting, processing, and using cedar bark for fibre, Carol Ventura's "An Ongoing Haida Tradition: Cedar Bark Hats," Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Spring 2002, p. 40-45.
Cedar bark is a topic I've paid attention to previously because it is a naturally-occuring fibre source on Vancouver Island (where I'm from) that is used for clothing and I am interested in local fibre, what is around that can be utilized. I am more concerned with flexible cloth, though. This article presented the fibre used un-spun for the stiff hats I associate with the traditional dress of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida.
Over Christmas I got to read most of Edlin's Woodland Crafts in Britain and was surprised there were references to various wood fibres commonly twisted and used for cordage and clothing. When I was in school, bark cloth was presented as peculiar to First Nations culture. Presented as entirely peculiar, really. Not according to Edlin.
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