Robin Goodfellow-Baikie has shared her research on blending caribou hair and sheep’s wool to make a lightweight, warm felt. Robin’s years of research and practical knowledge have been written up in this manual and she has made it available (at no cost) to any person or group who wants it.
The manual is available to be downloaded as a PDF file on our website.
For more information visit the Reindeer/Caribou Fur-Felt Manual page.
For any travellers or tourists who may be visiting Northern Labrador this year and are looking for local art and crafts, there is a display on board the MV Northern Ranger. The display is located in the galley/cafeteria and showcases a map of the north coast route in Nunatsiavut. This case will hold art and craft pieces from each community, from Nunatsiavut artists.
The art and craft display will showcase items that can be purchased in each of the communities. The artist contact information and locations in each community will be displayed along with information about community craft sales or cultural events, and dates of each event.
Rowena House from the NL Craft Council will be in Goose Bay to buy some product. The new location of the Craft Council will have a dedicated Labrador Section, and Rowena is looking for more of the soft goods like Slippers and Mitts. She will be there June 23rd to June 27th and probably set up at Expo Labrador at the Arena in Goose Bay if you would like to chat with her about your products.
Craft Labrador is hosting a craft product development workshop for Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site. The product development workshop will begin with a tour of the lighthouse and surrounding site on Saturday September 23rd, to be followed by creative workshops to design craft products that would be of interest to visitors who come here. The creative workshops will take place 4 to 6 weeks after the tour. The schedule for those workshops will be determined by the group participating in the tour on September 23rd.
The site tour on September 23rd will be held from 10 Am to 4 Pm at the Heritage Centre at Point Amour in the Labrador Straits. Lunch will be provided.
In the follow-up workshops we will consider how to create crafts that will reflect some part of a visitor’s experience of their visit to Point Amour and the surrounding area. We will use our skills and experience to experiment with materials to create new designs. We will discuss pricing and marketing at the end of the workshops. Our workshop is for individuals who already have some experience making crafts.
As part of the product development workshop, we will have a separate activity for youth who are interested in learning a new skill. This will be advertised at a later date.
We have a limited number of spaces in the workshop, so we are asking people who are interested to fill out an application. All applicants will receive a message confirming whether they are participants or on the wait list.
Link to the application: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PointAmourWorkshop
In the Business of Crafts section we’ve added the Starting a Craft Business module, which covers some of the things you might consider when planning a business. We also provide links to resources and agencies that offer assistance for new business startups.
In the Learning Resources section, under Colour and Design, we’ve added a new module about Composition. This modules examines the elements of design and how they are put together. Included in the module are interviews with several Labrador craft makers about how they approach composition in their work.
We’ve been adding new resources each year to our website and, based on your feedback, we needed to make things easier to find. You will find a new section – Business of Crafts – with all of our business resources, and another new section – Learning Resources – with resources related to making crafts. Check back in the coming weeks and you will find a new learning module in each section.
