Still Monday

Chert points for jewelry

I'm still chipping away at filling spring wholesale orders and despite everything that's going on in the world today it still feels like a Monday.  I'm sunk by everything that needs to get done within the next couple of months, but I'm optimistic that getting an order in the mail this evening will help me get my head back above the surface.

Light at the end of the tunnel.  Fieldwork in Nunavut in less than two months

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Flintknapping in the Classroom

An Excellent Bow Drill Assistant

Lori and I visited our niece's grade four class today for a flintknapping demonstration and to talk about archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador.  I showed them how an obsidian core is knapped into a spear point using stone and antler tools and then we talked about and drew some of the reproductions. Its a fun age to work with and there were some very talented artists in the group.  Its remarkable how much they absorb and remember.

Knapping a spear point for the class

Lori explaining the artifact reproductions

By the end of the afternoon, the kids were teaching us about what they had learned.

 
Photo Credits: 
1-2, 4: Lori White
3: Tim Rast

Knapping and Shipping

Beothuk Arrows ready to ship

The priority at work is still filling spring wholesale orders.  I have a couple orders going out the door today to shops in Brookfield and Cartwright.  I don't necessarily enjoy packing the product up, printing invoices and mailing labels, going to the post office and doing all that kind of office work, but its nice to have them on their way and out of the house.  It feels like there is so much work to do before the end of May that its a big relief to occasionally cross things off the "to do" list.

Fibre Optic Blanks to be finished

Between the tamarack splitting and baleen experiments, I had a few good days last week working on fibre optic glass blanks.  Unfortunately, I didn't get them finished before the weekend, so I'm back to work on them this morning.  Once I get these finished, I'll bring them in to the house to turn them into necklaces and earrings.  I still have plenty of things to work on it the workshop after that, but these pieces will also give me the option of some inside work to do. 

Hafted Beothuk Necklaces

If there is an upside to working on these big jewelry orders, its that it gives me a mix of indoor and outdoor work to choose from.  Even though the workshop is just in the back yard, there are some days when it just seems so wet and cold that I can't force myself to spend the day out there.  There are definitely days when its much easier to go to work if I can stay in the basement wiring jewelry with a movie on in the background.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Knapping like a Rhino

Recent Indian points, detail of rhino

Its been a pretty repetitive few days of knapping Recent Indian points.  I put in a long day yesterday to finish up the points that I need to fill all of the Recent Indian jewelry in this spring's wholesale orders.  I knapped 50 points from core to flake to blank to corner-notched and signed point in about 3 days.  Its a nice round number, so maybe its worth keeping track of it.  I suppose that the time was broken down something like this:

• 1/2 day making flakes from cores and bifacial cores - percussion
• 1 1/2 days knapping blanks - mostly pressure, some percussion
• 1 day finishing and notching blanks - pressure flaking

I promised myself that if I got all the points finished before Friday morning I could make them into a rhino.  There are 17 small points included from last week's knapping for a total of 67 points.  Sixty-six in the rhino and one in the tick bird.

Temporary rhino mosaic made from Little Passage and Beothuk Recent Indian points

Detail of Burial 34 by Lori White

Other than the rhino mosaic, I was also trying to plow through all the knapping that I would need to do so that I could have a stretch of non-knapping days to give my shoulder a break.  Pressure flaking big batches of chert points in the spring plays havoc on my left shoulder.  I have a truckload of tricks to help with the soreness including ice, pressure, Ibuprofen, exercise and knapping with an Ishi stick, but one numb shoulder has just become part of my knapping routine.  The most annoying part is that its not a common knapping injury, most other knappers that I've talked to who experience joint pain have it lower in their arms, in the wrist or elbow.  I can't even console myself with the thought that I'm building a useful comparitive skeleton for later study, its too atypical.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Knapping Blanks

Will the seal grease ever dry?

I'm still working on filling wholesale orders.  The hafted Beothuk necklaces turned out to be really popular at the wholesale show, so almost everything that I have to make until the middle of May are corner-notched Recent Indian points.

Recent Indian arrowhead blanks

I have about 100 Recent Indian points to make in total - most of them will be made into hafted Beothuk necklaces, but some will be used on arrows and others will be used on necklaces, earrings, and tie tacks.  On big bunches of points like this, I like to work in an assembly line.  I spent a few hours making a big pile of flakes to knap into blanks.

A big pile of flakes to work through

I'll work on blanks for the rest of the day.  Blanks are roughly formed tools that could be finished in a number of different ways.  In this case, the blanks I want are small triangular bifaces to be corner-notched into Recent Indian arrowheads.  Tomorrow, I'll finish and notch all of the blanks that I have prepared by the end of the day and then on Friday I'll assemble the hafted arrowhead necklaces.  I should be able to get enough made to fill the first two or three orders on my schedule.

A bit of company

Its pretty repetitive, mind-numbing work.  I have a dusty little radio to help pass the time.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Stones and Bones

I think today is going to be an inside day. I'll spend most of the day wiring and carding necklaces in the basement with breaks upstairs in the office at the computer. I'm feeling a little beat up after a few long days in the workshop.

I've had a good run in the workshop this week - I finished another 58 glass, obsidian, and chert points yesterday. (archaeologists call arrowheads and spearpoints "projectile points" so we don't have to decide what kind of tool they were actually used on in order to talk about them.) I also had a good run on the road after work. After running on a treadmill in the basement all winter it was nice to finally get back outside again. Although I really noticed the difference between running on the ground and running on a shock-absorbing treadmill. It felt like the ground was reaching up and punching my feet everytime I took a step.

I get a pain in my left shoulder if I do a lot of small work on tough stones. I can partly avoid it by bracing my hands better while I'm pressure flaking, but it still hit me yesterday and I should probably take a break from knapping for the weekend. Once it comes on Advil/Ibuprofen helps. Alexis Templeton recommended that to me - parts of her job can cause repetitive stress injuries as well. If I recall correctly she said that she gets it in her thumbs when she's putting a lot of handles on mugs.

I'm sure craftspeople must leave behind some pretty unique skeletons.

Photo Credits:
Top & Middle: Tim Rast
Bottom: Erick Walsh

Photo Caption:
Top: Translucent Obisidian Point
Middle: Glass, Obsidian, and Chert points in the workshop
Bottom: Burial 34 by Lori White (2005). Lino-cut print inspired by the Maritime Archaic Indian cemetery at Port Au Choix, NL, dating to 4400-3300 BP.