Lost Crafts FOUND HERE.

I came across this book online last week, Lost Crafts: Rediscovering Traditional Skills by Una McGovern (Chambers, 2008, 376 p.). When scanning the table of contents I was surprised to see FLINTKNAPPING listed so I tracked down the only copy in the city to purchase as a present for Tim. It’s a pretty neat book and thought it would be worth sharing.

Lost Crafts highlights the everyday skills upon which we once heavily relied before the advent of the industrial revolution. What used to be commonplace skills, if not downright “chores”, are now rarely seen in our everyday. This good looking book lists almost 100 traditional and sustainable skills divided into six themes: farming, hunting and gathering, food and drink, home and garden, practical crafts, and decorative crafts. She covers everything from plucking a fowl to weaving to laying a dry-stone wall. McGovern describes each craft/skill with a brief history and explanation of the process, including some illustrations. But note, the entries are meant more as an overview and do not include the complete range of techniques or vernacular for each craft.

Like people the world over, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have witnessed the weakening (because I do not believe they are “lost”) of many of our traditional ways of life as impacted by technology and the world economy. What I like about his book is it doesn’t mourn the loss of any craft rather it encourages the reader to discover one of these crafts themselves, to take a class or join a group sharing in a traditional skill.

What it made me realize is Newfoundland and Labrador is doing a HUGE part in keeping these and other Lost Crafts alive. And, ELFSHOT is doing his part.

Ouch!

So, I was attacked by a dog yesterday on my long run. I also got pooped on by a caterpillar and gagged up burning bile and salsa, but the dog attack was the highlight.

I was running past a house on our street at the same time that a woman came out her front door with three big dogs on leashes. The German Shephard couldn't believe his luck, going out for a walk was exciting enough and then this big smelly chew toy comes running down the street towards him. He yanked away from his owner and ran straight at me, along with a second dog caught up in the excitement. You could tell that he wasn't being aggresive, but he was intent on catching me. I gave him my hand to smell and he bit me three times. Not hard, it didn't break the skin, but I had to go limp to calm him down, he was definitely ready to use more force if he needed to. He did break the skin on my leg with his dew claw when he grabbed me with his front paws. I have a 2 inch gash on the back of my thigh and a deep brow furrow whenever I think about his crappy owner.

It pissed me off. I'd love to have a big dog, but I don't feel we have the space, living in a row house. This person has 3 big dogs that she obviously can't handle. If you are walking 3 dogs and 2 of them get away the moment you step out the door, then you are walking at least 2 too many dogs. Its not fair to the dog and we've got toddlers and seniors living on the street that could have been really hurt by something like this. I don't blame the dog, he was just happy to be chasing something running. He probably doesn't get to do much running cooped up in an attached house with 2 other big dogs.

It was still a good weekend though. Lori and I got all the flintknapping kits finished for the Sunday workshop and the rest of this year's wholesale orders. The workshop went off without any hitches. There were 5 new knappers and everyone got their beer bottle points finished and had a chance to try some obsidian. Thanks to everyone who participated - you were a talented group! The GEO CENTRE has a good set up for this kind of workshop, so maybe I'll try again next winter. Hopefully today I can finish off my last 3 wholesale orders so that they will be ready to deliver tomorrow.

Photo Credits:
Top: Tim Rast
Bottom: Lori White

Photo Captions:
Top: My running shoes and Shuffle
Bottom: June 28th, 2009 Flintknapping workshop at the GEO CENTRE

Top Secret Project of Mystery - Unveiled!

It turns out there aren't going to be any problems discussing the Parks Canada contract that I mentioned in the the last post, so updates on that project will become fairly frequent features on this blog's regular Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posts.

I'll be working on reproducing Inuvialiut artifacts that were collected during Parks Canada research in 3 Western Arctic National Parks; Aulavik, Ivvavik, and Tuktut Nogait. I have 24 artifacts to reproduce, although I'll be making two copies of several of them, so there will be 32 reproductions in total. The materials are predominantly whalebone, antler, and wood, although there are also copper, iron, tin, and ivory artifacts in the mix. The idea with these reproductions is to make exact copies of the artifacts that can be used in hands-on teaching situations to protect the fragile original artifacts. Several of these pieces are familiar to me because I made reproductions of the Ivvavik artifacts last spring, but the majority are new. There are a couple of adze sockets and a bow in two parts. There is a fragment of a Fort Garry Tobacco tin and a tiny copper awl.

On Wednesday I had a first view of the artifacts at The Rooms, were they are being securely stored in the climate controlled Archaeology and Ethnology Collections lab. Its very exciting and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. I have 3 wholesale orders to finish and Sunday's flintknapping workshop to prepare for before I can dive into this work. Today I'll be making pressure flakers and finishing up the last of the chert points that I need for necklaces.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Barbed Point to be reproduced. Composite, bone and antler, with iron rivets. I'll also need to weather and antique the reproduction and match the pattern of lichen growth.
Bottom: Laying out the whalebone artifacts to see if I can get the appropriate sizes and shapes form the material that I have on hand.

First Glimpse

A week or two ago I signed a contract with Parks Canada for a number of artifact reproductions. The artifacts have been shipped to St. John's and today I get my first peak at them. The work is scheduled to take 13 full time weeks, which makes it the single largest reproduction job that Elfshot has ever received. It's also one that I know I'm going to enjoy. The contract went through a public tendering process and the reproductions are intended for public programming, but its still government, and they can be weird about how information is distributed, so for the time being I'm going to refrain from going into too much detail. Until I know what I can and can't blog about, I'll just refer to it as my Top Secret Project of Mystery, so you won't be curious and leave it at that.

In the meantime, I'll just remind you about the Beer Bottle to Arrowhead - Introductory Flintknapping Workshop that I'll be offering this weekend at the GEO CENTRE. $40/person - you get a flintknapping kit to keep plus your first beer bottle point arrowhead. June 28th, 1-4PM. Click here for more details. YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE.

The photos in this post are the two pieces that I made in the flintknapping demo on Father's Day at the GEO CENTRE, using antler and stone knapping tools. The big one still hasn't broke, but it has a couple flaws in the material that had me thinking it would break on any strike. That made the knapping tricky and I've set it aside to finish it another day. As I was working I assumed that the tip would break off and I wouldn't have to worry about finishing that end of it. But it hung in there and as a consequence of planning for one thing and having another thing happen the tip isn't in very good shape to finish and I started running into step and hinge fractures. I'll solve the problem on another day, probably by making a shorter biface out of it. Ramah Chert has an annoying habit of leaving very visible step fractures and being surprisingly resilient. This isn't the first piece that I've had that should have broke along an internal flaw, but that held together for much longer than I was expecting.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top, Ramah Chert Biface in Progress - made on June 21st, 2009
Bottom, Ramah Chert projectile point reproduction based on Maritime Archaic points found in Labrador.

Rhy-O-Lite!

Its been a crazy busy weekend since last Friday's post. I've delivered two wholesale orders, including the big Korea order to the Craft Council, spent Friday afternoon to Sunday morning on the Eastport Peninsula, and Sunday afternoon demonstrating flintknapping at the Geocentre in St. John's. I couldn't manage a long run on Sunday, but I did a few minutes on the treadmill in the evening. Its going to be a slow Monday morning, but I still have a hectic week ahead, so I can't slow down too much.

The trip to Burnside was great. Its been too long since I was last out there - the rhyolite quarry is such a striking site. Its just so huge - Laurie McLean's estimates for the numbers of worked flakes and cores in the main location is in the millions. Its overwhelming. There's 5 thousand years of flintknapping piled up a meter deep covering a talus slop that is tens of metres long and dozens of metre's wide. The exposed bedrock is battered and bashed from quarrying and there are large granite hammerstones scattered throughout the mix. Its mind-boggling.

There are smaller sites and knapping episodes strewn all over the mountain, from the summit to shoreline. Each of those spots are amazing, and the density of material begins to approach manageable levels. You can see discrete knapping events. One particularily interesting site is a small rock overhang or cave. Laurie's crew found part of a biface inside the cave and associated flakes. They excavated a small pocket in the boulders on the floor of the cave and found 800 flakes and the other half of the biface. The flakes were piled up below a natural stone seat and you can imagine the knapper sitting there, perhaps in out of the rain, working a rough block of rhyolite from higher up on the mountain into a portable bifacial core. Unfortunately for him or her, but fortunately for the archaeologist, one of those big bifacial cores broke and was left behind with the flakes to tell the story.

We put a tarp down inside that pocket in the cave and I sat on that same stone seat and demonstrated for the camera how someone using local hammerstones and antler would test a raw rhyolite core, discarding waste flakes and creating a portable bifacial core that would yield useful sharp flakes for the months to come. It was an absolutely unique opportunity. The site had been excavated, and we were careful to keep my modern flakes from contaminating the archaeological record. To sit inside that cave and knap rhyolite from that mountain, in exactly the same spot that a knapper sat and used thousand's of years ago is a pretty memorable experience. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished documentary now.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Flakes, hammerstones and a view from the summit at the Bloody Bay Rhyolite Quarry.
Middle, Left: Laurie Mclean with Matt and Greg filming at the Beaches Site.
Middle, Right: A section of a very large Rhyolite biface that we found on the surface at a site near the quarry. Its broken and this section is perhaps a 1/3 or a 1/4 of the original biface. Likely, an expended bifacial core.
Bottom: Flakes in situ. Everytime you tilt your head down at Bloody Bay cove you'll see flakes like this. Its amazing!

Timmy, Kimmy, Annie, and Danny

This Sunday is father's day, but more importantly it marks the end of a 6 month bet that Lori and I have with her Dad. On December 21st, 2008, he wagered $50 that Premier Danny Williams would leave office within 6 months. If Danny hangs in there for the rest of the weekend, then Lori and I can collect.

These photos are a couple years old now, from when members of the Craft Council Executive and the Executive Director met the Premier to sign a declaration naming "Craft Year 2007" in the Province.

This carving was displayed in the Premier's office and was a gift from Paul McCartney, following their war of words over the seal hunt. To me, the carving looks like someone hunting a seal, but maybe McCartney imagines he is the walrus, protecting the seal. Coo coo cachoo. I'm sorry, I can't remember who the carver was - perhaps someone reading can recall.

I don't really want to turn this into a political post and I haven't forgotten that one of Danny's first acts as premier was to delay the opening of The Rooms by one year to save $1 Million. However, since then he bought a bright yellow fibre optic necklace from me at the Folk Festival for his grand-daughter. He hung out in the craft booth watching the Accordion Revolution while his grand-daughter tried her hand at turning clay on the CCNL wheel. Which was much more support than certain other politicians I've seen at Craft Fairs, like the one who joked about how happy he was that he didn't bring his wallet. I made $50 from Danny on that necklace, and he deserves at least partial credit for the $50 we are going to collect from Lori's Dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Photo Credits: Jay Kimball

Photo Captions:
Top: Left side, Tim Rast and Kim Marshall, Right side Anne Manuel and Danny Williams. (or as Christine LeGrow captioned the photo - Timmy, Kimmy, Annie, and Danny)
Bottom: Carving in the Premier's Office.

To the North there lies a Cove...

I'm going to the Bloody Bay Cove Rhyolite quarry for a couple days on Friday.

There is a short documentary being shot on some of the archaeology that is being done by Parks Canada and the Burnside Heritage Foundation. Archaeologists Jenneth Curtis and Laurie McLean are the stars, but I've been cast in the role of "Tim the Flintknapper". Tim lurks on jagged mountain tops, and demonstrates lithic reduction techniques at all who venture too near.

I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been to the quarry since 1997. There's no other site like it on the Island. There's no other chipped stone quarry that covers as great an area or has such deep deposits - everything you see is a flake, core, or hammerstone. Nearly every precontact culture that lived in Newfoundland used stone from this quarry to make cutting and scraping tools, especially those looking for large, durable tools.

I've known about the filming for a while, but the dates for the trip just got firmed up on Monday. I've juggled my schedule a bit so that I'll have the Korea order delivered to DevonHouse before I leave town as well as an order for the Burnside Archaeology Centre's gift shop ready to take with me. I'll be back in town by lunch on Sunday.

Drop by the Johnson GEO CENTRE for the flintknapping demo on Sunday afternoon. I'm still planning to work Ramah chert, but who kows, maybe I'll have some Bloody Bay Cove rhyolite to try as well.

Photo Credits:
Top: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Middle, Bottom: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Tim
Middle: Laurie McLean at the Charlie Site (Bloody Bay Cove Quarry), 1997
Bottom: A hammerstone sitting on large rhyolite flakes and core fragments at the quarry