Felting Buffalo Robe

I'm putting together a performance which will create the robe for the costume of my performer in my final show 'Transitional Identity'. Using an age old technique of felting. I plan to make a large scale peice so will need a number of people to participate as you have to roll and kneed the raw wool between plastic, to make it felt. So I'm thinking of getting the participants to walk and tread maybe to dance or hold a disccussion on cultural fusion whilst making the robe. Documenting the process. So the result of this will be a communal piece of work that everyone has collaborated to make, I am meerly the orchastrater.

Lab Report 3 Buffalo Robe

Toile of Buffalo Robe

Venue - WCA MA Courtyard 29.03.10

Budget
4kilo of wool - £112
5m Habotai silk - £17.50
Soap Flakes - £1.81
7m bubble wrap - £7.70
5x9m taupalin - £9.99
Total - £149.00

Equipment

Camera/Video & Tripod
Extension lead
Kettle
Plastic Bowl

Gateway Lodge

Using the worldwide concept of the sweat lodge, which is, practiced the world over by many different cultures in North America, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, and Iceland. I decided to make my own version not wanting to blaspheme tradition by doing it wrong. I decided not to make it a sweat, but to make it a quiet space somewhere I could go to get away from the hectic path of life, for some me time. Using the English tradition of fedging (live willow fencing) and historically in Neolithic times willows were used to make the walls of houses.
I have made my lodge by weaving live willows in a textile fashion and bringing them together at the top to create an enclosure making a doorway to the east.

Willows are cheap and easy to establish and maintain, needing no fertiliser or other input. They build fertility in poor and depleted soil and are great value to birds, insects and other wildlife. They provide a sustainable source of material for a wide variety of uses. Used as a diving rod for finding water, the bark, produces a component of the drug aspirin and has been used for its pain relieving qualities for at least 2000yrs. The bark can also be used for tanning animal hides as it contains tannin.

The willow is the tree of enchantment, sacred to the Moon and the Goddess in her aspect of death leading to spiritual rebirth. It has powerful feminine ‘yin’ energy and helps a person to get in touch with their subconscious feelings and desires.

It is believed that in the past every living person could connect with Spirit, the Creator, God, or whatever name you feel represents the Infinite Power.
Since this link was broken, Medicine people, healers and Shamans have kept the connection alive. The Sweat Lodge has been passed down through generations as a doorway to this ancient birthright and a way home to the heart of Spirit

Lab Report 3 Buffalo Robe

Buffalo Robe

So I'm using the age old technique of felting for the base of my Buffalo Robe above are pictures of mongolian women making and sewing felt together they use it to make thier dwellings which are called yurts
Felting occurs when fiber is moist, alkaline and physically agitated. The warm water and soap causes the scales to swell open, and the filaments sang together when massaged and agitated (imagine miniature Velcro swatches connecting to each other). The knotting causes shrinkage and results in a dense strong felted fiber.
Additional fibers that alone would not felt, such as silk, can be added in small proportions to the felt, as the animal fibers will intertwine and mat around them.

This technique is called wet felting and has been practiced for thousands of years. Based on archaeological findings from the Central Asian Steppes, felting of animal hair has been a means of creating unwoven fabric for clothing, shelter, and artistic expression since at least 600 BC. There is further evidence that there may have been even earlier knowledge of the process.

DIRTY OIL

Scream star at premiere of REAL horror movie – Dirty Oil
Hollywood actress Neve Campbell was leading the stars down the red carpet at the London Premiere of Dirty Oil, the latest film to be distributed with the help of The Co-operative...
by:The Beaver Lake Cree vs Tar Sands
Canadian-born Campbell provides the voiceover for the hard-hitting documentary, which outlines the impact tar sands extraction in Alberta is having on the environment and local First Nation communities. The Co-operative is supporting the film’s distribution as part of its Toxic Fuels campaign, which aims to stop tar sands expansion.

The premiere at the Barbican in London followed by a question and answer session which was satellite linked to 24 cinemas around the country.

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Archaic section of Indian Act ends

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Archaic section of Indian Act ends

Changes to Indian Act's definition of status at hand: AFN

Changes to Indian Act's definition of status at hand: AFN

Alberta Tar Sands

Above pictures of the transformation from pristine Boreal Forest to'toxic fuels' refinery.
The tar sand deposits sit beneath Canada's pristine boreal forest, the world's largest terrestrial carbon store. Tar sands cover 140,000 sq km in the primary Boreal forest of Canada, an area larger than England. The most easily accessible reserves are extracted via open cast mining. This emits on average three times more carbon dioxide than conventional oil extraction, not including the emissions resulting from deforestation. For every barrel of oil produced in this way at least 2 tonnes of material is mined. Some of these open cast mines are large enough to be seen from space The material from the mines is washed with warm water to remove the oil. On average, 3 barrels of water are used to produce 1 barrel of oil. Sourced from local rivers, most of this water becomes too toxic to be returned and collects in massive tailings ponds. Tailings ponds are acutely toxic to all life that come into contact with them, in November 2008, 500 migrating birds landed on a tailings pond and died almost instantly. Furthermore, a recent report found that 11 million litres of toxic waste water is leaking from these tailings into the water table and local rivers everyday. The oil extracted from tar sands is of low quality and therefore needs upgrading before it can be refined into petroleum products. This is a very dirty and energy intensive process and adds to the local pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from tar sand operations.