A local Horsefly artist is preparing to make good on the terms of her grant and bring unique basket weaving workshops to the Cariboo.
Last year, Christina Mary applied for the newly created personal development grant from the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society. Mary has been a resident of the area for 25 years now and it was the people and community she found here that made her stay.
“As an artist I work in many different mediums. I started out working with clay as a sculptor and I developed a wholesale business with jewellery and sculptural pieces,” Mary said, adding that shes experimented with painting and charcoal drawing as well over the course of her life.
Mary first got into basket weaving from driving throughout the Cariboo. A gatherer and herbalist, she often stops in nature to gather ingredients and herbs for making medicine. She began gathering willow, cattails, certain grasses and other colourful natural materials traditionally used in the weaving and creation of baskets.
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“I realize that a lot of weavers they purchase their basket weaving material so we’re quite fortunate, in the Cariboo, to have access to those natural materials,” Mary said. “In the willow, I’m looking for long and straight of various sizes. Roadsides are great, the trick is to get out there and gather before highways cut it all down.”
She said she also goes to farmers’ fields while gathering, as after they clear the land the natural materials grow in tall and straight, ideal for her work. Mary joked that if they want their fields cleared, she’ll do it for them. Sedges, daylilies, daffodils and reeds are all smaller plants that she looks for in and around the area, while out on drives during the day.
“My passion, as an artist, is to take raw materials and to create larger pieces,” Mary said.
Mary started teaching art lessons and travelling to learn more about various art forms a few years ago and said she has learned a lot through doing so. Her recent trip to Saskatchewan, funded by the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society, to learn more about basket weaving was particularly valuable and exciting.
“I received a grant of a $1,000 then I was able to, with that, take this course in Saskatchewan. They encourage you to research a viable course for personal development of your choice, then you have to give them a good reason why and what it’s going to give back to the community,” Mary said.
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The event was a five-day workshop with master weaver Joan Carrigan at the Forest Art Facility in Ness Creek, Sask. that Mary described as an “amazing experience.” During those five days, Mary learned new twining, cordage, coil method and random weave techniques, which has led to visible improvements in her weaving.
Her intention was and is to host classes for the public teaching them the skills she learned, something she remains extremely excited to do. In addition to hosting workshops for general members of the community, Mary has also developed one suitable for high school and elementary and has reached out to schools in the area about teaching a class.
She had hoped to offer the workshop this fall but unfortunately was unable to organize anything as of this interview. Mary’s current plans are to wait until the new year to offer her basket weaving workshop, in the meantime planning to continue to improve her own craft.
“I believe that people are wanting to get back to their roots and that primitive skills (like weaving) people seem to want to know how to do. I know lots of people are very interested in learning how to make a basket and I think it’s very exciting to make something, whether you have the materials in your backyard, it has that sentimental value that you made it and that you maybe use it to harvest things from your own garden,” Mary said. “It’s a very satisfying feeling.”
At this point, Mary believes she will likely start holding her workshops in 2019 and hopes to start at the school level. For her adult classes, she will need at least 10 people in attendance and hopes to be able to set up a time and date soon.
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