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Folk Arts Marketplace
Christine's great-grandparents are from Canada. Her parents met and married in Menominee, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. They moved to the Milwaukee area, where Christine grew up. On her mother's side, Christine's family includes Ojibwes from Blind River near Manitoulin Island. Christine says she is "mostly French," even though her name is Swedish. "Basically, I'm a Canuck." As Christine grew up in Glendale (a town close to Milwaukee), she always was interested in her Canadian Ojibweheritage. She took classes in Native American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee so she could learn more. Christine also took a summer seminar in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. One of Christine's instructors was Debbie Hatch. Debbie is an Ojibwe woman from Sault St. Marie whose forebears were from Manitoulin Island, like Christine's mom's family. Debbie taught her how to make porcupine quill baskets. Christine had done a lot of embroidery previously using Native motifs, so she learned quickly. "Quillwork is like embroidery," Christine says. "Each quill is like one stitch." Christine has devoted a lot of time to making baskets ever since. Christine is considered a master at her craft. Since 1988, she has received seven grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board to teach apprentices how to make birch bark baskets with quill designs. This photo shows Christine at a Green Bay workshop, teaching teachers her craft. Her baskets show years of highly developed artistic skill. Box Sculptures Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1940, George Thomas was raised in a family of eight children who moved to Detroit and finally to Idlewild, where he now lives. Using weather-beaten wood, old bed sheets, wire, plaster of Paris, and miscellaneous found and scrap objects, he creates framed three-dimensional sculptures. He depicts memories of his childhood in Georgia, for example, children in a one-room schoolhouse learning about African-American history, a woman quilting on the porch, a family at the supper table, and a church congregation listening to a preacher. George uses his box sculptures to help others recognize the importance of African-American heritage. He has participated in youth education programs where he enjoys talking about his art and encouraging young people to make their own boxes. Elderly Instruments (Lansing, Michigan) Elderly Instruments first opened for business in 1972 in a basement location on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing and moved in 1983 to their current location at 1100 N. Washington in Lansing. Elderly features vintage and new instruments, such as button accordions, fiddles, dulcimers, harmonicas, and bodhrans, and specializes in fretted instruments, such as guitars and banjos. With their extensive inventory of instructional books and hard-to-find CD's and cassettes, sold both at their Lansing store and through widely distributed mail-order catalogs, Elderly Instruments has established itself as an important local business with a national reputation.
Ia Her (Lansing, Michigan) Like their relatives in their homeland of Laos and in communities scattered throughout the world, Hmong-Americans begin to learn how to make paj ntaub (flower cloth) at a very young age. A variety of patterns, motifs, and needlework techniques, including appliqué, reverse appliqué, and embroidery, are used in creating the colorful textiles. Mastery of the techniques and expansion of the repertoire of designs and motifs usually takes years, and expert craftsmanship is valued within the community.
Krystyna Rosas (Grand Rapids, Michigan) Krystyna Rosas' parents were born and raised in Poland, but Krystyna was born in England and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 5. Her father was a potter, woodcarver, painter, and sculptor. Their home was decorated with many beautiful Polish objects: pottery, amber, weavings, carvings, and, of course, wycinanki (paper cuttings). Krystyna's father taught her how to duplicate and design wycinanki when she was a child; at an early age she recognized that these pieces were a special part of the way she thought of herself and her heritage.
Roman Seniuk (Detroit, Michigan) Roman Seniuk's earliest memory of pysanka is seeing intricately decorated eggs in church on Easter Sunday; he considered them the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Under his mother's tutelage, he learned how to make pysanka using various kinds of eggs, bee's wax, a kistka stylus, a candle, and dyes.
Julie Sullivan (Eaton Rapids, Michigan) Braided Rugs Braided rugs are an old American folk art. Made of readily available and often recycled materials, they are both practical and decorative. Because wool is durable and stain resistant and the color variations in the braids hide spills, braided rugs of wool are especially practical and desirable.
Anshu Varma (Okemos, Michigan)
Meh'ndi is appropriate at all festive events. It is the first thing a woman puts on herself to get ready for a special occasion. Being dressed in meh'ndi sets the celebratory mood of the community. The tradition is associated especially with wedding ceremonies where in certain communities putting meh’ndi on the bride's palms and feet represents "dressing" the bride. Today Anshu, who has a degree in economics and works for the State of Michigan, is a master of the art. She is sought by many in the Indian community to do meh'ndi for them, and many a bride has been adorned by her skillful hands. She was a recipient of the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2002 and 2003, and is a regular participant at the Great Lakes Folk Festival. Lula Williams (Detroit, Michigan) As a young child, Lula Williams occasionally helped her mother quilt by putting colors together and piecing. However, she only returned to quilting in the late 1970s when her young teenaged son encouraged her to take a course in it at his high school; she remembered her mother's techniques almost immediately and has been quilting ever since.
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Anshu Varma was born in 1962 in north India and grew up in Calcutta and New Delhi. As a child she was fascinated by the tradition of meh'ndi, a paste of henna used to embellish the palms, soles, and fingernails. Greatly inspired by her mother's artistic creations, Anshu began to learn at home this art that plays an important role in maintaining cultural identity in India as well as in other communities.