Today I met my teacher and several other weavers at 9:00 in the morning
at our designated meeting place along the Klamath River.
From there, we caravanned about an hour’s
drive into the mountains. We went to a spot my teacher’s teacher first took her
to gather black or five finger fern (ikrit
ápkir). The terrain is very steep -- so
steep, we needed a rope tied to a tree to help us shimmy down the top section
of the slope and help us climb back out.
There is a beautiful waterfall streaming down a rock wall into a pond and then on down the mountainside.
Ferns love moisture.
Tall black fern and wild orange lilies cover
the whole hillside.
We all felt we were
in heaven, a Karuk basketweavers paradise. This is a place that basketweavers
have been sharing with their students and other weavers for generations. I
could almost feel the happiness of the weavers that have passed on, glad that
there are still weavers gathering at this beautiful site, respecting it,
taking care of it, and continuing our basketweaving traditions.
At the right time in the summer the stalks of the fern turn
from solid red to half red, and half black.
That’s the time to gather, as we use the black half of the stem for
overlay material in our basketry design. It is a beautiful shiny black, but
very difficult to work with.
We only
gather a few stalks from each plant and then move on, never cutting too many in one
spot.
As we gather, we cut the upper
fronds off and leave them on the ground, so the spores can reseed. In a later
blog, I will describe the process of spitting the stalk, saving the black side
and discarding the red side.
This week I will be spending my time processing the
black fern and next week I will be back to weaving on my cap.
"Fern grotto"
Black fern hillside.
Beautiful, tall black fern.
Complete fern stalks after picking.
Fern stocks with the fronds cut off.
This is my pick from two hours of gathering.
No comments:
Post a Comment