Customary Art Fair shows off handmade jewelry, clothes - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The earrings depicting tiny slices of Spam on pilot bread are sold out, but there are many other arts and crafts by talented artisans at the Alaska Federation of Native’s Alaska Native Customary Art Fair.
Birch baskets, fur hats, beading, wood carvings, knives, masks and Native clothing are all on display by 170 artisans from around the state. Some Native artisans are also from the Lower 48. According to AFN, this particular gathering of artisans is renowned as one of the best places to find Alaska Native and American Indian artwork from cultures that are vital and rich with history, tradition, adaptation and creativity. It’s a visual celebration of art forms and cultures.
Bryon Amos hosts a booth filled with replicas of Nunivak Island’s handcrafted masks, sculptures and ivory tusk sculptures.
“My father before me produced these for 70 years,” Bryon Amos said. “I have done it for 40 years of my life.”
Every mask tells a different story. The original masks were carefully selected from dried driftwood that washed up on beaches. The white in the masks then was actually white clay. When the color red was needed, it was acquired by mixing red ochre with seal blood. The color black was created by mixing charcoal rock with seal blood. String was provided by walrus sinew.
These days, store-bought paint recreates those colors, but the passion behind creating the masks themselves remains steeped in history.
“I have a love for this,” Amos said. “It’s really in the blood.”
It’s that passion that allows his pieces to have endurance, he said.
Deanna Houlton lives in Fairbanks and loves sewing and sharing her skill with others. Her trapper hats feature bright brocade fabric instead of the usual mono-color, a design change she initiated about seven years ago. She has also created some fanciful elf hats, accented with fur from white fox. Shaved beaver fur lines other hats for children.
She happens to work at the Alaska Room at Anne Wien Elementary School and shares Alaska Native cultures with students. One of the classes she teaches is beading.
“We start with pony beads,” she said. “Those big plastic ones. Then we work down to seed beads.”
The pleasure of watching a student complete a project is indescribable when the student realizes what he or she has accomplished.
“That smile is unforgettable,” she said, with a big smile of her own.
Bessie Meyer has an eye-catching booth, featuring a display of Devil’s Club salve lotion. It’s hard to believe this spiky plant with such a nasty reputation can actually include beneficial properties.
Meyer will enthusiastically tell you how it reduced inflammation in her knee.
She also sells some right-handed or left-handed berry picking tools, the perfect size for one person on the hunt for berries. The tools can be stained blue by Alaska blueberries, black by crowberries or red from beet juice.
The show is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the tent adjacent to the Carlson Center.
Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.com. Call her at the office 459-7546. Follow her on Twitter: @FDNMKris.
