Workshops & Demonstrations

DEMONSTRATIONS

Speed Crafting

Location: St. Mary’s Church Hall
Date: Thursday, September 17 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: Free of charge, with kits available for purchase (cash payment preferred)

Experience an afternoon of Speed Crafting! Join the Great Northern Peninsula Heritage Network as local crafters from the coast showcase traditional craft, sharing their knowledge of diverse traditional, yet contemporary, craft. Drop by to see and to participate in how these crafts are designed and created.

Kits for the various project types will be available for purchase to try for yourself.

Rug Hooking
Nothing says Grenfell like our world famous hooked rugs:

The beauty of a Grenfell rug is only surpassed by its antiquity, mystery and charm. Originating out of the need for warm floor covering, modern hooked rugs are intended for use as exquisite wall hangings. 

Rug hooking was a tradition in the northern Newfound and Labrador area before Dr. Grenfell's arrival. A bent nail, with the head removed and a nick cut into a blunt end, was used to draw strips of worn clothing, up to 200 loops per inch, through burlaps sacks, or "brin" as it was locally called. The burlap was stretched and nailed onto a four-sided wooden frame.

The true art of rug hooking continues at Grenfell Handicrafts. The process remains virtually unchanged over the years although quality yarn is used in place of rags and silk stockings. The rugs are still hooked by local people in their own homes just as it was over 100 years ago.

Crazy Quilt Making
Crazy quilts were a chance to show or practice hand sewing and embroidery skills, especially along the edges of each piece. Sometimes designs would be embroidered within the fabric scrap.

Crazy quilting does not refer to a specific kind of quilting (the needlework that binds two or more layers of fabric together), but a specific kind of patchwork repeating irregularly shaped pieces of fabric sewn together haphazardly. These quilts were made from scraps of old clothing and material and provided warmth and comfort.

Nalbinding
Nalbinding, often called Viking knitting, is a form of one-needle knitting which consists of a series of loops and knots. Each stitch is made individually, and because of this it does not unravel like other forms of knitting. Preserved items found in Danish bogs demonstrate a complex and intricate craft, and it is said that there are over one thousand stitch variations.

Nalbinding is how smaller items of Norse clothing were crafted such as hats, mittens, socks etc. while by the 9th century larger garments were made on looms, using wool or linen. Needles were made of antler, bone or wood.

Drop Spindle Spinning
Drop spindles were an early form of spinning which continues today. Norse spindles were made of a wooden shaft with a soapstone base (bases are more commonly made using wood today). Because the spindles are small and meant to be used in your hands, they are very portable and Norse ladies and children would spin wool in this manner, taking with them wherever they went.

The drop spindle found at the National Historic Site at L’Anse aux Meadows is noted as evidence that when the Viking expedition came to that area, there was at least one woman in the group. Although men would have known how to spin, it was firmly considered “women’s work”.

Embroidery
Learn the history of Newfoundland’s French Shore along with that of the making of the French Shore Tapestry, inspired by the famous 11th century Bayeux Tapestry of France. This unique work features the Bayeux stitch embroidery style.

Treadle Wheel Spinning
This form of spinning is widely recognized today and evolved from drop spindle spinning somewhere between 500 and 1000 AD. In early forms, the spindle was turned on its side and connected to a wheel by a band or cord. Over the centuries, these continued to evolve into the great wheel or walking wheel for faster spinning with a bobbin and flyer mechanism added, with a treadle eventually added to construction which allowed wheel spinning to occur while seated. Today spinning wheels can be found in a variety of modes of construction, including electric varieties.

Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum & Craft Shop

A Variety of Local Craft
Date: Saturday, Sept. 19 - 3:00 pm-4:30 pm

Join us at the Museum for an afternoon of local craft traditions.
Experience demonstrations of fly-tying with Gary Shears, rug making with Charlotte Cryderman, thrummed knitting with Paula Whelan, and more!