CRAFTS AT THE ALU DISTRICT I
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
Mille Lacs Band Elder Carol Hernandez is well-known and often envied for her creative skills and talents with crafts. It is a gift. And one that she willingly shares with anyone who wants to learn. Sometimes, simply hanging out with some friends while putting crafts together is a gift in and of itself. Hernandez and her friends at the District I Assisted Living Unit often sit at the table to create crafts and chitchat about this or that all while Hernandez teaches and demonstrates how to make something useful from everyday items such as leftover fabric, pieces of nature, and just about anything else she can dream up. In Early March the ladies sat down to create their own greeting cards made from leftover fabric.
One chilly afternoon Carol Hernandez, Carol Sam, Flo Shaugobay, and Lucille Kuntz were in the commons area of the District I ALU to show off their handmade cards they had made the week before.
“When spring had sprung, we decided to shake off the winter blues and talk about Easter and do some crafts,” Hernandez said. “We have a chance to get out of our rooms and it’s a great weekend activity for the ladies.”
The cards are made on heavy card stock paper with leftover fabric glued onto the paper with heat and bond. Hernandez says she buys the cards already folded. They come in a set with 50 cards and 50 envelopes. When they have all of their supplies gathered, the ladies get creative.
“We have googly eyes, glitter glue, rhinestones, and cotton balls, and glue them on creatively!” Hernandez explained. “We love our glitter glue! All we need then is an iron, some fabric, and creativity. We can dress them however we want. Lucille and I are fond of bling.”
The ladies like to keep the cards blank inside so they can be used for any reason. Hernandez does have some stamps with various sayings on them she uses on occasion, but prefers to leave them blank. “It’s easier to customize them that way,” she said.
If the ladies can’t do all of the steps themselves, others step in. “I always say the clothing designers have the peons who do the work,” she said with a laugh. “If someone is not able to do a step then they are the designers. They pick out the fabric, the design, and whatnot,” she added.
“I used to sew but I can’t anymore,” Lucille said. “It was fun to make these cards.”
Some of the ladies chose fabric with various Native pat terns while others chose animal prints and some combined a bit of everything.
Flo got out her address book and started writing cards to family and friends. “I like to sit here and fill them out. It’s much more fun,” she said as she addressed her second envelope.
Some of the cards have layered fabric on fabric and borders added. “She sews the rhinestones on by hand,” Carol Sam said.
Flo said she sends cards out in the mail all of the time. And making cards by hand is more fun, and “Way cheaper!”
Hernandez brought out a card she made a while back made in a similar way. “It is an old, old, old, craft called ‘birch biting,’” she said.
The ladies have made a lot of different crafts. The next project for them will be Native-themed pencil holders. “I use green bean cans and Native fabric and deer hide. And I bet there will be some glitter glue on some of them, too!” Hernandez said with a laugh.
Hernandez said she buys most of the supplies for the crafts. Some folks have donated items to Hernandez in the past, but most of the supplies for the crafts she just buys or supplies herself or finds in her stockpile of this and that which she has collected.
“I am real proud of the ladies,” Hernandez said with a grin and twinkle in her eye. Helping people be created is where she shines. “It doesn’t have to be hard to be creative. Most of the crafts I do follow the traditional teachings of utilizing the resources we have.”
Each card is unique and beautiful — just like the ladies at the ALU.
