Fish Skin Workshop Sitka, Alaska

July 19-21st, 2012

Sponsored by the AK Humanities Forum, the Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum, and the

Sitka Sound Science Center

Athabascan Artist, Audrey Armstrong

Audrey was born in Huslia, Alaska. She has been sewing with fish skins since 2002 and has taught fish skin workshops since 2009. Along with working with fish skins, Audrey is also an accomplished bead worker and skin sewer. The next three slides show more of Audrey’s fish skin art.

Berry Bucket

Audrey created this berry bucket with king salmon skins, faceted beads (to represent berries), fish vertebrae and moose hide. Dentalia shells represent the status of Athabascan chiefs. Wood handle was steamed; then sewn with a cover of fish skin.

Chief’s Wife’s Bowl

Audrey made this bowl with king salmon skins, beads, a dentalia necklace, moose hide, and abalone hearts (mothers are the heart of the family).

Chief’s Bowl

This bowl was made with king salmon skins, beads, moose hide, and dentalia shells (which represent status of Athabascan chiefs). Audrey was commissioned by the Doyon Native Corporation to create this piece.

Traditional Athabascan fish skin bag

This is an example of a salmon skin bag made during the three day workshop. The bag is made with two whole salmon, skinned, and sewn together. A strip of pigskin is sewn along the top edge to form a drawstring bag. Embellishments include beads and shells.

Skinning a salmon

Special skinning knives were used to skin the salmon. Local Athabascan artist, Sarah Williams, is a well-known beader and skin sewer. She was an expert at skinning salmon! Sarah was also a very fast sewer!

Scraping fish skins

Skinning knives and ulus were used to remove all meat and fat from the salmon skins. Although the salmon skins were thin, they were amazingly quite tough.

Skinning fish with ulu

An ulu was used to scrape the final layers of meat and fat from the undersides of the fish skin. This was a time consuming process. It took an entire day for each participant to skin two whole salmon.

Kristina with skinned fish

One fish skin ready for sewing. It was important to have two fish of similar size before sewing skins together. Participants had the option of trimming skins and cutting off fins in preparation of sewing.

Workshop participants

The fish skin workshop was held in the shop building of the Sitka Sound Science Center. In this photo, everyone is skinning or sewing fish skins together. SSSC director, Lisa Busch, is in the background.

Attaching a hem

A strip of dyed pigskin, sewn to the fish skins, will eventually become a drawstring bag. Glover needles and artificial sinew were used to sew the fish skins and pigskin together.

Stuffing the bag

After the fish skin bag is assembled, it is stuffed with layers of paper towels and newspaper. The fins are coated with Elmers glue; then arranged with clothespins to protrude the fins from the bag.

Bags hanging to dry

On the second day of the workshop, the stuffed bags are hung to dry (just like dried or smoked fish)!

Kristina Cranston

Kristina’s bag before adding embellishments. The salmon skins were sewn together with wide strips of dyed pigskin. To maintain the shape of the bag, the paper stuffing was not removed for two to three weeks.

Salmon skin projects

Workshop participants included (left to right): Beth Garrison, Caroline Regis, Sarah Williams, Kathi Goddard, Jenni Goddard, Megan Pasternak, Kris Hoffmann, and Charlie Bean.

(Rockfish pipe by Tommy Joseph)

“Beneath the Sea” Art Exhibit In conjunction with the Sitka Seafood Festival, a marine related art exhibit will be held

Saturday, August 11th from 2-7 p.m. at the Raindance gallery located at 205 Monastery Street. Local artists will feature paintings, photographs, sculptures, pottery, and carvings. Some items will be available for purchase.

Also on display will be a collection of fish skin baskets and bags recently completed in a workshop with Athabascan artist, Audrey Armstrong. The workshop was a collaboration between the Sheldon Jackson Museum and the Sitka Sound Science Center.

Artists interested in exhibiting their art should contact Kristina or Tommy at 623-0705. Items will need to be delivered to Raindance gallery by Friday, August 10th.

Charlie Bean (AKA Carlos Frijoles)

Charlie chose to make a salmon skin basket. He used a section of marine rope for the rim and added deer hide trim. Charlie can also wear this basket as a hat (which can be seen in an earlier slide)!

Salmon skin lampshade by Kristina Cranston

Kristina decided to turn her salmon skin bag into a lampshade! Using an LED light bulb, the translucency of the salmon skin emits a beautiful ambient glow.

Salmon skin bag by Sarah Williams

Sarah used king salmon skins to make her bag and added deer hide to the top and beaded the edges. Due to the large size of this bag, workshop participants referred to it as a backpack!

Salmon skin bag by Beth Garrison

Beth created this bag with pink salmon skins embellished with wolf lichen, dentalium shells, jade nuggets, beads, shell buttons, and shells. The base of this bag includes a salmon tail.

Salmon skin bag by Megan Pasternak

Megan cut one salmon skin cut in half and sewed the sides together to make her drawstring bag. She also used two different colored pigskins, beads, and pearls.

Salmon bag by Kris Hoffmann

Kris used two king salmon skins to make the longest bag in the workshop. She decorated her bag with beads and fish vertebrae.

Artist/Instructor, Audrey Armstrong

Audrey holding a rockfish basket made by her mentor, Fran Reed, who was a well-known fish artist. Fran, a non-native, learned the art of fish skin sewing from Native elders in Venetie, Alaska. Before Fran died in 2008, she passed the baton to Audrey to continue teaching the art of fish skin sewing.