Day 25 - Sewing and Hand Stitching

​Today mum and I headed to craft camp earlier in the morning for a little lecture on hair jewellery. It is not something I had ever heard of before however it is big in Swedish culture and Estonian in the earlier days. It was an interesting lecture and the lady had the tools to allow people to have a go at making something with different patterns. After the lecture we went back to working on our pockets! I had to learn step by step how to cut and create the pocket from the little patch I made the previous day. We had a lot of different options to choose from with the backing materials etc however I chose to keep it simple and use block colours rather than different patterns. We started sewing the backs to the patches then the sides and back of the pocket. There was a lot of it where we had to hand stich it so that was a new skill I learned that day. I actually liked the process of hand stitching the pieces together, and got a little bit better at it with each stich. The process of making this back took hours but it was really enjoyable. At one point I had to unpick my stiches a few times from the machine because there was something wrong with it and one of my runs of hand stich was not good, as it would not hold enough, so Anika had to run it through the machine. Thank god for the lovely ladies who helped us!!

​Once I had finished my bag, it was time to make the ties. This was the part I had been looking forward to for a few days, I really like finger weaving and this time I had some of the Masters teaching me, not me trying to work it out with a book. First, we had to decide on how long we needed to make it, I decided mine was going to be 2.8m then we had to add 30% to allow for the weave to tighten and reduce the length. We then created a warp using what ever we could and measured the length in between some of the big looms. I then chose the colours I wanted, 2 background colours then 3 other colours. We then warped it with 6 strands of the main and background then 2 each of the other 3 colours. We cut each end of the warp and had the strings. It was an interesting process and now I know how to do it at home! Once we were done warping we had to start the weave. Inna showed me how to start it off using a table clamp but in a different way than I had learned before. We did one half first then the other half later. We had to get the strands in the right order then started off the weaving process. It took me a little bit of time but I got there and it felt so natural to do, I really enjoyed this process, and I chose colours to match the colours of my pocket. At one point it was so quiet in the room you could hear a pin drop because we were all so focused on the weaving process. During the time we were doing this, we were interviewed by the local paper, Sakala, you can read the story and look at the pictures here. It is about the whole craft camp but there are photos of me in there too.

​Once we were finished for the day we went to this crafters area where three different crafters told us about their businesses. The first one was telling us about their project where they take old material from different places and use it to make sets and other big things for businesses, line banners etc. They upcycle things and have been doing it for a few years now, learning lots of things on the way, including what can and can not be reused. It was interesting to hear about this all as they are really passionate about what they do, but not enough income yet to make it full time for all 3 investors. Then there was a glass blowing lady who had been doing it for about 10 years or so and she spoke about it being really hard work but she really enjoyed it. She showed us the furnace she uses and never turns it off, only about 3 times a year. She said it takes 6 days to turn off and on again so they just leave it running. She did a little demonstration and blew to hard the class popped. It was so thin but it was really beautiful, it sounded like a light bulb popping. We then went to the last building which was a jewellery making studio where three jewellery makers had their set up and one lady selling. They showed us a room where they paint the jewellery and need to have a lot of pieces ready before they paint to not waste resources. There was more equipment than I realised to make this kind of jewellery. We then headed back into town and went to the “craft café” for dinner. It was at this nice restaurant where about 10 people from craft camp, including our leader Kathlin joined. We had some wonderful conversations, some interesting insights into craft camp and how to get into the Viljandi Academy. It is a big process involving interviews, practical skills tests and so many other things, I might just stick to the two year course if I ever decide to properly study Estonian Folk Costumes. It is something I might do one day.

​It was a long day and a short walk back home, ready for some good rest, but had to get up early the next day for Kihnu!
Until tomorrow
Marissa xx