 Your visual arts student Emily Carr University, my nation is Alexis Nikoda Suh Nation in Alberta. So I'm Cree and Nikoda Suh and today I'm going to show you how to do some moose hair tufting. A lot of people don't practice this moose hair tufting or caribou hair tufting anymore these days. So I'm trying to pass on this knowledge and I grew up not knowing what this was. I've just seen it on people's clothing and I never really thought about what it was until I came here at Emily Carr. That's where I learned how to do moose hair tufting which was about two years ago I'd say. When I first started doing this I thought it was a very fascinating art form so I wanted to pick it up myself and explore that. I did these maybe a year and a half ago, baby shoes. So I did the beadwork and the tufts around here. So First Nations tribes like to utilize every part of the animal and there's a lot of scrap pieces as well that are used and primarily we use them for tufting. So there's different types of fur that are used, caribou hair and moose hair. We like to use this type of hair because it's coarser and it's hollow and that's what causes it to puff up as an example because it's since the coarseness makes it want to form into like a puff and then this is a piece of caribou hair. We like it because it's a lighter color so it's easier to dye with natural dyes but nowadays we use like just basic fabric dyes here and we traditionally use ochre or different types of berries to create these dyes. This is a piece of moose hair right here. Moose hair is different from caribou because there's only one part on the moose that you can use that has the ideal hair for tufting. So this is just from the one piece but caribou you can use a lot of the fur as opposed to moose. In Canada there are many tribes that use this type of decoration basically. It's a long passed down craft that is used for just decorating different types of clothing items as embellishing different types of jackets and moccasins. It's usually a floral design or berries, something along nature. It's not really used to depict any sort of history as in war scenes or anything like that. So the materials that I'm going to use, I'm going to use some of this white caribou and it's not dyed yet so that's why it's so white and clean. And then what I like to use is I like to use sinew because it's very strong and you're going to be pulling it tight so you don't ever want to use anything that will break or else everyone you're whole tough. And then you want some sharp scissors, preferably really small ones that you can get really detailed in there. This is kind of an example of what I'm going to be doing. I'm just going to be doing one tough though and then I want to show the back. I used a type of linen thread so it was really thick. That's if you don't have any access to any sinew. Also you can use beading thread if you just have to be careful. There are different types of thread that you can use if you don't have any access to sinew but you want to make sure that it's very strong so the typical nylon beading thread is just fine to use. So when you start off you want to start with your sinew and sinew comes really thick so you're going to want to take it apart, see how thick it is. So when you take it apart you just rip it in half basically. So that's how you may get thinner because you want it to fit through your needle that you're going to use. And when you use your needle you can use a sewing needle or a beading needle. You just want to make sure it'll fit your sinew so you want to find preferably a larger needle. Depending on what you're sewing your tufts to, like this thick hide right here you're going to want to use a glove or needle so it's made for piercing through hide. So when I start what I like to do is I like to grab a good amount so that you can get a nice full pom pom. So I typically use around this much so that you'll get a full or pom pom. So from there what I do is you take your sinew or your beading thread and what I like to do is wrap it around twice so that's once and then here's twice. And from there you're just going to tie it in a basic knot is the hair that I'm going to tie up. So I take my sinew from there you're going to tie it. Next what you have to do is to take your scissors and you're going to cut it off of this piece of hide. So what I do I take my thumb and my index finger and I kind of squish it flat like so. And then from there I'm going to cut around it to keep that around in shape. So I go like this. Now you go to begin shaping the pom pom into a little round shape. So it'll look like this. And then from there I'm going to cut around it to keep that around in shape. So I go like this. And then you're just going to keep on doing that until you get it smaller and nice and tight and puffy. This is where you can or you have the most control and whether you're going to get kind of a messy, bigger, tough or a nice and neat one. So the more time you spend on it it can be tedious but the outcome is great as the more time you spend on it. From here the different shapes that advanced tufters make is they usually combine different pom poms to get multi-colors or just bigger sizes. The shaping depends on your ability basically. You can make sharp leaves or just the regular round ones. Like here you can see that the little leaves it goes to a point. Okay so I'm going to be making a tuft out of red now. And moves are tufts when you dye it. They're typically done with regular fabric dye nowadays. You get about more vibrant colors and they last longer as well. So I'm going to start. I'm going to take my section. I'm going to take my sinew and wrap it around once and then twice. From there I'm going to hold on to the hair so that they don't go everywhere. So they stay in one spot and you typically want to tie it near the base more so that you can get the better quality hair because it's thicker. And from here this is where you pull it tight and then it'll flare out like this. You want to make sure you don't pull it too tight but you still want to make sure it flares out enough. Next what you have to do is to take your scissors and you're going to cut it off of this piece of hide. Now I'm going to trim one end because I won't need it anymore. You'll just need one to sew it down. So this is where you are right now. Now you've got to begin shaping the pom-pom into a little round shape. So what I do, I take my thumb and my index finger and I kind of squish it flat like so. I'm going to thread it. You just thread your pom-pom through your needle and have your material prepped. So I'm going to poke it through so you're at this point and then you just want to tie it off as well. To tie it off I have it like this. It's all the way through. I'm going to pierce the hide a little bit and right close to where it's coming out. I like to wrap my sinew around the needle about twice. Pull it down and then you pull your needle through. That way you get a nice close knot. So it's very secure and it won't be loose. You just have to clip your sinew off now. And from here, if you don't like the shape that your pom-pom is, you can shape it from there too as well. So say I want to make a sharp point on it. I will take my scissors and kind of make a sharp point like so. And then you can clean up your edges on it. Just going to make sure you don't cut your pom-pom off of the hide. And there you would just clean off your hide. This is just the start of making your five petal flower with the pointed edges. This one does not have any pointed edges, but this is a five petal flower that you can create. And then you can also double it to make bigger pieces like these other baby shoes that I made. The pink petals here are doubled pom-poms so that you can get bigger sizes. Because it's harder to make a big giant one because it will fall apart if you make it too big. So here is a more complicated flower that I've made. And the inner part is a separate flower from the dark blue pom-poms. So that's the basics for learning moose hair and caribou hair tufting. And you can also learn some more at the Aboriginal Gathering Place here at Emily Carr University. Thanks.