Avery is taking Yupik class for his elective this quarter. He chose to make a fur hat for his project. He's been telling me off and on for weeks about the progress of his hat. He has had productive days in sewing his hat and he has had difficult days where he messed up and had to undo everything he did and redo it. After all of that hard work and effort, you should have seen the smile on his face when he wore it downstairs to show me tonight. He was pretty pleased and proud of himself. I'm pretty proud of him too. His hard work paid off...his hat turned out great.
Now we both have one, because this year at the Cama-i festival, I finally splurged and bought one. I've been meaning to post about it for a long time, but somehow always forgot. His is made of leather around outside, beaver in the front and fox on the sides. Mine is made from spotted seal around the outside, and coyote on the front and sides.
These hats are called pilot hats or bomber hats or a russian muliki. I've been wanting to get one since we moved here, but never did because they can be quite pricey. Mine cost $250, but only because I had talked the lady down $30. The spotted seal used on mine makes it a bit more expensive because only Alaskan Native people can hunt, kill, and create materials from spotted seal legally. A hat without seal runs more around $175 and can be purchased easily from a native or non-native (gussuk) person.
We will be loving our hats next winter. For now, I've put mine away for the year. I'm so glad Avery got the opportunity to learn how to make one in Yup'ik class and that we have people in our community who are willing to donate the furs needed for this type of experience. Once again, I feel fortunate to live in such a caring and culturally diverse community.
Avery is taking Yupik class for his elective this quarter. He chose to make a fur hat for his project. He's been telling me off and on for weeks about the progress of his hat. He has had productive days in sewing his hat and he has had difficult days where he messed up and had to undo everything he did and redo it. After all of that hard work and effort, you should have seen the smile on his face when he wore it downstairs to show me tonight. He was pretty pleased and proud of himself. I'm pretty proud of him too. His hard work paid off...his hat turned out great.
Now we both have one, because this year at the Cama-i festival, I finally splurged and bought one. I've been meaning to post about it for a long time, but somehow always forgot. His is made of leather around outside, beaver in the front and fox on the sides. Mine is made from spotted seal around the outside, and coyote on the front and sides. 
These hats are called pilot hats or bomber hats or a russian muliki. I've been wanting to get one since we moved here, but never did because they can be quite pricey. Mine cost $250, but only because I had talked the lady down $30. The spotted seal used on mine makes it a bit more expensive because only Alaskan Native people can hunt, kill, and create materials from spotted seal legally. A hat without seal runs more around $175 and can be purchased easily from a native or non-native (gussuk) person.
We will be loving our hats next winter. For now, I've put mine away for the year. I'm so glad Avery got the opportunity to learn how to make one in Yup'ik class and that we have people in our community who are willing to donate the furs needed for this type of experience. Once again, I feel fortunate to live in such a caring and culturally diverse community.
Posts
3 comments:
I cannot wait to own a beaver hat just like Avery's! Nice job...the hat looks fantastic!
Very cool! :-)
Your FAT!
Post a Comment