Graduation Day!

Congratulations to the 2010 grads of the NAC Jewellery and Metalwork Program!
Patrick Aula, Myles Gauthier, Kaajuk Kabalik, Joe Macpa and Silas Qulaut received their first year certificates!

On behalf of the instructors, Beata, Kirk, Gyu and Erin, we would like to congratulate all of you for a successful and fun year! We are very proud of everything you all have accomplished and we look forward to seeing you in the fall!

Have a great summer!

The Last Edition

For the last 2 weeks of class, the lovely Gyu has returned, this time to teach us the art of Printmaking. We have been working on linocut, woodcut and etching, making limited edition prints. Printmaking has been a popluar method of art making in the Inuit culture since the 1950's. In many printshops throughout Nunavut, the work is divided between: the Artists, who draw the original image; the Carvers, who carve the image into stone or lino; and the Printers, who ink the plates and make the final prints. In our case, we have doing all three steps in the process and have gotten some great results. A few of the prints will be entered in the BMO 1st Art competition, which is an annual nation wide-art competetion for post-secondary students in every privince and territory.

Open House

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Open House Show and Sale. It was a great success! We had the metalshop open for demonstrations and a station set up for visitors to try their hand at some metalwork. We were all excited to get the chance to show off our skills and sell our work. The crowds were nonstop and gave us really great feed back.

Check out a few pictures from the sale:

Open House Show and Sale

The Jewellery and Metalwork students are pleased to present

Open House Show and Sale

Saturday, April 10th

10 am to 4pm

Building 619 (next to post office)

Students will be demonstrating jewellery making techniques

There will be a wide variety of jewellery, prints and artowrk for sale.

New work my Joe Macpa

KILLER WHALE PENDENT

1.27” diameter
Sterling Silver
Cut out
1.13” inside diameter
Chased shape of killer whale

This piece is about the accomplish to me that I did in the past; I made it to heal my soul and my brain. Helps me to be brave and have strength to go for my goal.



INUKSHUK PENDENT

This piece of Inukshuk is about the past, from my grandpa to me past and future. It helps me to do some carving and shaping the stone neatly and accuret.Im proud to be an inuk.

2” top to bottom
1”3/8 diameter
Sterling silver
Cut out
Chased outline
Inukshuk

New Work by Myles Gauthier

This is called the circling fish. It is made of copper and sterling silver. The reason why I made this design was because the town I come from, “Iqaluit”, means place with many fish. It resembles where I am from and also my appreciation to my home town.

More work by Myles

New work by Kaajuk Kabalik

Tattooed arms
This piece was inspired from a few different places. First off the idea for the hands and arms came from my wife and how it hugs whoever wears it. The traditional tattoos idea came from the fact that my great grandmother had these tattoos from her head down to her feet. The hands of this piece were from a picture of my own hands, it was to bring my actual touch to the piece.

Shaman’s Drum
This piece is called Shaman’s Drum. It was inspired by how I believe drum dancers go on a trip when they are drumming. The shamans faces in the drum depicts how although the drummer is there in the flesh, they are actually tapping into the ways of the past and translating it through a song and drum. The 3 heads show this by the main face being in the present and the other 2 looking back into the past.

More work by Kaajuk:

New work by Jutanie Arnakaq

Snow Goggles

Snow goggles made with sterling silver, hand made it’s shows our culture. They used them in spring time to protect their eyes from the sun when they out hunting or when they going spend some time outside. In old days they were using caribou antler to make snow goggles. Now a days they don’t really use them because we use sun glasses now.

Inuksuk with Kayak
Inuksuk with kayak: made with sterling silver. I choose to make it because it’s shows our culture and that they still use it now, Inuksuk can tell you were to go hunting or tells you where you are going in other words (direction). You can make inuksuk all kinds of different ways. Kayak was the most important in old days. They used it for going hunting on water and for transportation. Kayak usually made out of seal skin and it’s water proof.

New work by Silas Qulaut

DRUM DACERS

22 in x 2.5 in
Drum dancers and the women (the singer) are sterling silver and the chain is silver.

Drum Dancing is part of Inuit culture and I like drum dancing.
Just to watch them dance is a new lesson for me, and I learned that in different culture they have different drum dance.
I want to show what inuit traditional drum dance is like.

SNOWY OWL
Sterling silver
3in x 2 in

Snowy owl are interesting arctic birds.
They are good hunters, they hunt lemmings and rabbits.
They can grow as long as 50 – 60 inches wingspan that’s about 5 feet.

Vancouver Trip 2010 - Day 8

Feb 28 Our last day in Vancouver

We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Aboriginal Artisan Village again. The downtown core of Vancouver was crazy busy because of the gold metal hockey game that was on that afternoon. (We were all very excited when they won! Go Canada Go!) We left the trade show a little early because we needed to head back to residence to pack and get ready to catch our plane home.

Overall, we all had a fantastic time in Vancouver. The days were busy, overwhelming and tiring, and sometimes it was hard and uncomfortable to be outside of our element. But in the end, we only come home with great memories, real life learning experiences, and a once in a lifetime opportunity we will never forget!

A big NAKURMIIK and THANK YOU to Kakivak, the President and Dean of the Nunavut Arctic College, Lyn at Green College, Susan at the Museum of Anthropology, Ippik at Emily Carr, Madeline at UBC, Mark (for being so helpful around town!) and all the fun and interesting people we met who made us feel so welcome.

Here are a few more fun pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

Green College

Around UBC Campus No polar dip for us!

Cool stuff around town

Biggest flag we've ever seen!











At the Northern House
With the Premier of Nunavut

With the Mayor of Iqaluit

Joe with fox

Henry's art at the Northren House

Mammoth tusk

Olympic Spirit!

We all got to go to a concert at a Victory Ceremony.