Mohawk Arts Center to offer free summer classes on traditional arts Artist and seamstress Becky Weeks models an 1867 vintage dress in her garden in Hancock. She is holding a drop spindle she will use in teaching a spinning class, one of several fiber arts classes she will offer as part of the  Keweenaw Arts Alive/Traditions 2001 Program being offered throughout the summer at the Ramblin’Äô Rose Arts Center in Mohawk. Other local artists will also participate in the free, intergenerational classes on traditional arts.   MOHAWK ’Äì Artist and seamstress Becky Weeks of Hancock stepped back into the nineteenth century as she gracefully modeled an elegant green dress of 1867 vintage, explaining that the hoop crinoline underneath was a ’Äúmodern’Äù improvement in women’Äôs clothing.   ’ÄúIn our time we think a hoop was a cumbersome thing, but for somebody who was used to wearing heavy petticoats it was a liberation,’Äù Weeks said.   She noted women of the 1840s were used to wearing as many as 14 petticoats, but in the 1850s hoops came back into style.   ’ÄúThat took a lot of weight off,’Äù noted Weeks, who specializes in vintage clothing.   Beginning Tuesday, June 19, Weeks will be teaching a variety of traditional fiber arts as part of the Keweenaw Arts Alive/Traditions 2001 Program being offered throughout the summer at the Ramblin’Äô Rose Arts Center in Mohawk. She will offer classes in historic costume techniques, hat making, spinning, weaving and natural dyeing.   The program will consist of free, intergenerational classes, open to the public, with five adults and five youth working side by side. Participants are welcome to come as a team or be matched with a youth or adult. If someone doesn't have a youth or adult to sign up with, the Keweenaw Krayons staff will help facilitate the pairing so that each child has a parent or supervisor.   Weeks noted that for her classes adults can work on projects at home with the children.   ’ÄúI’Äôll be teaching certain techniques like inserting boning, garment shape and silhouette,’Äù she said. ’ÄúAnd I’Äôll be throwing in little tidbits about carriage and movement.’Äù   Historic Costume Techniques is one three-hour class from 6 p.m. ’Äì 9 p.m. on June 19. Hat and Bonnet Making will be offered as two three-hour classes from 6 p.m. ’Äì 9 p.m. on June 23 and June 26.   Weeks said it would help to have some sewing experience for the Historic Costume class. A sewing machine is helpful but not required. Students will know something about sewing by the end of the class, she noted. If anyone has an old long square dance skirt or a lightweight wool suit or shirt they would like to bring to class, Weeks will show techniques how to remake the clothing into a period piece (such as adjusting it, taking in darts, fixing lapels....)   The Hat Making classes will include hand sewing only. It is not necessary to know how to sew before taking these classes, but students should bring an old or cheap straw hat.   ’ÄúWe’Äôre going to be taking those apart and re-sewing to the proper style,’Äù Weeks explained.   Weeks will provide materials for those who cannot or do not wish to bring them. She will also bring examples of items that might be brought to the second class to use to decorate and finish the hats.   Both of these classes will be useful to anyone wanting to dress up in vintage clothing for the June 29 Heritage Celebration in Calumet or the Fort Wilkins Celebration on July 12. Weeks will offer the Spinning, Weaving and Natural Dyeing classes in late July and in August. (See schedule below.)   Participants are welcome to bring cameras and/or tape recorders to keep a record of the process for later. Here are some details on the other fiber classes:   SPINNING ’Äì Both adults and youth will go home with a homemade drop spindle, which will be used to teach spinning in the class, after they have tried "carding" first. Participants will also go home with a small ball of yarn they have spun, which they could use in the weaving class if desired.   WEAVING I & II ’Äì  If anyone has a small tabletop loom they own, they are welcome to bring it and their own "warp" (the string for first setting up the loom to weave) to learn how to set it up in the first class. Otherwise, there will be a loom available for everyone’Äôs use. Participants are also welcome to bring their "weft" (yarn from the spinning class, other "fine" or other lightweight yarn or crochet cotton) to the class; otherwise, Weeks will provide some for practice. Each person will go home with some kind of small woven piece about the size of a hotpad.   NATURAL DYEING ’Äì Participants who would like to dye their own 100 percent cotton t-shirt need to drop it off at Keweenaw Krayons by Friday, July 20. Weeks will prepare ("mordant") the fabric for the dyeing class, which will be done in large pots over an open fire outside. The class will focus on indigo dyeing, a process popular in the late 1800s. The shirts (or piece of fabric to be provided if someone doesn't bring a shirt) will turn out either blue or turquoise with this process.   Other local artists will also participate in the Keweenaw Arts Alive/Traditions 2001 Program, which is focused on intergenerational learning, according to Keweenaw County Arts Coordinator, Darlene Basto.   "Many arts done by our grandparents and ancestors are fading out," Basto said, ’Äúand Keweenaw Krayons, a non-profit arts organization, located at the Ramblin' Rose Arts Center in Mohawk, would like to see some of the interest in traditional arts continue. To that effect ’Ķ we are offering free summer classes in Fiber Arts, Portrait Drawing, Leather, Metal and Birch Bark and Pit-Fired Clay."   Lorri Oikarinen, a local artist and quilter, will teach a beginning two-part quilting class in August.  Clyde Mikkola, artist and historic "limner" (itinerant portrait artist of the 1760s) will visit the Allouez township Park in Mohawk from noon to 4 p.m. on July 4 and lead a portrait drawing class the following week at the Ramblin' Rose Arts Center.   Len Novak, area "Drumweaver," guides the making of dreamcatchers and making rattles in two separate classes. Patti Pawlicki and Martin Herrera lead the ancient metal craft class for making copper bells.   Under a separate grant, the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home will be offering a number of three-hour, pit-fired clay workshops, with instructor Denise Vandeville, at the Mohawk Arts Center.   The schedule of classes is as follows: Historic Costume Techniques   June 19        6 p.m. ’Äì 9 p.m.   Hat Making I & II              June 23 & 26       6 p.m. ’Äì 9 p.m.   Ancient Metal Crafting/ Copper Bells                     July 7                   1 ’Äì 4 p.m.   Portrait Drawing               July 11                  1’Äì 4 p.m.   Spinning                            July 26                 6 p.m. ’Äì 8 p.m..   Weaving I & II                  July 31 & Aug. 2   6 p.m. ’Äì 9 p.m.   Natural Dyeing                 Aug. 4                    1 p.m. ’Äì 5 p.m.   Dreamcatchers                 Aug. 8                    1 p.m. ’Äì 4 p.m.   Quilting I & II                  Aug. 9 & 16           1 p.m. ’Äì 4 p.m.   Making a Rattle               Aug 15                    1 p.m. ’Äì 4 p.m.   Birch Bark Workshop                                To be announced Clay workshops (choose one date): July 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20 or 23 ’Äì Mondays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays and Fridays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Pit firing is on July 27 from 1 p.m to evening.  Activities are made possible with the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Copper Country Community Arts Center and community support. Keweenaw Arts Alive Traditions 2001 has already received generous community support from International Paper, UPPCO, U.P. Engineers and Architects, ABC 5&28 and Tu-Mar Broadcasting. Several Keweenaw businesses provide these support buttons in return for donations to Keweenaw Krayons, for their Traditions 2001 activities. While all classes are free of charge, donations are always appreciated. To assure the success of all planned activities, donations are being accepted by Keweenaw Krayons, P.O. Box 473, Mohawk, MI 49950. Donations may also be given when picking up a support button from many local supporting businesses including Keweenaw Krayons' next door neighbor, the Mohawk Superette; Slim's Restaurant in Mohawk; Parkway Chevy Motors in Calumet; WCCY & WOLV in Houghton; True North Antiques in Ahmeek; Fitzgerald’Äôs Restaurant in Eagle River and the Delaware Mine in Central. More businesses are being sought to carry the buttons. For more information or registration for classes call 337-4706 or email staff@keweenawkrayons.com. Registration can also be done online by going to the  Keweenaw Krayons Web site.                                                 ’Äì Michele Anderson                                                    June 19, 2001