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Mitten

Gallery Location
Daphne Cockwell Gallery dedicated to First Peoples art & culture
Maker
Joliet Kakekayash, Northern Ojibwa
Medium Moose skin, beaver fur, glass beads
Geography
Weagamow Lake, Ontario, Canada
Date c. 1957
Dimensions 36 x 25 cm
Object number 959.50.139.A
Description
Moose skin is the most durable material for the manufacture of mittens and moccasins. The labourious preparation of the skin involves removing the hair and flesh, scraping the skin to an even thickness, soaking in water, rubbing in a mixture of brains and fish livers, beating and scraping to make the fibres pliable, and finally smoking the skin. Six to eight pairs of mittens can be made from a single moose skin.
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