Winnipeg woman internationally recognized for expert weaving skills

Local finger weaver bringing history back to life Jon Hendricks reports on the nationally recognized finger weaver recreating 3000-year-old artifacts.

Carol James started doing needlework before she started school. Her experience is evident when you watch her fingers dart across a fresh piece of fabric.

Her work has taken her around the world, she has become an internationally recognized expert in finger weaving, with a particular expertise in ancient textiles.

"It's a childhood daydream to be looking at structures and figuring out how they were done," James said.

She was called on to reverse engineer, and then make a replica of a thousand year old shirt discovered in Arizona's Tonto National Monument.

"The shirt was found in association with human remains," James said. "This is a funerary object, so it's a spectacular shirt! It's a lovely piece of human history."

A pattern you can find in just any store and with a style that predates Columbus, James couldn't find any person to teach her.

"What I decided I needed to do is to find ancient pieces. And these pieces are my teacher."

Soon, she'll get another lesson, as she is going to Berlin, where she'll try and recreate belts found on 3000 year-old Chinese mummies.

"The lovely thing is, you think, oh that's an odd shape. How am I going to get that shape?" she said. "But then you start working. And if you have the technique right, it just falls together properly."

The knowledge of the past, speaking to a finger weaver of the present.