Latest / Behind The Village Podcast / How Porcupine Quills Become Art | Dillon Bickell

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How Porcupine Quills Become Art | Dillon Bickell · Behind The Village Podcast

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You're listening to the Behind the Village podcast,
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where we invite you to join us on a journey to
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understand how to live a life worth living. My
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guest today is Dylan Bickel, a local Indigenous
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quill worker that is determined to document,
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teach, and preserve this craft for generations
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to come. I have to admit, when I first started
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researching quilling, I thought it was the designs
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made of paper. Little did I know what quilling
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actually was or what it entailed. My name is
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Dylan Bickel. I live in Orillia, but I'm from
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Chippewas of Rama and I'm an equal clan and I'm
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a quill worker. So what that is, it's porcupine
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quills in birch bark. They're embedded in there
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and it's an art form that's been practiced for
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many, many, many years by my people. Historically,
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much like a lot of our culture, it was a verbal
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and a traditional story passed down from generation
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to generation, family to family. You'd have different
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knowledge keepers and people that would share
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that knowledge. So most of what I've learned
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is from other teachers, other knowledge keepers,
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and a lot of it's self -taught as well, because
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there isn't, unfortunately, the resources like
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there is for other art forms or other just even
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written documentation about it. During COVID,
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um, when we're all stuck inside, everyone was
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looking for a hobby. And, uh, one of the ones
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I had found, there was a community crafting circle.
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It was October, 2021. Um, and it was come try
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cool work and just, just come practice, like
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learn about it. Um, there was a guy named Kyle
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Solve kind of teaching it and he was a quiller
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himself. Um, so me and I think six other community
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members were there practicing quilling for the
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first time. And we were. placing our quills and,
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you know, one at a time practicing different
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patterns and different things. And everyone else
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in the class was maybe on their fifth or sixth
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quill. And as I already, I'd already laid down
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over a dozen and was on like my 15th, 16th. And
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they're like, holy, how are you doing that so
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easy? And it just clicked. And I think there's
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a strong blood memory connection with that mentioning
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being passed down from generation to generation.
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My grandma, Lila Ingersoll was a quiller. Unfortunately,
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I never got to meet her because she passed when
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my mom was really young. I think when I picked
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up those quills for the first time, I guess five
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years ago come this fall, surprisingly that's
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a long time. I just felt connected to her and
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it was just easy, if I can explain that. Yeah.
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Talk to me about the blood connection a little
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bit. So I knew from my mom that my grandma was
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a quiller and that's kind of what she did for
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money. She would make quill pieces throughout
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the week. A guy would come by, there is a white
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guy on like a Friday. He would buy their stuff
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for really cheap, but to them it was a lot of
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money. And that would be their money for the
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weekend. And so I know there's pieces of her
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work all throughout Muskoka, all through Southern
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Ontario. And knowing my grandma did that, my
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mom never was taught. And so there was a disconnect
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there, but there were still that blood memory
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is a term that hidden kind of talent or trait
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and I just needed to kind of unlock it. And so,
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although I didn't get to meet my grandma, I feel
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like I can think of her and connect with her
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on a different level when I'm working with those
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quills and kind of imagining how she would have
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done certain things helps me in my process too.
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Do you have some of her work? I do actually.
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So when I first got into it, my mom dug around
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in the closet, you know, in the shoebox in the
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back corner and found some of her mom's stuff,
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like my grandma's. And so she gifted me them
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and I have a few quill boxes of hers, uh, with
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a nice floral on top, like a flower. Um, I have
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this beautiful, uh, it's like a flat piece, uh,
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probably the size of a piece of paper of these
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little bunnies, little white and brown bunnies.
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And the interesting thing about that one is it's
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backed. So the back of the quill work, you need
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a backing as well as the front of the birch bark,
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but the backing is cardboard. They weren't well
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off, right? So they used the resources they had
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and it just happened to be a piece of cardboard.
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Whereas when I cool, I like to use birch bark
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or you're using deer hide and moose hide or other
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different types of material. Um, so I really
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liked the bunny piece cause there's some story
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to that too. And then she also made some little
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tiny canoes, little teepees and just other like
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more decorative picture frame type stuff. But
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her quill boxes are. from the 80s, so they're
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older than I am and they're in remarkable shape
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given how old they are. They're just beautiful.
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So let's get into it. Let's learn about this
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art form and everything that goes into it. As
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I mentioned, quillwork is porcupine quills and
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birch bark. So the first primary material I guess
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would be the birch bark, which is wigwass in
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Ojibwe. All the birch bark that I use is harvested
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locally. Um, it's something I actually have to
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go out into the, into the wild to go find. You
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can't just go up to Home Depot or Michaels or
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anywhere to find that. The time to harvest birch
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is, uh, kind of the peak of summer, uh, when
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it's the hottest, uh, Canada day -ish, you know,
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late June, early July. And you go find a tree
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and you literally strike it down. um, a line
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with a knife and it'll peel off in the summer
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just as one big piece, like a big sheet. Just
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kind of why it gets its moniker of paper birch.
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And I'm only taking about quarter of an inch
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thickness of birch bark. And so one good size
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tree when I'm only using a couple inches at a
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time gets me enough bark for the year kind of
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thing. The next material is even harder to find
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is the porcupine quills. Like the birch, you
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can't just buy those online, unfortunately. The
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porcupine. Being the second largest rodent in
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North America, with no real natural predators,
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it unfortunately gets hit on the road a lot.
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And so a lot of my quills come from roadkill.
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I'm the guy now in the community that people
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text or call or send to DM to say, hey, there's
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a porcupine on the side of the road near wherever.
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And so I have things in my car to harvest that
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on the road if I need to, gloves, pliers, box,
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some newspapers, that kind of thing. Or I'll
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take it and bring it home and harvest it there.
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Obviously I have my tobacco with me to make an
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offering. And what I like about quill work is
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even if the porcupine is passed on, you're still
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utilizing and honoring it and creating something
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with those quills. The next step is cleaning
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them. So you have to, you know, like dawn soap
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or other kind of grease fighting dish soap. You
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have to give them about one bath. Get all the
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grease through the dirt, the grime, sort out
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all the different hairs. And then you're finally
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able to start working with your quills and your
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birch bark. So it's a process. In some pieces
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it's, you have dozens, if not 20, 25 hours worth
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of work just before you can even sit down and
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start creating something pretty. You mentioned
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with the birch, you know, you can kind of harvest
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it and then you're okay for about a year or so
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depending on the size you're able to get. Are
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the quills, do they last? Like do they have an
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expiration where you can't use them anymore?
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They do in a way. I say to people treat them
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like newspaper. So don't let them get wet and
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keep them out of the sun. But they will last
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for quite a while because they're just kind of
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like a plastic straw. They are brittle. can snap
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when they're not being used or worked with. But
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most quills like the average porcupine has 30
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,000 quills. So if you get a porcupine or two
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a year, again, not all those quills are always
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usable, but they do last a while. And I have
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numerous boxes around the house of different
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quills from different animals that I like to
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try to keep together because they're often just
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like how we're different, you know, different
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skin tones, hair type. sword porcupines that
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some of the quills are thicker. Some of them
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are a little bit different color. So it's nice
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to keep those specific harvested quills together.
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When you first start out, I guess that's another
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issue with quilling is it is hard to start. Over
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the years, I've been gifted a lot of different
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materials and people know that I do this now.
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So they're offering those helpful hints of where
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to find them. But I do have a decent call it
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supply, if you will, where each year I kind of
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focus a bit on my harvesting and then I can focus
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on crafting later in the year throughout the
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winter months like right now where you can't
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go out and harvest because everything's asleep.
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So it is cyclical in that and there's obviously
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teachings and a certain, I don't know, I guess
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not the teaching but like a beauty in understanding
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that would, you know, such a fast -paced 2026
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capitalistic world we live in that this there
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is a cycle and you can't rush these things and
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that it's a good reminder of the old ways. Does
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that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to
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ask about, you mentioned a tobacco offering.
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What is that and what does that entail? So, same
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law or tobacco, it's one of our sacred medicines.
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It was the first medicine gifted to Ojibwe people,
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Anishinaabe people. And what it does is It's
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a way of offering thanks and a way of connecting
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to spirit and to all creation. And so when I'm
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harvesting bark or when I see a porcupine that's
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passed on, I'm giving thanks and I'm offering
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and I'm telling that creature or that bark what
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my intentions are and I come from a good place
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and I have a kind spirit and I'm going to use
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you in a way that's kind. And it's our kind of
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way of giving thanks and it's a ceremony that
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is key to kind of all of what we do and knowing,
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you know, walking and living that good life and
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just giving thanks. In terms of what I like to
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create, a lot of my designs are not typical for
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what you'd see with quill work. Well, as I mentioned,
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my grandma's flowers and the bunnies, lots of
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nature, lots of floral, like vegetation patterns,
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animals. I like to do more modern quill work,
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if that's what I've been calling it. Pop culture,
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so I've done one of my one of my more favorite
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pieces is Grogu your baby Yoda from the Mandalorian
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He's he's only like two and a half inches tall
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But I managed to get him holding the little soup
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cup and his great robe and like the whole the
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greens and everything I've done Black Panther
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from Marvel. I've done Mario pieces with the
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star and boo the ghost and a few other different
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things What else have I done pop culture as I've
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done Uh, like a tattoo style, you know, like
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American vintage style. Cool. Sneak, which I
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really like. Um, and just other things you don't
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see even when you see quill work. Um, so again,
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you can do lots of flowers. I've done lots of
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those. I've done different animals. I've done
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fish and bear and those type of more traditional
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things, but I like pushing the art form to show.
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You can create something modern, something that
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our ancestors would have never even dreamed of.
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in quills because it's such a, it's just the
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material, right? The canvas is quite endless
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for what you could create. So that's the fun
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part. And then how do you create them? Like how
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does it all come together? You've got quills,
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you've got birch bark or a backing. Yeah, so
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a lot of my process that I would get is design
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and I would imprint it onto the bark. So oftentimes
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it's say it's a flower I would sketch that out
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on a piece of paper and then I would put that
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paper on the bark and trace over it and that
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leaves just a faint impression on the bark itself
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because you don't really want to draw on the
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bark because it would stay there. And then you
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start quilling and basically you're puncturing
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holes in the bark for those quills to kind of
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slide through and then they fold over almost
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like if you're to picture a staple. That's the
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finished product where it goes in, you fold over
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the other side and they pull it flat. And that's
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all that is. It's just friction. There's no other
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material. There's no glue. There's no hidden
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fasteners. It's all just the friction of pulling
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that quill through a tiny hole in the bark that
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holds it in place. And you just do that over
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and over and over until you fill in your, your
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design. I think it was my tattoo style snake.
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It's one of the larger pieces I've made. I counted
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all the quilts just for fun. sat there and one,
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two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I
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did that 768 times. Oh, wow. And there was red
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quills, black quills, yellow quills, all which
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are dyed, which is another step in the process
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of getting prepared with your materials. Yeah.
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Some of those pieces are huge, literally hundreds
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if not thousands of quills. Wow. Just, you know,
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the amount of time. And that's not even like
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the harvesting part. That's just the quill part.
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If you were to lay a quill, and I showed you
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a few times, I bet you you could do one per minute,
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which is really slow. But you can imagine I can
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probably do one every, if I really wanted to,
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10 or 15 seconds. So I'm doing three or four
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a minute. take 700 quills at three a minute.
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You're still talking five or six hours straight,
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if you were to keep that pace. Plus all the time
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to again, harvest the materials, clean the quills,
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dye the quills, prep the bark, prep your pattern,
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work on the dang thing. So you could have a piece
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that's 10, 12, 15 hours in. But to me, quill
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boxes are the pinnacle of the art form. They
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have three dimensional, you know, jewelry size
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boxes, if not bigger. But I do a lot of earrings.
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medallions, other different wearable type stuff
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with all different designs. I've done a few different
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sports teams, some framed pieces, you know, the
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49ers football or the Toronto Maple Leafs or
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other different Blue Jays. I did a really cool
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Blue Jays medallion. I've raffled it off. And
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the winner actually, she wore it to the World
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Series games just this past season, which is
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kind of cool that, like, she's taking a selfie
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at the Rogers Center wearing my quill work. at
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the World Series. That's so cool. That's pretty
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cool. They didn't win, so maybe it wasn't good
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luck, but it's just neat to see it like out in
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the wild. Yeah. There's been a couple of pieces,
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one in particular I'm thinking of that was a
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little more, call it meaningful. There's a commission
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piece for a friend and he wanted a medallion
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of his clan animal. So he was sturgeon clan to
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fish and he gave me his spirit. colors, five
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different colors. So in the bead work, I alternated,
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you know, the purple, the white, the yellow,
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like those colors in the pattern. So that was
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very personal to him. And then that one is a
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piece that I was gifted some salt cured lake
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trout, fish skin. And it was the consistency
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of like leather, like hard, hard leather. So
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it was workable for me as the backing. So I coiled
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the sturgeon on the front. edged it with his
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spirit colors and beads, and I backed it with
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the lake trout. So while it wasn't sturgeon skin,
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but it was fish. So he's fish clan with the medallion
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backed with fish skin that would sit on his breast.
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So I told him about it, that I wanted to do that.
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And he's like, that's, I've never seen that.
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Like, that's amazing. Like, yeah, well, it's
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cool. Like that's you, right? That's your people,
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that's your clan. So he was... beyond excited
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to get that and I was really happy to create
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that form. Is there anything in particular that
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drew you to quill work over other forms of artistry
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for you? Yes and no. I think I'm not much of
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a painter or illustrator, drawer, graphic artist
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or anything like that. I've tried beading and
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I do use beads in in some of my work, but I find
16:48
them very frustrating and I'm not very good at
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it. It was when I picked up the quills and just
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that natural, like riding a bike that you've
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never ridden before, it just clicked. And so
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that was one reason is I found it easy and not
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a lot of people quill. In the community, you
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can probably count on two hands or less the amount
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of active quill workers. And we're a community
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of almost 2 ,200 people. And even on social media
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and other places, you see a lot of prolific painters,
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woodland style artists, a lot of different other
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beaters, but there's not a lot of Quillers. So
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part of me taking out Quillen by Dylan and the
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social media presence I have is also just for
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sharing that knowledge and creating those resources
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that I wish I had when I started. So it's kind
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of like what drives me still today is keeping
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the art form going and knowing. I couldn't ask
17:43
my grandma, but hopefully if I have grandkids
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one day, they'll be able to ask me and three
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men that broken chain. I think super important.
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I'm hopeful to have, I guess, a picture book,
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a children's story about quilling, specifically
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kind of the first steps of harvesting following
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a young Anishinaabe boy gathering those materials
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for his note, miss his grandma. I have a dream
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too of making like a coffee table book. like
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a thick, nice glossy, very high quality pictures
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of quill work from all over. And even interviewing
18:17
and asking other people in the community. Cause
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there's, there's lots of old stories of people
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remembering, oh yeah, my great, great, whatever
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used to quill or my aunt used to do this. And
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I remember them sitting around talking in the
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language, laughing and working on their quote.
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Like those cool stories that just need to be
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shared. It's like I didn't start quilling until
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I was 27 years old. My son, Henry, he's 19 months
18:41
old. As soon as he's capable and able, if he
18:44
wants to, he can grow up. So when he's four,
18:47
five, six, he'll have a 20 year head start on
18:49
me, which is crazy to think about. But just having
18:54
those resources and showing the kids and going
18:56
to the classroom next month. When I went to school
19:00
in Ramah, we never learned about that. We didn't
19:03
have anyone come in and show us. It was just
19:06
such a foreign concept of something so intimately
19:09
our culture that it was so no one knew how to
19:14
get it. And now that we have some opportunities
19:17
to kind of push through and fix that. Um, cause
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it was for many reasons taken away and broken.
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I think that's a huge part of what I want to
19:25
just tell people is it's okay to try. It's okay
19:28
to mess up. You could try quilling and hate it.
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And a lot of people do because it's very frustrating
19:33
and time consuming. You have to be very particular
19:35
and patient with it. But I find it almost meditative
19:38
and healing working with those materials, thinking
19:41
of my grandma and just pushing the art form.
19:46
And then, you know, if I get a commission piece
19:48
here or there, that only just helps, you know,
19:50
fund buying more, more dye or other different
19:54
beads and stuff, right? So to me, it's not a
19:57
business. It's more just an extension of. of
19:59
what I like to do as a hobby. But yeah, it's,
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like I mentioned, there's only half a dozen Quillers
20:05
left in our community. And to Quill, you need
20:09
good hands, you need good eyesight. So as you
20:12
get older, it's something that you just can't
20:13
do anymore. So I'm going to do it for as long
20:16
as I can and try to teach as many people as I
20:19
can go and create resources. And a legacy is
20:23
kind of a big word to say, but create that history
20:26
of Ram is known for painters. baseball players
20:30
and musicians, then I want it to be known for
20:32
Quillers again. I appreciate the insight on the
20:38
history of Quill work, the ties to the community
20:41
and culture, the erasure of it over time. I'm
20:45
inspired by Dylan's drive to educate others and
20:48
continue to build resources for generations to
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come. I can't wait to see where he takes the
20:53
craft from here. Thank you for listening to the
20:57
entire episode. All the links and info you heard
20:59
in this conversation will be featured in the
21:01
show notes on our website. If you'd like to know
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