Photo by Michael Greenlar.
Alf makes handmade, wooden lacrosse sticks in the shop located on the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, New York. His father, the late Louis Jacques, Mohawk, the legendary lacrosse coach, taught Alf while he was growing up at Onondaga.
It takes a good year to make one stick.
His sticks are on permanent display at the Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. (In Syracuse, NY one of Louis Jacques' sticks in is the front display at Tully's on Erie Boulevard.)
First, he has to cut the hickory.
Then, split and carve the heads. Then they dry for a while, then Alf can steam and bend the sticks. Then they dry some more ...
The sticks are steamed and bent again and then final shaping takes place. And, of course, the sticks are netted by hand.
Alf has been an artist-in-residence at St. Marie Among the Iroquois in Liverpool, New York, and at the Iroquois Museum at Howe Cave, New York. He's almost always at the Haudenosaunee Festival at Syracuse University in early June, but not this year.
And he can be seen at the Onondaga Nation Music, Art and Cultural at Onondaga September 13 and 14 at the Ball Field on Route 11a, Onondaga Nation. (More to come)
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