If you watched the TEDxYellowknifeWomen talks on Sunday, you may have noticed an interesting piece decorating the right side of the stage.
That piece was designed and created in just four days by local florist Sarah Kalnay-Watson, owner of Let Me Knot, and had to adhere to specific TEDx guidelines for stage pieces.
December 9, 2018.
A custom piece by Sarah Kalnay-Watson, owner of Let Me Knot, decorated the stage at TEDxYellowknifeWomen.
Kalnay-Watson used locally sourced materials like birch bark, duck wings and moss to reflect the culture of Yellowknife.
“Since I only had a couple days to make it I didn’t go full-blown stage crazy,” said Kalnay-Watson.
“I thought I’d do a piece on the cultural area of Yellowknife,” she said.
Last Wednesday, Kalnay-Watson put out a call on social media, asking people what symbols come to mind when they think of Yellowknife. She received a range of responses including dog sledding, the drummers in Somba K’e Park, the aurora borealis, and local wildlife.
“So I pulled in pieces of birch, wrapped them in red ribbon to make them look like the Dene drum but still pulling in the TEDx red colour,” said Kalnay-Watson.
“Then I incorporated local duck wings that were hunted by a local female hunter, so it goes with the women theme. Then there’s caribou antlers, moss, lots of elements from here that I was able to pull together from Yellowknife and the surrounding area. So it’s a Yellowknife piece, made from Yellowknife elements.”
On Thursday she started drawing and on Friday she built the piece to have it ready for the Sunday event, and final touches like moss were added on site.
Kalnay-Watson subscribes to TED talks and said she loves that this event came to Yellowknife.
“I think it’s great that we have a bunch of amazing women that are coming to talk, because there’s lots of knowledge here in Yellowknife to share.”