Library children perform "Mitten" folktale

Children participating in Cloquet Community Education's afterschool program came to the Library to hear "The Mitten." The children also picked parts from the story and acted out a play. Three children became narrators, while others chose to be the animals: mole, rabbit, hedgehog, owl, fox, badger, bear, and mouse. Afterward, the kids colored their own mittens and went on a "mitten" hunt in the Library. Everyone who found the hidden mitten received a prize. Following the program, parents joined their children to look for books.

Artist to share the art of birch bark weaving

Join us on Saturday February 7 at 10 a.m. at the Cloquet Public Library, for a presentation on the art of birch bark weaving by John Zasada of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Zasada is a retired forester turned artist. He started making things out of birch bark more than 10 years ago, inspired by a class he took from Charlie Mayo at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais. Now he teaches his own classes.

Zasada works in a traditional style used by Finns, Swedes, and Russians. "When you split bark before weaving, what you're splitting off is an annual growth layer of wood. You are stripping away - touching and feeling - the life and history of this tree." quoted by John Zasada in the book Celebrating Birch.