Net a Mason Jar Saturday

Netted mason jars. Via Baranov Museum

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

If you’re a Kodiak resident, you probably own at least one mason jar. Curator of education at the Baranov Museum, Jill Lipka, says a lot of people get preserves as gifts or can their food themselves.

“I think that if you went into any random home in Kodiak, you would always find mason jars, empty or full, I think because people don’t want to get rid of them. So they’re always looking for things to put in them, or they’re always finding things to put into them. Be it beach treasures or sea glass, random things in the kitchen, maybe instead of a zip-lock bag, you just put it in a canning jar and put it in the fridge. And there’s even people who use the canning jars as their drinkware.”

You may have also noticed that rope weaving is a popular craft that stores sell in the form of wall hangings or carpets. Well, the Baranov Museum wants to help you combine these two Kodiak Island favorites. Lipka will lead a workshop this weekend in how to knot a net around your mason jar.

“Net-mending in a common thing. If you go down to Pier II on any given day, you’ll see people mending nets. It’s something that has to be done. So, taking those two things and just combining them into a nice decorator item that 8 year olds and up in theory would be able to do. So we’re not using gauges and needles or shuttles or anything like that. You can use yarn, twine, jute, any kind of material that is twineable.”

Lipka says the walk-in event will take place this Saturday between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. She suggests you bring a round-shouldered mason jar, although they do have some spare supplies on hand. For more information, call the museum at 486-5920.