Caroline Blechert

Caroline Blechert is an Inuvialuk artist from Yellowknife, NT who creates intricately beaded, geometric works under the name Creations for Continuity. In 2003, at the age of 17, Blechert was awarded the Best Emerging Artist Award and the Best Jewellery Artist Award the following year at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT. She learned to bead at a young age and now merges contemporary design with these inspirations from her roots to produce unique works [1]. “Respecting tradition and keeping it alive through art drives my creative process,” she explains. “I am also intrigued and inspired by the evolution within the art of aboriginal communities when exposed to new materials and techniques.” [2] Pieces such as her Ookpik necklace combine porcupine quills with beads, which she uses to create triangular shapes that centre around a circular piece. The beads are delicately woven together to create geometric forms that combines traditional materials and techniques with a modern design aesthetic. Recently, she released a new series of designs, Creations for Sedna, inspired by the half fish half human goddess of the sea.

More recently, Blechert has expanded her practice to include photography. This aspect of her work has evolved through the blog Tea & Bannock, which she considers a way “to express thoughts and culture and identity while living in an urban environment.”[3]. Other Indigenous photographers, artists and writers contribute to the blog engaging in dialogue with one another across the platform. Blechert was featured in the Winter 2016 issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly as one of "six photographers to watch."