Meet Talcon Quinn, a long-time Annual Firefly Gathering instructor currently based in Ohio. Talcon has been joining us at Firefly Gathering routinely since it was established in 2007. With over 20 years of experience in her varied skill sets, Talcon has shared classes at the Gathering ranging from hide tanning and buckskin sewing to willow wicker weaving and fertility awareness.
In this Q & A interview, Talcon shares more about her time training with teachers like Tamara Wilder and Margaret Mathewson, and what practicing and teaching these ancient skills means to her today. Read more from Talcon below, and get you passes today to join her at the Annual Firefly Gathering.
What draws you to teach at earthskills gatherings specifically?
I love teaching, I love learning, I love being outside. I love making, and I love connecting with others in this environment. Teaching is the best way for me to learn.
By showing others how to do a skill, every single time, my relationship with the skill evolves and I become more intimate with it. Taking the time to create, be by fire, and just be outdoors together in community as humans is a very primal activity that satisfies a deep part of my soul.
Why is it important for people to engage with earthskills?
I love teaching, I love learning, I love being outside. I love making, and I love connecting with others in this environment. Teaching is the best way for me to learn.
By showing others how to do a skill, every single time, my relationship with the skill evolves and I become more intimate with it. Taking the time to create, be by fire, and just be outdoors together in community as humans is a very primal activity that satisfies a deep part of my soul.
Who were the most influential people for you on this path?
I have been blessed to have many. I worked in a bead store in my small hometown growing up. I spent a lot of time around eccentric adults who told me stories of living off grid in the Marble Mountains, creating communes, living in Tipis, and birthing at home. These adults encouraged me to leave home, adventure, try wild and difficult things, and to trust myself. That blueprint at such a young age was the ticket to me finding my path.
In the early 2000’s I became very fixated on learning how to live with minimal use of fossil fuels. It started with an obsession with how I sourced my food, and quickly moved into clothing, containers, and shelter. I was living in the Pacific Northwest and attended a gathering in Oregon called Echoes in Time. I started my first buckskin there with a wonderful fella named Goode. We started the skins and he pointed out Tamara Wilder. He told me that she was the best, that if I wanted to learn, she was who I should talk to.
Soon after he pointed Tamara out, the gathering was canceled due to fire danger. My friend Scogin and I introduced ourselves to Tamara and convinced her to take us home with her to teach us how to tan. She agreed under one condition: we had to be cool with incredibly loud metal music.
Tamara took us home and introduced us to her partner at the time, Steven Edholm. The two had written a book together “Buckskin: the Ancient Art of Braintanning”. We spent two weeks there, working daily in their garden and on various projects like dry scraping a buffalo hide. It was great. We became deer friends. I have visited them numerous times since then and spent hours on the phone with Steven comparing notes on bark tanning. They both inspired me to go deep with the practice, talk to others, try things, and teach the art.
I dove into basketry soon after I met Tamara and Steven. Margaret Mathewson is an astounding weaver who lives on the west coast of Oregon. I lived with her for a solid year, and then off and on for stents of time for years after. I learned numerous styles of weaving from Margaret, but the style I became most fluent in is Wicker. Margaret was the first person I met who was ever interested in the fact that I am generationally from Appalachia. She was the first person to listen to me talk about my Aunt Blanche weaving chair seats and to explain the rich history of basketry that exists in Appalachia.
Margaret sent me, Scogin, and my former sweetheart, Jeff Black, off to our first Winter Count to teach soon after we moved to her farm in 2003. She said she wanted to start teaching other skills so it was our job to take it over. I can’t say that any of us had the skill down strong enough to teach, but between the three of us, we taught a class of over 25 people how to weave.
As far as influential people in my path to teaching buckskin sewing, I learned this skill best from the infamous Lynx Vilden. She got me to cut into my first buckskin, fearlessly encouraging me as my insides were trembling with fear that I was about to F*ck something immensely precious up. Truthfully, I can still get that feeling when cutting into skins I deeply love.
What does The Firefly Gathering in particular mean to you?
Firefly stands out to me because it is more accessible to a wider girth of people. It is also more artistic in nature than other gatherings (more music, more art). The gathering illustrates how skills can be incorporated into the everyday life of ‘average’ people. Some of my favorite memories at Firefly are arm wrestling competitions & late-night dance parties in the kitchen!
Where can readers learn more about you and your work?
For those in the Athens, Ohio area, I am offering a Willow Wicker Weaving Workshop on May 18th & 19th, a Tulip Poplar Bark Baskets Workshop on June 22, and a Three Day Brain Tanning workshop on November 29th, 30th, and December 1st. Check out my full list of workshops here.
This past year I was also blessed with the opportunity to spend some very intentional time with the art of basketry. I was awarded the Arrowmont Appalachian Craft and Culture Fellowship with which I focused not only on willow basketry but other weaving techniques and materials that I had not had the time to explore. The body of work I created during this time will be on display at the Arrowmont Gallery in downtown Knoxville June 7 – July 1st, 2024, with an exhibit on June 7th.
You can also watch my films on Youtube. Roots of Athens County weaves the oral histories of three Athens County Elders: Cecil Tabler, Charlie Bond, and Geraldine “Tootsie” Tabler, into a short documentary, and RECLAIMING shares the oral histories of sexual & reproductive wellness traditions rooted in Appalachian Ohio.
What do you think the single most important thing folks can do right now to make the world a better place?
Love.
We are delighted to have Talcon back at the Gathering, and for the breadth of skills and experience she brings to our community. Information about Talcon’s 2024 Annual Gathering classes will be available in the coming months. In the meantime, you can learn more about her on her website.
