Spindle Whorl

Object: spindle whorls

Use: spinning wool

Era: collected 1912

Collector: C.F. Newcombe

Materials: maple wood

Size/ Dimensions: 21.6 centimetres (diameter)

Collection site: Nanaimo

Current Location/Museum: Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada

Accession Number: 2388a, 2389

Display Technique: storage

Condition: excellent

A spindle is a tool used to turn fibres into wool by joining them into a continuous thread. A long stick or shaft is inserted through the centre of a round disc, called a whorl, which is flat on one side and raised or convex on the other. Spindles are usually made of wood, although some smaller whorls were once crafted from stone in communities north of the Snuneymuxw Territory. Maple is often used, as its weight and grain make it suitable for carving and for the work of spinning.

Snuneymuxw spindle whorls are carved with designs that have meaning for the owners or reflect family stories that are passed on when the whorls are given to new generations of spinners. Some of the images on the whorls are personal, such as the simple outlines of hands in whorl 2388a. Both hands are left hands and one has only four fingers. Whorl 2389 is pierced with cut-outs that point in four different directions.

Spindle whorl designs fashioned by experienced carvers can be even more intricate. These whorls use relief carving to create designs with raised and incised or cut areas of wood on the side that faces the spinner. The carvings may include mythical creatures or representations of animals of the Pacific coast such as otters and salmon. The round shape of the whorl gives artists the opportunity to bend their carvings around the circle - a fish might chase its own tail or the opening for the spindle shaft might become the mouth of a man. The spinning motion of the whorl makes these figures appear to move and transform.