It is said in the Oriental culture, if you fold a thousand cranes, you’ll live forever.
So I did a thousand and ten.
Ira Blount

At 89 years old, award-winning, craft artist Ira Blount lives a modest life in Fort Chaplain Apartments on Benning Road. But behind his door lies a treasure of handmade quilts, baskets, cross-stitched wall-hangings, walking sticks, wood and leather carvings, calligraphy, origami, and elaborate paper cuttings that hearken back to the time before computers, factories, and discount superstores.

His crafts have been exhibited in numerous locations, including the Anacostia Community Museum, Children’s National Medical Center, and Benning and Martin Luther King libraries, and have won awards from local county fairs, churches, and schools. This month, he will add the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative’s annual Nguzo Saba award to his list of accolades.

The Arts Collaborative organized the Nguzo Saba awards in February 2007 to recognize community members who embody the seven principles of Kwanzaa. “When we looked at Mr. Blount’s life, we felt that he had demonstrated the faith, creativity, cooperative economics, sense of unity, all the things inside of him that the seven principles are about,” says Wanda Aikens, acting executive director of the Arts Collaborative.

Blount’s interest in crafts started during his childhood in Memphis, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, and his family could barely afford to pay for housing and food, much less for art supplies. But he maintained his interest in “making stuff” throughout his life, taking to heart the Shaker proverb: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Following his military service during World War II, Blount moved to Washington, DC. As an adult, he turned back to his childhood love of hand crafts, which he says is a form of therapy for him. “Peace of mind comes to me through making things with my hands,” is one of his mottoes.

Primarily self-taught, he has an extensive knowledge of techniques and cultural traditions from many time periods and regions, including Appalachian basketry, Ndebele beadwork, and colonial-era tin punching and wheat weaving. Over the years, he expanded his abilities through classes offered by local art groups and community organizations. He is affiliated with numerous craft societies, including Daughters of Dorcas and Sons (a DC area quilting group), the Basket Bunch, and the Historical Society of Early American Decorations.

His interest in quilting began when he saw a pattern that reminded him of his mother. A seamstress by day, she often pieced together quilts to keep her family warm. Ignoring stereotypes about sewing being women’s work, he decided to try the craft himself. He says, “I think God created man and woman in their form strictly for procreation and to replenish the earth. After that, I think everything else is fair game.”

Despite modern advances in technology, Blount prefers to create quilts and other crafts by hand. “So many skills that we’ve had down through the ages, we’re losing because of modern conveniences,” he laments. He also feels strongly about the power of hand crafts to help others in our community, saying, “I’ve seen big changes in people when they create something on their own.”

Blount has led workshops for youth, adults, and senior citizens throughout the area. To honor the new millennium, Blount helped members of his church, Asbury United Methodist, to create the “Jacob’s Ladder” quilt, which combines Kente cloth, symbols of United Methodism, and images of local church history. He is also a founding member of Asbury’s hand bell choir.

Despite experiencing some of the physical ailments that come with age, Blount refuses to dwell on what he can’t do. His attitude is summed up by a motto he reprinted in calligraphy: “You don’t stop creating because you grow old. You grow old because you stop creating.”