Whittling and Woodcarving by E. J. Tangerman

Author:E. J. Tangerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486137339
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

FIG. 216 A totem pole to try, including the color key. Eyes and features are outlined in black. Figures, in order from base, are rabbit, wolf, frog, and thunder god for totem. At right are several examples of ceremonial masks that also use the totem. Side views are shown at lower left of each. That at top has a hinged lower jaw. Masks are all wood, painted in symbolic colors. Often, eyes and jaws move, hair is grass. Sketched at Field Museum of Nat. Hist., Chicago

Today, we see totem poles here and there all over the country, for Boy Scouts are carving them to symbolize the achievements of their troops. Some are shown in Fig. 217. Largest in the world is the totem pole dedicated to soldiers of the Confederacy at Gainesville, Ga.

To make a totem, select a pole of straight and enduring wood (see Chap. I). Decide what story you want to tell, or lay out your pole to tell one of the stories pictured here. If your pole is a tree trunk, the stub limbs may be incorporated in your design as ears, wings, arms, or legs, although most Indian totem-pole figures have arms and legs drawn up close to the body.

Lay out the design on the unbarked trunk or clean face of the pole (a discarded section of telephone pole will do very nicely, if it isn’t split too much); then, with saw and ultra-sharp hand ax, cut away the wood to the outlines of your sketch. Carpenter’s chisels and gouges will help in carving hollows and shaping internal details, feather outlines, teeth, etc. With the chisel and mallet you can make sockets for projecting parts—wings, arm beaks, tails (poles with projections are shown in Fig. 217).

Put in details with knife or woodcarving chisels (see Chap. XVII). Then sandpaper, shellac, or varnish over knots or resinous spots, and paint as you will. Indians depicted things in their natural colors, and also used these color symbolisms: green for growing things and earth (meaning hope, growth); blue for water and sky (meaning sincerity, happiness); white also for sky and snow (meaning peace, death); black for outlining and basic parts (meaning power); red for animal tongues, bird feathers, etc. (meaning war, blood, bravery), yellow for sun and light.

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