Carving the Totem Pole

16 August 2010

Progress!! A brilliant day -at long last.  Progress has been made on the trial piece of wood.  Today I began working on the trial Totem Pole getting used to working with the new set of chisels and Arbitech wood carving tool.  It progressed well and I am happy with the result and now feel confident to continue with the real totem pole.  With 3 weeks ahead of me and a diary clear of any workshops (and only a short holiday) I should be able to forge ahead.

Below are a couple of photos of the wolf cub trial carving.  They are pretty roughly done and only partly finished with no careful sanding down, etc.  They have been done for me to try out the new equipment rather than to show what the finished Totem will look like – we have the clay maquette for that.

17August 2010

Drove down the A1 past Nottingham to the saw mill to collect my nice piece of air dried French Oak timber.  Helpful company as they allowed me to select the best railway sleeper I could find – and helped me lift it onto the roof bars.  Drove back and took it direct to my studio where once again I was fortunate enough to find a group of helpful lads who lifted it off the roof bars onto my waiting trolley.  Couldn’t have done it on my own – too heavy! 

18 August 2010

Began preparing the timber for carving.  First job was to see if the design would fit as is because the dimensions are slightly different to that of the scale model.  As luck would have it the slightly different dimensions means I had to re-jig the design a little.  Still have all the elements we agreed on but in a different layout.  The new layout also takes into consideration the ‘nots’ and splits that are inherent in the timber that I have to work with – that’s just in the nature of working with a ‘live’ material that has a mind of its own!!

Prepared the final design layout on paper (see photo below).  I took out the big St Andrews cross and will now put this design in the woggle.  I have also moved the dates to sit vertically on either side of the scarf and will only be carving 1 boot at the bottom instead of a pair.  All changes neccessary because the dimensions of the timber have changed slightly. Still looks good though – perhaps even better?

Also started shaping the timber to make it rounded instead of square – the groundwork before I start carving out the basic forms in the timber.  That’s the next job.

23 August 2010

Progressing well.  See photos below.  Been hard at work all week and I think the results at the end of today really show how much progress has been made.  Seems like slow progress but it takes a lot of hammering to get this far.  Actually quite theraputic when I manage to get into a rhythm. I’m enjoying this project – now that its finally off the ground! – so  I hope everyone enjoys the end result too.

24 August 2010

I think the design is coming on really well. Below is a photo of todays effort. All the elements have now been defined and tomorrow I will start reworking the designs making lines deeper and more prominant and adding in more detail. 

27 August 2010

Almost there – just the finishing still to do.  This seems to take the longest to do and the most monotonous.  Oh well, never mind – the end is in sight. Can’t wait to see it in situ in front of the building.  I know it’ll look smaller when placed outside – all artwork does. But it should look really smart.  Below are up to date photos of my progress.

21 September 2010

After waiting for a week for a day of decent weather so we could install the Totem Pole – the day finally arrived.  With support from a colleague we hoisted the totem onto my roof rack and transported it from my studio to Rainsough.  Installation went smoorthly and it was fully and securely installed by lunchtime.

I think it looks really good in front of the building – I just hope everyone else likes it too.

Many thanks to Judith and Kath for all their help, as well as the leaders, and of course the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts for their ideas and enthusiasm they put into generating the original ideas for the Totem Pole.