have wings on and i am flying on carving

Back to Carving on the Totem

  

          If all goes well I should be done with 98 per cent of the carving, leaving only touch ups to do. Currently I have only to finish the backside of the wings with feathers similar to the front making them appear identical regardless of viewing side and iconic and primitive in nature, much the same as primitives would carve with the tools of the time.  Detail on the totem as a whole is probably over done as compared to using tools available to early tribesman, but that is what I do personally as an artist, in the end the totem was never meant to be an exact duplicate of an original totem, instead my interpretation of one according to what I studied.

        I finished taking the bark off the back side of the wings and finished doing most of the carving and notching of the totem, detailing all I can on the main part of the totem. I tried the wings on for fit, and everything looks good so far. Just need to dowel and glue the wings to the main part of the totem and finish sanding the back and doing any more touch up I have to do before turning the totem back over and finish carving and sanding the front side.  

       At the point I finish all the sanding and touch up with the chainsaw I will stand it up alongside my deck, alongside the carving shed and check it over for aesthetic changes from being in a vertical versus horizontal position and see if any changes will be necessary to compliment the overall appearance of the carving. Then I plan on painting the carving. Just kind of giving everyone a heads up as to where I am headed with all of this. Again I am 80 per cent done with the carving and my total time is at 14 hours. At 16 hours my hourly wage will drop below the 100 dollar per hour mark if I was going to try and sell this. I imagine I have over 6 hours’ time left in finishing the carving. My target date is the 20^th of September, when I will have my potlatch party. This is where anyone who desires may come and visit the carving and bless it on its next spiritual journey. That doesn’t mean showing up and taking a leak on it, or bashing it with bottles. Your thoughts should come from within your soul, and remain in your own soul as I could care less as it is done, and I am not going to change anything, or care what others think.  I have done the best I could, and when you have done that, that is about all you can do.