Rabbit Totem following Northwest Native American Style

[BillB]

Here is my latest Native American Totem work. It is for a Handbag for my wife, Mary Ann. It will be going on a Tandy Tandem Handbag Kit #44308-00. I have included the original photo that I used to base my Rabbit Totem on as well as the Pattern I did and one of the Tooled flaps for the handbag. Mary Ann and I have decided to die the background a light brown and leave the Rabbit Totem natural. When I have the handbag completed, I will post pictures of it.

[MikeG]

Very cool! You have done a great job of capturing the essence of the rabbit in your work. Looking forward to seeing the finished project!

[Spider]

OMG you did it!!! NICE. I liked the drawing when I saw it first and now I like the leather piece. Please keep us posted on the progress of the bag.

[BillB]

I finally found time to finish this. After talking it over with Mary Ann, we decided to dye it following traditional colors. Primary lines are black, secondary areas are white or natural, third areas can be red or blue.

As I go through the process of designing the totem and then translating it to leather I am building a set of rules on how to tool it.

All primary lines are tooled with the bevel going away, except of course where they over lap, then perspective takes precedence. All secondary areas are beveled such that the bevel goes into the area. Where two secondary areas are separated by just a primary line, then both sides are beveled. This does not show up very well on this design since I was still working out some of the kinks. I am working on a Sun Totem and a Moon Totem and it has worked well so far. By the time the Primary lines and secondary areas have been beveled, the third or tertiary areas are left the the student to solve.

I want to carve a much larger version of the rabbit totem so I can do more of the internal details. I am also thinking of doing my own eagle totem of an eagle in flight.

[LarryB]

That turned out really nice. Looks great.

[CitizenKate]

That is a really neat design, Bill! I'm curious to know what the general "rules" are for making totem designs.

Kate

[Froghunter]

Nicely done! I love the looks of the Haida and Inuit artwork in leather. I put an Eagle on one end of my tool carrier and get LOTS of interst in it!

Keep up the good work!

[ETW Grumpy]

Man, that looks great! I'm glad you decided to color it. Looks much better than leaving it natural. A beautiful piece of art.

[stelmackr]

As I go through the process of designing the totem and then translating it to leather I am building a set of rules on how to tool it.

All primary lines are tooled with the bevel going away, except of course where they over lap, then perspective takes precedence. All secondary areas are beveled such that the bevel goes into the area. Where two secondary areas are separated by just a primary line, then both sides are beveled. This does not show up very well on this design since I was still working out some of the kinks. I am working on a Sun Totem and a Moon Totem and it has worked well so far. By the time the Primary lines and secondary areas have been beveled, the third or tertiary areas are left the the student to solve.

My rules might be too simplistic. All lines are "rounded" over and then dyed over with an antique dye to accentuate the line. If the line does not show up well then a brush of black dye is used to make it clearer. The rounding over of the swivel knife is done with a burnisher ( www.danielsmith.com/products~sku~143+010+003.asp ) the sharp tip follows the lines and as I drag it over the lines the edges of the swilvel knife cuts are rounded down. Here is a close-up before coloring the primary and secondary areas:

...and after coloring:

But, after I've seen your technique, I'll have to give it a try.

Bob Stelmack

[Oscar B]

nice work.

[Beaverslayer]

Very nice work Bill, I always love looking at Native work.

Ken

[BillB]

That is a really neat design, Bill! I'm curious to know what the general "rules" are for making totem designs.

Kate

Kate, There are two books that I have that do a good job an explaining the art form:

Northwest Coast Indian Art an Analsis of Form by Bill Holm, University of Washington Press. ISBN0-88894-172-2

and

Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart, University of Washington Press. ISBN0-295-95645-3

Hilary Stewart list the basic components as: Form Line, Ovoid, Inner Ovoid, U Form, Split U form, S Form. Each of these forms have a base set of rules. For example, the Ovoid in my Rabbits (Main body, Head, rear leg) are not true to form, at least in my opinion (not enough "stress" between the upper edge line and the lower edge line).

She then shows Anatomical features and then discusses structural variations. Finally she has examples of 28 Totems, explains the totem and the unique features of the totem. For example all birds of prey will have turn down (eagle, Thunderbird, Owl) and some will even be recurved (Hawk). None birds of prey will have straight beaks (Loon, Humming Bird, Raven. The feature the differentiates a Thunderbird from the Eagle is the curled ear on the Thunderbird where as the Eagle has a straight ear,

Bill Holm covers the principals of space utilization and the colors used. He also shows variations of the components.

My rules might be too simplistic. All lines are "rounded" over and then dyed over with an antique dye to accentuate the line. If the line does not show up well then a brush of black dye is used to make it clearer. The rounding over of the swivel knife is done with a burnisher ( www.danielsmith.com/products~sku~143+010+003.asp ) the sharp tip follows the lines and as I drag it over the lines the edges of the swilvel knife cuts are rounded down. Here is a close-up before coloring the primary and secondary areas:

...and after coloring:

But, after I've seen your technique, I'll have to give it a try.

Bob Stelmack

Bob,

I like your style in that it replicates the carvings found on bowls, plaques, etc.

I was trying for more of the look found on the Poles and larger carvings. I am still not happy with the way I handled the 3rd layer components, e.g. The U form with the Ovoid, as well as the fill areas along the neck and between the neck and main body. For example, the U form just below the ear (white area around the red) would have been colored black as a form line and not white as a secondary, but that would have but too much black in the final coloration. A lot of times I have found totems within totems, fish in the eagle, human in the bear, etc. Not sure what if any totem would go inside a rabbit.

For now, I am going to let this one sit for a while and then come back to it and see if I want to do another one. In the mean time I saw a wonderful picture of a bald eagle in flight that I am thinking about using as the base structure for an eagle totem.

[BillB]

Here are my latest two Totems: Sun and Moon.

I have no modified the guidelines that I had earlier in this thread. I have now combined what Bob does with what I have do. The basic guidelines go like this:

1. All Form lines are beveled away from except where form lines merge or run next to each other (Black next to Black)

2. In the case of form lines running next to each other, the separation line is enhanced with a modeling tool and edges are rounded off.

3. All White ares are beveled into.

4. Where White areas are separated by a thin black line, then both sides of the line are beveled into the white area.

5. Tool the White areas first.

I am still working out what to do with the tertiary areas and lines. My best guess is that these areas are left up to the artist to resolve depending on the totem they are working and the "Look" or "Feel" of the overall totem, e.g. use a shader, figure, or matting tool and is it textured or not (depends on if the final totem is colorized)

I don't want to have a set of guidelines that then inhibit creativity, but I do want to try and keep the Art Form but expanded it from a 2 dimension art form into a 3 dimension art from that is available on leather, similar to what the Totem Pole carvers did.

Let me know what you think.