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.