NA Totems and Totem Poles in Leather

[BillB]

I had posted some of these right before the crash. This is a collection of my experimentation in doing Native American (Northwestern US and Western Canada) Totems and Totem Poles in leather. Carving leather is very similar to carving wood. While assisting on the totem pole in the color picture, I realized that this style of art would transfer over to leather carving. As always, comments and or suggestions are appreciated.

Totem_Pole_pat.bmp

Totem_Pole_pat.bmp

Edited March 2, 2008 by Johanna
reduced pic sizes

[Tina]

Hi,

I like these Native American desigs, colorful and very decorative. Hope to see the tooled ones in full color when they are done:-)

[rdb]

I think they all look terrific.

I used to do pottery, and saw a lot of Native American design work. It's refreshing to see it on leather. Great job

[Beaverslayer]

Very good work and detail. The Totem Poles I like very much, and they all are inspiring.

Ken

[stelmackr]

Bill,

I too have experimented with Northwest Coastal American Indian art work on leather. I would like to know what sources you used for the designs. And here are some of my work:

Bob Stelmack

Editor, RawHide Gazette

www.pslac.org

Edited March 2, 2008 by Johanna
reduced pic sizes

[Pip]

Ive got a book of signs ansd symbols at home I will get the isbn for you. It is round the world stuff but a constant companion in my to hand book pile.

[MikeG]

Love the designs - I especially like the fish, as that is a local theme. The colors on all these look right at home on the leather, too.

Stelmackr, on items like your eagle, do you do any tooling, or do you just swivel knife the lines and then color?

Pip, I, too would like the ISBN. As I do searches for this type of art I find it fascinating that the Caribbean and Polynesian art is so similar to the NA Indian. I guess they got out a lot more than I seem to these days!

[Pip]

not sure about carribean stuff but it covers just about every where so could be.

[stelmackr]

Stelmackr, on items like your eagle, do you do any tooling, or do you just swivel knife the lines and then color?

Swivel knife cuts, then a little rounding of the cuts so they aren't sharp. The same thing you do to other types of figure carving. Then I antique dye the whole thing (saddle tan, I think) and then brush the black and red spirit dye on. The final finish is Kiwi neutral shoe wax.

Hope this helps.

Bob Stelmack

Editor, RawHide Gazette

www.pslac.org

[BillB]

Bob,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I was busy doing projects around the house (new flooring). I have a collection of pictures from Camp Kooch-i-ching in International Falls Minnesota. The camp is based on Indian Culture and Tradition. This pictures are of totems, totem poles and shield designs. In addition I use the following books as reference material:

Native American Art, David W Penny and George C Longfish, Hugh Lauter Leven Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-88363-479-1

American Indian Design and Decoration, Le Roy H. Appleton, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN: 0-486-22704-9

North American Indian Designs for Artist and Craftspeople, Eva Wilson, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN: 0-486-25341-4

Traditional Indian Bead & Leather Crafts, Monte Smith & Michele VanSickle, Eagle's View Publishing, ISBN: 0-943604-14-1

Ojibwa Crafts, Carrie A Lyford, R Schneider Publisher, ISBN:0-936984-01-5

Craft Manual of Northwest Indian Beading, George M White, ISBN: 1-884693-01-6

Northwest Coast Indian Art, An Analysis of Form, Bill Holm, University of Washington Press, ISBN:0-295-95102-8

Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast, Hilary Stewart, University of Washington Press, ISBN: 0-295-95645-3

Looking at Totem Poles, Hilary Stewart, University of Washington Press, ISBN: 0-295-97259-9

Totem Poles - An Illustrated Guide, Marjorie M. Halpin, UBC Press, ISBN: 0-7748-0141-7

Robes of Power - Totem Poles on Cloth, Doreen Jensen and Polly Sargent, UBC Press. ISBN: 0-7748-0264-2

Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Edward Malin, Timber Press, ISBN: 0-88192-295-1

Seattles's Totem Poles, Viola Garfield, Thristle Press, ISBN: 0-9621935-4-2

I hope this helps.