Ready as I am going to get

So, no copper dagger. Just ran out of time. The blade is finished, but the handle requires too much work to finish at the show. Oh well.
The dragonfly sun mask is ready to be painted, but I will do that at the show. Thanks to Bayley and Channing for helping me sand!
The many beaked Hamatsa raven is painted. All it requires is a little touch up, and the hair and cedar bark. Oh yeah, and the little skulls dangling. I will carve those up at the show, out of alder probably, and attach them to the hair.


No turtle bowl. Oh well, I will just do that with the dagger when I get home.
Instead of the turtle bowl, I will be doing a panel sculpture of Thunderbird attacking lunch, in this case a killer whale, while the sun looks on. I will be using a technique by one of my favorite deceased artists, and a good friend of my Uncle's, Lelooska. He did a fantastic small sculpture about 15 years ago called "Puffins on a Rock." I am going to copy his use of wavy water in that piece, to an extent.

with white paint.

Notice the sad, neglected Colnago.

1 day left

And I have a hell of a lot of painting to do.

Bird, assembled, pre-paint:




Dragonfly sun mask, partially sanded:




Probably another 12 hours to go.

Progress, but...

I only have 4 days of carving and one day of painting to go. So why am I typing this instead of working feverishly? Because that's how I roll. Let's see... Here is what I still need to do:

For Hamatsa many beaked raven:
1. sand and surface- 4 hours
2. pin and install rope pulls for all moving beaks- 4 hours
3. paint- 4 hours
4. Hair and cedar bark- 2 hours
14 hours minimum!


For Dragonfly sun:
1. cut out and install 12 to 16 pieces of abalone shell- 4 hours
2. finish carving main head- 2 hours
3. finish carving backboard- 4 hours
4. sand and surface- 2 hours
5. paint- 3 hours
15 hours minimum! GAAHH!
Bad cellphone pic of offending party in process:


For copper dagger:
1. cut out and install 3 abalone inlays- 2 hours
2. finish carving head- 4 hours
3. surface and finish head- 2 hours
4. assemble blade, head, handle- 2 hours
11 hours!

Turtle bowl: I am going to work on and finish this piece at the show, so all I need to do is get it prepped.
1. shape bowl- 1 hr
2. fit pins for tail and head- 2 hrs
3 hrs.

grand total work time: 43 hours.
I will be lucky to finish. I need to sleep and work full time in there somewhere.

Big Bird (in progress)

It has six beaks, 5 of which are articulated. The main beak and the top beak will operate together, while the two rear and the bottom beaks will work together on a separate drawstring. I am seriously debating having the two small birds face forward, flanking the larger top bird, face the top bird to the rear, and make a crooked beak to replace it facing forward.... if that makes any sense. In this picture you can only just see the head of one of the smaller birds facing towards the rear.
The main bird will also have ears. If you have never seen a mask like this that probably sounds odd, but trust me it works. I can't get my hands on any good cedar bark so I will probably have to use horse hair, rope and raffia to finish it off.
The top bird will probably also have his own set of ears. I am concerned the lower beak might be a little overpoweringly large, but what the hell. The little guy sitting in front is actually the main bird's tongue.

I have also decided what I will work on during the show: A loggerhead tortoise bowl with a lid. The lid will have hitchhikers, perhaps dogfish woman and an octopus.

After this show, I plan one more mostly N.W. Coast style piece. It is something I have been wanting to do for a while. It is a very large sun mask, about six feet in diameter. It will be amusing. I don't want to give it away just yet. It is not traditional, but it still fits the N.W. Coast "playbook" for lack of a better term. After that, I plan to do a couple surreal/abstract pieces.