I carved a 4 foot high totem pole in 4 days

larry merlau said:

ok frank, where was copper oxide and iron oxide found naturally? and how does gray ash and salmon eggs make white? not doubting you just dont see it coming out that way.. all salmon eggs i have seen are yellow to orange.

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The oxides occur where copper and iron are exposed to the elements and both metals were found at or near the surface of the earth on the north-west cosat of North America. With a really hot fire, the ash is closer to white than to gray. This summer, my grandson Ethan and I mixed (not by chewing ) some pike eggs and white ash and the mixture was not unlike white paint.

That's really cool Frank. Is that going to decorate the cabin on Pellow Island?

Gives me a new respect for the carving that goes into a totem pole.
Well done, I like.
I also dig the drummers.

Two slight modifications:

A while after bringing the totem pole home, I made a change in order to extend Raven's eyebrows a bit on either side, and this serves to somewhat merge Loon and Raven fuzzying up the dividing line between the two.


I also reversed some of the colouring on the Ravn's wings:



Because the loon is my own, somewhat non-traditional addition I wasn't completely happy with the way in which I had integrated it into the pole and this kept nagging me. Now, with these changes, I am happy.

The pole has been moved to Pellow's Island:

Here are a couple of photos of the pole in it's new home:



The Haida traditionally place their poles at the spot where visitors arrive. This is the spot where visitors usually arrive at our island.

The pole is sitting on a large stump of a tree that came down many years ago.

It is possible to remove the pole from the stump and place it inside for the winter. Certainly, this is not the traditional thing to do, but I will do it anyway.

Frank, I see the need for an outhouse style building over the totem pole. Maybe swing the door wide open when guests arrive.

Jonathan Shively said:

Hooray!!!!!! Frank, thanks ever so much for taking us along on this journey of yours! I have learned a lot through your thread on totem poles. It looks wonderful. I am amazed and humbled by carvers and all craftsman, this forum provides me the opportunity to witness so many projects that otherwise I would never know existed. Thank you Frank, now the question, what's next?

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Good question. The answer is in the thread: http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25147