Kestrel Update January 2011

Shaman's mask and rattle combo. The rattle is of native wild cherry, the mask alder with bone teeth and copper nose ring. Both have horse hair. The necklace was made by my friend Jim Riggs of deer toes and brain tanned leather.

Greetings Earth People! Well, 2010 is history and we have a chance to do it all over again in 2011 – perhaps this time we shall get it right. I am starting out the year pretty well, initiating work on a largish halibut bowl and getting two masks going. I have learned that the only way for me to get any carving done is to get the project started. Once I get far enough along I get inspired and finish the work. I only got a few art items made in 2010, but it is amazing to me how much joy I can get from carving. I also believe my participation in the art is critical to the quality and usefulness of the tools.

For a little while I thought the Kestrel business was sold. I have been negotiating with an Alaskan native corporation for over a year. Ultimately the deal fell through because they were unable to find folks within the tribe that were willing to take the business on. This was a disappointment to me since it seems such a perfect fit to get the business of making these Native American inspired tools into native hands. It certainly has been my privilege to be able to supply these tools to native and gringos alike. This past year once again proved Kestrel to be alive and well, sales have been robust to say the least. I am determined not to start hiring help again, but for the life of me I have no idea on how I will be able to keep up with sales continuing to rise. In any event, after nearly 30 years of this and my reaching 70 this year, I need a life and so will not be taking on rush orders. Thank you all so much for your continuing patience.

Changes and Good Deals

There are some changes you may need to be aware of. I am no longer making the Micro adze blades or adzes. I am no longer selling the Kestrel reworked Stanley Low Angle Block Plane. I have been adding a texture to the gripping area of the finished adzes I have been sending out, it's a no-extra-charge bonus. I also have been rough-shaping one side of the adze haft blanks. It serves as a model for making your haft into a very sweet tool. If I get overwhelmed with orders this extra may be discontinued. Also I have new adze literature: five well illustrated pages will help guide you through making and safely using your adze. Add the 2 pages of shaping photos and the 8 pages of templates and drawings and you get 15 pages of adze info with every adze iron or adze kit you buy. The new adze sheets are available as a PDF so you can download and print them from home. I am going to continue the info packet and DVD special at $30. Many folks have taken advantage of this special. I am revising the crooked knife sheets as well and I'll send out a note when they are done. These will be available as a PDF too, aint modern life a trip?

Books and Other Recent Work

Tlingit artist Rick Beasley has come out with a series of three books on carving and related subjects. The books are the more valuable because of the added essays on native paints and paint brushes by Kathy Miller. I am not much of a fan of step one, step two methodology when it comes to art but for many folks this works perfectly and it may be the very reason for me being so artistically retarded. It looks like the carvings done for the books were a bit rushed; Rick is capable of the most wonderful sculpture. The three books are: Tlingit Wood Carving: How to Carve a Tlingit Tray; Tlingit Wood Carving: How to Carve a Tlingit Hat; and Tlingit Wood Carving: How to Carve a Tlingit Mask. Each of the books contains the Kathy Miller essays on paints, paint brushes and making shell inlays. These books do have useful information and I am proud of Rick for doing them. These books are published by Sealaska Heritage Institute and are available from Amazon and other book sellers.

Duane Pasco, who has made many fine canoes, completed another Salish style boat this past summer and he published a small book on how he goes about such a project. This is easily the most detailed “how-to” on canoe building to date. The canoe Duane and his crew carved is flawless and beautiful like all of Pasco's work. This 53-page publication is available through Duane himself; contact him at: dpasco@earthlink.net.

Duane and his wife Betty stand proudly by the new canoe. The design is "A flock of crows" a prerogative from Betty's family. Talk about three beauties! Photo thanks go to Rich Deline

There are many great NWC artists that could publish this kind of information but as soon as you are so bold you are subjected to intense scrutiny. Testament to this fact is the dearth of this type of information. There are exceptions such as Bill Holm's Northwest Coast Native Art, the Rosetta stone of Northern Formline design. And there are papers given out at workshops and brief descriptions in various publications. Basically this art is still learned for the most part by the study of the work of the old (and largely anonymous) masters found in the many books of photographs and seen in the museum pieces found at almost every major museum. Trying your hand at reproducing a masterpiece is a bit like taking an apprenticeship with a master. It is the way most NWC artists learned. I still hope that as our current masters age they will make an attempt to pass on what they know. For the very reason they all learned "on the seat of their pants" by trial and error, choosing inspiration from their peers and by personal invention they all have unique and valuable knowledge to share. Some artists are very secretive about their methods and no doubt that has value but I believe that by sharing knowledge we all grow and the art benefits.

And while we are talking about bold instructor types, I need to mention Shaun Peterson. Shaun is a young Salish artist who is a real talent. His art and vigor has brought him much deserved attention and success. For his discussion of Salish art watch this Youtube video. His web site is at: qwalsiusstudios.com

And here is one more web site you may wish to check out johnchudson.com, on this site you'll find a very valuable demonstration of carving a mask, and a beauty to boot. This may be the best yet instruction for doing a portrait mask. The man is Tsimsian artist John Hudson from Metlakatla Alaska. John is master carver Jack Hudson's son. When I went looking just now for John's web site the blog on which he had the mask carving is not posted, what that may mean is anyone's guess but give it a try and you can always email him and ask.

My friend Will Dixon came out with a little book of his carvings called Carving Stories. Check it out here at Blurb.com: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1736059. My favorite piece is a wonderful carving of a mother humpback whale and calf. It was carved as a single piece and couldn't be better.

Speaking about ideas and all of that, on the mask and rattle above I used heat shrink tubing to attach the bundles of hair. In the R. Beasley mask book Rick shows the more traditional technique of using a small forked dowel to capture and hold the hair in.

In the photo to the left you see the hair bundles, then the tubing cut to length (1/2") the next bundle shows how I doubled over the hair around a piece of thin cordage and used the cord to pull the hair into the tube. Then holding onto the hair you pull out the bit of doubled over hair. On the right you see a heat gun and hair bundles after shrinking the tubing then the trimmed bundles. I follow this up with a few drops of super glue on the end of the buddle and then glue it into holes in the mask. I heard about doing this from someone so it is not my invention. I don't know if this method is an improvement over more traditional methods, but it is fast and easy and very secure.

Parting Thoughts

OK, I'd better finish this up but I just can't resist showing some wonderful work from places other than the Northwest coast. These are some current favorites. I may have sent these out to a few of you but they are worthy of another look. These first photos are from one of my old catalogs and were taken by Adrienne Rice Adams on the campus of Stanford University. The college hired a group of carvers from Irian Jaya and they did a whole series of poles. What a collection of work they got! The logs are hardwood. The carvers were the real deal: putting menstrual blood under the shells, etc.

Then there is this fabulous chief's club (U-U) from the Marquesas. This piece is so fine it gives me the shivers. What were the tools used? And is this not a formline carving at least from the T down? Wow!! I wish I could show you more and bigger photos of these things. This piece belongs to Collector Larry Woolworth.

Chiefs Club ( U-U) from Marquesas, collection Larry Woolworth

And here are photos from a five day backpack down the Paria River in April. My son Raven and his partner Kelly went along. Kelly was five months pregnant and a real trooper. They brought their dog Sushi. Now they have a boy Wren Amor! Raven has an opening to show his art glass at Stonington Gallery in Seattle February 3rd.

I am continuing to work on the tool book; finding time is the trick. The writing is fun but not fast. Let me tell you this semi-retirement has me as busy as I have ever been. The little farm is undergoing a renaissance, this spring we plan to add onto the greenhouse. As times keep changing we feel more and more thankful to be “on the land” and producing much of our own beautiful organic food. As I write this it is still January so I want to wish us all a wonderful new year. The big corporations have not given up on their plan to get the masses to consume ourselves out of a good planet. War of all kinds (terrorists, drugs, ideology, religion, territory) is still our and the worlds way of “solving problems;” by now we should be able to see the worlds resources are too valuable to waste them in war (the worlds resources include our and their children). What a pity! Well, as sure as it is winter, it will be spring again.

Thank you all for being so sweet and being willing to put up with my un-business like behavior. Plentiful Blessings to you all!

—Gregg