unnecessary beauty

Wild Geese Bentwood Box

Categories: Personal

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This is a project I started during the 2002-2003 school year and just now had the opportunity to finish.  It was a gift to my mother.

This is a bentwood box which is a traditional kind of Tlingit art.  Bentwood boxes are exactly what they sound like.  The sides are made of a single piece of cedar that is scored, steamed, and then bent into the a rectangular box.  The bottom and lid are then made out of separate pieces.  I took pictures from a variety of angles so you can see the seam where the two ends of the cedar were joined together.  This is only the second box of this type I have ever made and it isn’t perfect by far.

The wild geese on the sides were a request from my mother.  They are not even remotely in the style that a traditional decoration for a box of this type would be in.  However, it was a gift, my mother wanted wild geese so she got them.  The design was painted on using acrylic paint which is what most Tlingits use now that it is available. 

To finish of the wood I simply rubbed some linseed oil into it after the paint had dried.

You may want to check out my other much more traditional Turtle Spirit bentwood box also.

Flower Cross Pendant

Categories: Personal

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A Cross Pendant I designed.

It is made of White Gold and included a small Diamond.  The design was my creation; a friend of my family who owns a jewelry business carried out the design.

Turtle Spirit Bentwood Box

Categories: Personal

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A bentwood box I built, designed, and carved during the summer of 2001.

It was my first try at something like this but I was pleased with the result. The design on the lid is of my own creation. Turtles are not a traditional topic for Southeast Alaskan native cultural art. However, a turtle seemed fitting as I am a Turtle Mt. Ojibwa.

The box consists of red and yellow ceder. The design was painted using acrylics. And the wood was polished using linseed oil. I was taught box building by a Tlinget Artist in Sitka Alaska.