Another day, another paddle.
I’m finishing the touch-up on Double Paddle, with one more handle to carve.
This is one of only a few notes relating to the double- handled paddle. I was working simultaneously on the first and this second paddle.
I chose the wood for this second piece because I felt like carving arbutus. The wood was found while a new road was being brushed out to make way for a new housing development. There were numerous collateral damage arbutus trees to choose from.
As I carved “Double-Handled Paddle,” I recognized the double handle reminded me of rib bones much like the rib bones and rib cage of a whale. The similarity was reinforced once more when months later when I encountered blue whale rib bones leaning against a wall at an up-coast whale museum. At that same museum the skull of a beaked whale reminded me of the shape of the blade of the same Double-Handled Paddle. It was surprising to find whale essence in this second paddle, as essence of whale was not at all visualized or intended when I began the piece.
Double-Handled Paddle
Whale bones skull and ribs