Coppers where made by almost all of the tribes up and down the coast but in particular they were used by the northern tribes. The general shape varies only slightly and is a flaring trapezoid with a round top with a lower straight section divided by a t-shaped form.

Coppers were essential to a number of rituals and were symbolic of wealth (supernatural power) and purity, the state of halayt. Coppers appear to have been made even before contact with the European nations. The copper was painted with black lead and the designed engraved through this coating.

Finally completed a small paper on an ovoid study I have been tossing around for almost a year. I normally vectorize my artwork in Autocad but I found that I was creating too many control points and occasionally creating lumpy ovoids, I needed a better way to do this. I still use Autocad for all of my vectorization work but I’ve now created a simple method of generating ovoid templates using Solidworks and its spline functions. A class I took with David Boxley back in 2007 also helped me clarify some of my own thoughts on the subject. His method of starting with a rectangle that eventually circumscribes the ovoid led me to setting up a similar rectangle with appropriate control points for a spline (NURBS) that creates the charateristic ovoid curve.

It has been a long time coming but I finally got a new print out after having a bit of a drought for well over a year. We printed the Wasco in October. Not sure on its reception just yet but we are hopefull it does well even in this rough economy. We printed it in three different color combinations with fairly low edition numbers. I don’t think the tri-color print will be around for long, that one is my favorite, the coloring came out amazing, thank Cindy and Rory for making it happen.

We also began to place more product with the native casinos here in Washington, we still have alot of work to do on that end but we have definetly opened some doors. Suquamish and Muckleshoot Casino both display both my prints and t-shirts.

I haven’t done much carving in the past so the beginning of this month I did a small carving to hone my abilities it was fun. I borrowed the design from the tail of my Wasco print. I really like the Killer Whale Drum design, and the carving came out pretty well considering it has been a long time since I’ve done any serious carving. Hopefully, I can find the time to do some larger pieces. I will say that it takes alot of work to make one of these pieces, especially to do it good. The biggest problem is just being careful so you don’t mess it up. Practice makes perfect…

This year has been a good year for us. Things were a little slower than this year due to the economy and the high gas prices during the summer months but overall I think we have accomplished alot. We are looking forward to an even more productive year for 2009. Our many thanks to our patrons, galleries, shops and all those who support and love the art of the northwest coast. Thank-you.