Bucket Yup'ik Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
Bucket
By Paul Nagaruk (Yup'ik), mid 20th c. Elim, Yup'ik.
Collected by Keith & Alice Fuller.
Bending Traditions
Alaska Native artists make a variety of wooden objects, both functional & ceremonial, using heat & steam to bend wood. The technique produces objects light in weight, but very strong.
Skilled carvers must precisely thin & shape the wood to produce fair bends & fitted joints. Unangax, Alutiiq, & Yup'ik hunters make visors & bowls by bending driftwood planks. The Tlingit, Haida, & Tsimshian make bentwood boxes & bowls, & large oceangoing dugout canoes, the hulls of which were heated with steam & the sides spread apart, to increase capacity.
Bucket Yup'ik Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
Bucket
By Paul Nagaruk (Yup'ik), mid 20th c. Elim, Yup'ik.
Collected by Keith & Alice Fuller.
Bending Traditions
Alaska Native artists make a variety of wooden objects, both functional & ceremonial, using heat & steam to bend wood. The technique produces objects light in weight, but very strong.
Skilled carvers must precisely thin & shape the wood to produce fair bends & fitted joints. Unangax, Alutiiq, & Yup'ik hunters make visors & bowls by bending driftwood planks. The Tlingit, Haida, & Tsimshian make bentwood boxes & bowls, & large oceangoing dugout canoes, the hulls of which were heated with steam & the sides spread apart, to increase capacity.