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“Jay Rattle” Stellar’s jays are very special to me. There are many around my home. Generations of them have come for breakfast at my deck railing every morning for the last twenty-four years. For the first year after I built my home there was a female that came every morning and sat on the corner of the deck railing close to the back door. She would fluff up her feathers and wait, staring in the window until I came out and put a handful of dog kibble next to her. She would somehow manage with effort to get three pieces at a time in her beak, then fly away and bury them under the alder leaves and return for more. She and her mate eventually brought three of their fledglings and taught them to do the same. Jays are very intelligent. They are also good impersonators. I have heard them imitate red tailed hawks, tree frogs, rufous-sided towhees, and even my daughter’s cockatiel. |
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“Salmon Rattle” 12"h. A major character appearing in the childrens book entitled “The Prince and The Salmon People” is a shaman, or more accurately- stated, halait in the Tsimshian language. Some of the illustrations in the book feature the shaman using this very rattle. I designed the rattle for the story with the idea that I would carve it someday. The hooked snout is indicative of a spawning male Dog Salmon. The large circles on the body and tail are stylized pigment spots. The underside of the salmon doesn’t represent anything in particular. It was just a fun configuration on which to do some northern formline design. |
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“Moth Rattle” 11"h. When I was creating the puppets for the “Quati” show (see Puppets) two of the characters were meant to represent moths. I decided that they should be white. When I had completed the heads with their whimsical features, I liked them so much that I carved a rattle with the same face on one side. On the revese side I put a stylized version of the moth’s wings, in northern-style formline design, painted white and carved in low relief. While this moth is a pest to farmers, It is part of our eco-system. The caterpillars of this species have white hairy bodies and in the summer can be seen munching on the green edibles of forests and farms. The moth itself is quite beautiful, if one takes the time to observe one up-close. I have a dissecting microscope and have given them some close scrutiny. The antennae of moths, for example, unlike those of butterflies, are lacy, something like the down feathers of a bird. |
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