Saw this beautiful painting by Bill Holm* last week at Fort Ross. The Russians brought the hunters, most of them from the Kodiak Islands, to hunt sea otters at Fort Ross in the early 1800s. The kayaks were made of sea lion skins, the parkas (said to be waterproof) of sea lion intestines, the hats resembling birds.
“…The Kashaya Pomo called the Alaskans Underwater People because their boats sat so low in the water it seemed as if they were coming out of the sea. The iqyan (kayak) they developed is still studied today and its design is incorporated into modern shipbuilding. The Russians called these skin boats baidarkas.
The Alaskans were expert sea hunters. They honed their skill over thousands of years while living on isolated islands and waterways. RAC sent Alaska Natives along the coast to hunt for otter and fur seal pelts. They traveled great distances by kayak, including the Farallon Islands 35 miles southwest of Fort Ross across the rough open ocean, where the Alaskans stayed for months at a time. Alaska Natives used a spear with a detachable point tied with sinew to an air bladder made from a sea mammal’s stomach. After the animal is speared, hunters track the floating bladder, waiting for the animal to come up for air.…”
–https://www.fortross.org/native-alaskans.htm
*Represented by the Stonington Gallery; Also see his book, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form
Last week Yogan and I spent an hour exploring the Fort Ross State Historic Park, a masterful re-creation of the Russian Fort built on the Northern California coast in 1812. The Russians brought down Native Alaskan hunters who speared sea otters from seal skin kayaks. Most of the hunters came from the Kodiak Islands and their kayaks, spears, and hunting techniques were extraordinary (more on this later).
If you are ever driving up the Northern California coast, I highly recommend going to this site.
Here is the chapel (star of the show), metal shop, and wood shop. Roofing on these buildings consisted of 2 layers of long planks, laid with the cracks in the top layer over the centers of the under layer.
“100 Wild Huts is an experimental challenge I’ve set myself to build 100 small survival shelters on any piece of ground that harbours enough natural resources for the build. I intend to sleep rough in each shelter for one night and blog about the experiences. I intend to experiment with the huts form, structure and materiality in the hope that in due course this site will become a useful resource for budding adventurers and outdoor enthusiasts alike!”
Kevin Langan
Edinburgh, Scotland
Yogan is an accomplished timber framer (and treehouse builder) from France. His work has appeared in our last two books. He will be traveling along the west coast this summer and wants to hook up with builders, home owners, homesteaders, and/or people of like interests. He’s open to any kind of arrangement, including working for room and/or board.
You can check out his work here: yogan.over-blog.com
From Yogan:
Hi friend builders, carpenters, inventors…
I’m Yogan, a carpenter of south west france,
I’m coming in August, September and October to walk on the west coast, from California to Seattle. My goal is to meet, visit, help, places and peoples where there are amazing shelters, cabins—in the woods if possible.
If I could find a community of carpenters living in cabins in the forest, it would be perfect!
I’d also like to go to any carpenter or timber framers’ meetings.
Everything Happen for a Reason from rossangeles on Vimeo.
Sent in by Mike W
These were in the window of a shop in Hanapepe on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. They were very thin, and exquisite.They were apparently turned on a lathe, but I can’t imagine how.
My friend Louie and I started out the morning with Irish coffees and split a crab omelette out by the beach. Beautiful sunny day, fresh ocean breezes AND whales now migrating north. Lots of them cavorting off Ocean Beach, on their way back north after having calves in Baja.
Then, since I was looking for leather to make knife sheaths with (been making custom handles for Russell hand-in-USA carbon steel knives). We ended up going to the S. H. Frank Co on 17th street and it was an amazing place. Been there over 100 years, tons of leather, animal skins, tools. I got some leather working tools and some leather. Excited to finally have the punches, cutter, leather scissors, etc. so I can work leather.
