There are six basic types of totem poles—house frontal poles, interior house posts, mortuary poles, memorial poles, welcome poles and ridicule or shame poles. Totem poles are usually made from large trees like the red cedar. These poles are made by the indigenous people of North America including parts of Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Many tribes use totem poles as a welcome sign or to mark the remains of the deceased.
Totem poles have animal masks carved on them and are painted with natural colours. Common figures found on totem poles include the raven, eagle, beaver, bear, wolf and frog.
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Here’s how you can make your own totem pole with cardboard.
MATERIALS
- 6 quarter imperial cartridge papers
- 3 satay sticks
- Old cardboard boxes
- A bag of sand or a few stones
- Oil pastel crayons
- Poster paints
- Paintbrushes
- Colour palette
- Pencil
- Tape
- White glue
- Scissors
METHOD
- Take a single sheet of paper and fold it vertically in half. Open the fold.
- Use a pencil to draw half of an animal’s face on 1 side of the folded paper. The face should be large enough to touch as many edges of the sheet as possible. Draw simple patterns like lines on the face.
- Make 4 such animal masks on 4 sheets of paper, ensuring 1 of them is a bird.
- Outline each of the masks with a dark-coloured oil pastel crayon. This outline is only for guidance.
- Fold the paper on the vertical fold made earlier, such that the outline you have created is covered with the clean half of the folded paper.
- Take something heavy, like the box of paints, and rub it vigorously over the folded sheet. Once you open the sheet, the image would have transferred onto the clean half of the paper. This will complete your animal face.
- Repeat this step for all 4 masks.
- Draw over these transferred lines to complete the mask. You now have 4 complete masks.
- Paint the masks with bright colours. Since the crayon outline was just for guidance, you can paint over it. After painting the masks, use a thick flat brush to make thick outlines in black paint. Once dry, cut out the masks.
- Take another sheet of paper and draw a wing on it. Cover this sheet with another blank sheet and rub something heavy on it to get a mirror image. Draw over this transferred image too.
- Paint the wings and cut them out to shape.
- Stick the wings on the bird mask as shown in the picture. Use satay sticks to hold the wings together and tape them as shown. The satay sticks will support the wings on the totem pole.
- Before you construct the totem pole, tape all the boxes shut. Take the biggest box and place a few stones or a bag of sand in it. This should be placed at the bottom; the weight in the box will help give the totem pole a stronger foundation. Place the other boxes on top of each other, aligning them to get a flat side. Stick the boxes together using white glue. Hold the boxes in place till the glue dries. To add to the symmetry, you can paint all the boxes black.
- Fold the masks in the centre again and use white glue to stick them only to the edges of the boxes to give them a 3D effect. Stick the 3 animal masks on 3 boxes. The bird can be stuck flat on the pole since it has wings to support it.
- Your totem pole is ready!
Dipika Gurnaney studied at the Sir JJ School of Fine Arts and is a recipient of a scholarship from the Pont Aven
School of Contemporary Art in France. Dipika has been teaching children art since 2002.
