Carving a Totem Pole
Totem poles are first planned in
meetings between the artist / carver, the
pole’s commissioning body1, and
elders (if necessary). A place to carve
the pole must be arranged and a lumber
company consulted to provide a “clear”
tree. Clear trees have few knots or
imperfections. In some
cases, the carver will travel
into the woods to inspect
the tree before it is cut
down and occasionally, the
carver personally fells the
tree. Meanwhile, design
preliminaries are made on
paper and the design is
repeatedly brought to its
owner for approval. The
design is finalized.