I was contacted in mid-October last year by a couple that wanted to commission a local person to do 4 wooden feature poles for the entranceway for their new house.
I hadn’t done this sort of thing before but was up for the challenge. I then had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to try wood burning so I could combine both wood burnt designs and paint on the poles.
After a practice and a cup of courage I thought I would be able to pull this off. And I exceeded all my own expectations. Each pole is organic wood, having its own beautiful natural curves and characteristics.
The fist pole I did was a Protection pole with 10 different shields around it to represent protection of their house.
The second pole I did was a Welcome pole, with the word welcome in our local language burnt into it. My design had gathering places on it to represent people coming to their house and the journey lines represented the journeys people made to get there. The boomerangs represented people coming back like a boomerang.
The third pole had a vet theme to represent her husband’s work as a vet. This had a mixture of native animals, domestic animals and farm animals as well as their tracks. The hands represented the hands-on approach as well as his healing hands he uses to help animals. The fourth pole has a Nature Dreaming theme. It has a woman in the tree, who is grounded by her roots and connection to country. When she gives herself permission to be spiritual and set her spirit free, she morphs into a bird and fly’s for the light. Her spirit guides are watching over her around the sun.
On the back it is a night time theme, acknowledging the connection between the moon and the tides and the majestic whale breaching in the moonlight. I have also included nocturnal animals swinging from the stars.