Bear Frontlet

2 1/8" x 1 5/8" x 3/4"

This design I carved in catlinite, taking about 50 hours to do so. (This is why I make castings; they take me less than an hour each on average). The design was inspired by a pair of Haida frontlets (small wooden dance headdresses) illustrated in Holm and Reid's Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue in Craftsmanship and Aesthetics, but it is quite different in the body of the bear, having more rounded limbs, holding a copper, and with a distinctly arched top. The facial structure of the bear however, is a lot closer to the two frontlets that were my original inspiration.