Primitive Stone Tools

Time for investigation, discovery and crafting. The recent warm weather gave me the opportunity to get out to the shop and create. The items pictured above include ulus, scrapers, cutters and an awl. I crafted this lot of tools using chalcedony, chert, apple, cherry, pine and butternut wood, pitch, rawhide, gut, linseed oil, beeswax, charcoal etcetera. Each project requires finding and selecting the components, envisioning a design, planning their usage and then crafting the tool. Sometimes it takes weeks to evolve into a finished tool. The plan changes more often than not. Since these represent pre-contact utilitarian expendable tools I don’t usually embellish them with any unnecessary efforts such as painting, carvings, beads, feathers or quills. The beauty is in the form. Ceremonial items are a different story and I expect to work on some specific pieces using handmade beads and oxide paints later this year.

Patrick Lamphere, “Blackhand”, VAAA, St. Francis/Sokkoki Band, Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, #65954