Wheku - Mātau

 After working on the practise wheku I felt confident to tackle the larger MDF wheku.  I sketched up the final design and went for it:

My first mistake, was not drawing the waha properly.  A regret that I had to work on fixing later on in the process.  A good lesson for future project.  I think because I knew I was going to have to redraw the pencil lines over and over, I assumed it wouldn't really matter not getting the waha perfect... boy was I wrong.

I kept referring back to my notes that I had written for the practise wheku and grateful for them.  It meant I didn't have to hōhā Tom much.  I appreciated his 'pop ins' to see how I was doing and he gave me great tips along the way.  I often referred back to my practise wheku AND sketches throughout this process.

I slowly worked through the whakangao stage and onto the Āomarama stage of the wheku.  It took quite some time and effort during each of the night classes to try and complete the wheku.  I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and decided 'yep' I def like carving native rākau as opposed to the MDF.  I notices my chisels were getting pretty blunt also.  I have made it a goal to spend some time learning how to sharpen my whao.  I believe it is the make or break difference to your mahi whakairo.

I am happy with the progress on my wheku.  I hope to have it completed by the end of semester 1.

Practise Wheku - tuatahi

 After talking with Tom and him sketching out and explaining 'levels' we found a piece of scrap wood in the box to start on.  It was small and I'm guessing it's a piece of totara.  

I started with the whakangao stage which is to shape and take out larger areas of the block of wood after drawing the wheku design.

I sketched and took notes as I went along so it could help me when I started on the large wheku.

I needed alot of guidance from Tom while making this and I noticed how different it was carving wood with a grain.  I learned some good tips on how to tackle the grain too which I am really grateful for.  My greatest 'aha' moment was when Tom showed me how to work the chisel in removing rākau with the grain in mind.

I chipped away at creating the wheku tuatahi and loved the wero. 

I was pleased with the ārero even though it looked really messy underneath.  I used Toms piece 'Maui and tunaroa' to figure out how to shape it.  I found it really helpful to keep referring back to it.

I was pleased with my first attempt at a little wheku and enjoyed the process.  I really liked carving totara.  The whao marks is what I really love.  I will gift this first piece to Rāhana - my sonshine.

Wheku - Sketching ideas

 My first task was to come up with some sketches for my wheku.  I decided to base them on the mahi whakairo on Rau Aroha whare at WGHS.  I had the pleasure of seeing those taonga daily for 3 years while teaching there.  The carvings are done by our own local tohunga whakairo Te Warihi Hetaraka.  Once you've studied his figures, they are pretty easy to identify.  His large foreheads, 4 scale unaunahi and a lot of subtle little signature marks.  I developed two ideas and then decided to combine the two and took some features from both to try and carve.

I like the shape of the head and waha.  I thought to change the paua eyes.  I like the bowl shape tongue because of the representation of a kaiako.  Ngāpuhi features are:  Shape of head, 4 niho/teeth, and unaunahi (4 scales).

Again I like the shape of the head and waha.  I like the tognue shape also but want to use the bowl shape tongue because I want it to be a self portrait.  I like these eyes better as they remind me of the eyes one of my art mentors taught me about - Juliana Hoogeveen.  She was one of my first mentors when I started teaching Art @ Whangārei Intermediate School.

The niho and tīwhana are similar to those on Reitu and Reipae on Rau Aroha.

I've decided to do a practice wheku before tackling my MDF wheku to get me head around the process.

Wheku- - Project Brief

Our next project is to create a wheku.  We were given a project brief template to fill out as part of our planning for this project.  I'm excited to learn about how to create the different levels moving into mahi whakairo that moves away from just the 2D pieces.  Here is my design brief for my wheku:

Wheku forms - Waha, ārero & Ihu

 We have been learning about some of the differences between features on a wheku.  I did some sketches and made notes to try and remember some of them:

We had a task to find and sketch different ārero and ihu also:

We had another lesson about different Whao and their names:

Tutu with paints

The mangopare design I carved last month along with the kiri kiore and pūhoro,, I decided to have a tutu with some paints to see how they would look.

I knew I wanted to paint black as the background colour and decided on using a gloss and also flat paint on each half of the board.  I also had some metallic resene test pots so I used a dry brush technique over the black.

Observations:  The black paint disguised some of the whakairo mistakes so I made note of that for any future projects.  I also decided I liked the wooden look, even if it is just MDF.

Project One: Whakarei board

We were given our first project for the year - to explore a range of whakarei patterns specific to Te Tai Tokerau, their histories and meanings.

We sketched a number of whakarei patterns into our books and took notes from the kōrero given to us by Tom. Here are our tasks

Task 1 Visual Diary
- Identify and document the tools and materials you wills need to carry out this project. Tools: HB pencils and eraser. Whao 13/6 12/6, MDF board, ruler.
- You will research and document 5 patterns- Whakairo, Kōwhaiwhai or both. Drawn in your visual diary.

- You will select 3 of your 5 patterns to draw on your MDF board.-

- Write and photo document your processes.

Reflections:  The trickiest part of carving the unaunahi is the centre, making sure that where the two spirals meet it is at the highest point.

Using the correct size whao are super important in order to try and create a clean cut.  The little curve towards the first scale pays homage to the carving shed down at Hihiaua.

I tried to create the negative lines around the outside of the design and failed.  The lines are very messy and uneven.  I would have preferred the scalloped form and will do so if I carve this design again.

Task 2 Creative works

You will create 1 whakarei board that will have your 3 chosen patterns. This will either be carved or painted.

Reflections:  Ritorito/puwerewere/pākura

I enjoyed carving this whakarei.  I started off doing a shallow cut around the outside (spiral/rauru) and then used a 5 to shape on an angle.  I left the pākura to carve last.  

Next time I would carve the first cut deeper to make the because the carving of the pākura went quite deep so there was some imbalance in terms of comparing the rauru cuts with the pākura.

I decided to finish my board by carving the pōnahi.  It is simple but you can see all the mistakes because there is not other pattens in the design.  

So the 3 designs are:

1.  Unaunahi

2. Pākura

3. Pōnahi