De Pan

Decorated Portage Yoke

When I met Pam Wedd of Bearwood Canoes a while back to greet and register for the canoe building course, I mentioned my pyrography and paddle art and that I wanted to do some custom burning on the decking and yoke of the boat. She let me take one of the unfinished, carved cherry yokes that I'd be installing to decorate before the build.


The carved yoke on my messy dining room table
These cherry yokes are by far the most comfortable I've ever tried, with fantastic workmanship and quality cherry for the wood. It seemed to fit perfectly on my shoulders (broader than average) without causing any real pressure points on any protruding bones. The sculpted curvature of the yoke as well as its tapering design on the ends made it challenging for me to come up with a suitable image. At first, I thought about some nature scene, but nothing really fit. Then I thought about some Ottoman Turkish floral designs but they seemed to dainty for this boat. In the end, I went back to the Maori pattern I used on my Cherry Fusion Paddle last year. I found the contrasting, flowy design to be suitable to the curves of the yoke and thought it would be a nice addition when using some of my more tribal paddle art.


Burning the initial lines
Unlike alot of my work that involves transfering images with Saral Transfer paper, I free-handed this one with a basic flow-point, single temperature pyrography pen. After a few days on and off, the basic negative image pattern emerged. Once this is varnished, the natural tone of the cherry with the burned background really looks eye-catching.


The Maori Pattern