Eight students participated in a bentwood box-making class taught by Wayne Price during the weekend, with each student producing up to three of the traditional Native storage containers.
The three-day class showed students old and young how to construct bentwood boxes. The boxes are made using one piece of wood that is steamed and bent to form the four sides.
Ivan Hotch, 14, said he decided to take the class after his grandmother read him books about the Native art form. Hotch’s grandmother also talked about her own grandparents using the boxes to store books and other possessions.
“It’s something very old that I’ve wanted to do,” Hotch said.
The class was put on by the Chilkoot Tribal Youth Program and Community Education Program, using red cedar donated by Sealaska.
Price, who had never taught a bentwood box-making class in Haines, said he has honed the difficult process to a point where he can teach just about anyone to make one.
The process starts with a plank of wood a few feet long, eight inches wide and about a half-inch thick. Small notches called kerfs are made where the wood will be bent, and the board is then soaked in water.
Price’s class attached anchors to the boards and sent them to the bottom of the boat harbor overnight.
Once collected from the sea floor, the boards are placed in a steam box for seven minutes at about 200 degrees F. The boards are most flexible when they leave the steam box, so the artisan must bend it into its four-sided form immediately.
The box is then secured with rubberband-like straps to keep it in place until the wood can dry and keep its shape on its own.
Hotch already has completed two boxes and is in the process of finishing his third. “Once you learn the first one, it clicks what goes next.”
Everyone caught on fairly quickly, Price said, though there were some casualties along the way. “We had some wonderful creations going and some made it and some didn’t,” he said.
Price said the boxes, which were once as commonplace as bowls and plates are today, had a variety of uses. “They were used quite elaborately in all parts of my ancestors’ lives. They used them for storage of food, clothes, transfer of gear. They kept artifacts used in dance celebrations safe. They could be elaborately carved or simple,” he said.
Some were even so perfectly crafted as to be watertight, he said, and those were frequently used for cooking. Water could be placed in the box, and then hot stones were put in the water to make it boil, Price said.
Most of the boxes made by the students measured about 6-by-6-by-8 inches, though traditionally the boxes were sometimes crafted to be as big as chests, Price said.