The Start Of The Restoration

Now that the Chief's Crest Pole is safely in it's studio, Andrew Todd has started to work on restoring this piece of Canadian culture back to it's former glory.  The work is very detail oriented and time consuming, but it's coming along very well.

This first step is to clean and remove any debris and paint that is just too damaged to repair.  In most cases this damaged material is from past restoration work that had been done many years ago.

Along with a vacuum  and several brushes, Andrew's main tool of choice is a simple wooden stick.  He uses this stick to remove debris that is loose.  Wooden tools to not scratch or damage the original wood of the Totem Pole, and are very gentle on the paint as well.

While some of the loose debris is simply thrown out, some is to valuable to simply be disposed.  In these cases Andrew must re-attach these pieces using wood glues.

Andrew is also not simple eliminating all of the past restoration work.  For example, many of the cracks have been filled with these small slivers of wood.  These are likely from a past restoration, and where ever possible Andrew is leaving these.

This is a time for Andrew to explore the Chief's Crest Pole, and find out what kind of condition it is truly in.  So far he's optimistic, and let's hope it stays that way.

Remember, if you want to see Andrew Todd at work, you can visit the Benaki Museum at 138 Pireos street, Thursday to Sunday's.  You can see more photos from his work on our Facebook page, and you can also see Andrew Todd's lecture at the Canadian Institute in Greece on October 17th.