Whanau, Nga Wahine

This set was designed for the women of this whanau. Across three generations. One for the grandmother, two for the daughter and sister in law, and two for the tamariki.

The long kuru with the black lashing is for the Grandmother. The carving on the front is to represent her daughter and granddaughter and the connection they all share.

The two shorter kuru are for the middle generation, the mothers of the two young girls.

And the two whale tail and koru carvings are for the two girls.

The first step was working out the design, this was a cool process and we got to a good place after a bit of back and forth. Then to choose the piece of pounamu and trace the designs onto the slice.

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The first cuts are made on this trim saw to separate the pieces, ready for shaping.

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Getting the kuru shapes here and the rounded edges of the whale tail koru.

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A part that takes a lot of patience and attention to detail is the smoothing and sanding, to remove all the tool marks and then prepare the surface for polishing.

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And finally the polished and lashed set of pounamu.

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