Cedar Canvas Varnish & Decorated Seats

During some of my free time away from the birchbark canoe, I'd been gradually finishing my 14ft Cedar Canvas built last year with Pam Wedd of Bearwood Canoes.

After decorating the decks and portage yoke with a tribal burn pattern, a similar pattern was burned on the hand-caned, cherry seats over the winter. They've been coated with two coats of varnish so far and will be likely get 2 more coats before they're installed. Here's a shot below:


Stern and Bow decorated seats
The boat's interior has also received two out of the three coats of spar varnish so it's got that nice, new boat gloss. The varnish has also brought out the beautiful contrast of the cherry outwales and sitka spruce inwales. To get a preview of what the whole thing would look like, I set it up on some horses and placed the seats on the gunwales for a few pics. Here she is:


Interior varnished


View from the stern
In the coming days, I'm planning to paint the exterior with the primer and two colour coats. More updates soon.

August 22, 2009 UPDATE: The canoe is finally complete. View info on the maiden launch here.