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Written and Published July 2007
Cedar
Canoes Entirely Hand Made
On
June 25th, Luc Melançon just arrived back to his Lost River place, from
a 9-day fishing trip with a friend from his university days, with his
own hand made cedar canoe. The canoe had to be cleaned and stored. The
pulley used to lift the canoe in his workshop, comes from a theatre
stage in Montreal. This harks back to his previous life. Luc studied art
at École des beaux arts de Montréal, taught visual arts for many years,moulding and sculpting humans figures, participated in exhibits such as
the Montreal Biennale.
Then he realized that he is merely involved in a design environment,
creating decorative objects. He relinquished sculpting in favour of
learning a 100-year old art of building traditional cedar strip canvas
canoes. He studied for a year from a craftsman in the Outaouais region.
Then he spent two years building his workplace, while living in Montreal
during the week. In 2004 he opened “Canots Lost-River”. Luc still spends
some time in the city. But mostly stays in Harrington, building canoes,
and actually using a canoe for his leisure activities.
The
cedar strips are bent through a special process of water steam. They are
applied around the mould, a canvas is stretched over and painted over.
There are layers of protective paint that are sanded by hand. The final
result is a very smooth shiny surface that is absolutely water-proof
that can withstand rough waters. The canoe weighs about 60 kg, easy for
two men to carry. Luc also specializes in restoring old canoes, using
only renewable materials. He makes 15 ½ ft and 17 ft long canoes, using
two moulds that he restored. He also makes his own wicker seats for the
canoes using traditional patterns. Luc takes pleasure in showing the
fascinating different stages of his craftsmanship. His workshop will be
open to the public during Route des Arts July 28th to August 5th from
11a.m. to 6 p.m. To see this dedicated artist at work, just drive up
route 327 north to Lost River Road, to meet a person who found a new
vocation in life.
Colours
and dimensions artwork may be slightly different from the original.
