The Flame Throwing Beer Dispensing Totem Pole

September 27, 2016 ben-eng Experiments

I had been researching ancient Japanese Buddhist statues and at the time would joke that if something didn’t have a beer opener then it wasn’t very functional. That evolved into learning about dragons, beer, and early civilization. Out of that came the idea of a flame throwing beer dispensing totem pole.

Carving the totem pole — Coopering is the art of making barrels from wood. I used that technique to build the cylinder for the totem pole. After the cylinder was made I transferred the dragon pattern and began carving.

totem-07 — After carving the cylinder was covered with gesso.

painted totem pole — The totem pole was painted with many layers of glaze and color along with silver and gold leaf.

Maker Faire — I brought the Flame Throwing Beer Dispensing Totem Pole to Maker Faire.

totem-11 — Poofing the pole outside of the Maker Faire building.