There is nothing finer than plying some quiet backwaters in a small human powered boat that was constructed by your hands. It wasn’t until recently I began to see the reality of paddling my own boat. The ancient Alaskan cultures inspired me to collect any long clear slivers of red and yellow cedar, and Sitka spruce driftwood, the idea, some day I would build myself some wooden replicas of Aleut, and Koniaq Eskimo open ocean kayaks. In 2000 I set up the Solar Wind Art Studio, and built a woodworking area for the purpose of building boats, rustic furniture, musical instruments, and any other ideas that may come to mind. I didn’t actually start to use the kayak driftwood until the end of September; a friend showed me a traditional canvas covered Aleut kayak he had built. That was all it took. I dug the slivers out of the pile of driftwood, and began working to split them into the long strips I would need to form the Gunwales, Keelson, and stringers. I hand carved a one-piece bow block, and stern block out of a piece of yellow cedar. By mid winter I had built 2 deck frames, attached the bow and stern blocks to the frames, and keel and stringers to one of the frames, I put the kayak project on hold for the remainder of the year. I went in the direction of instrument making. The next spring I went into rib production set up a steam bender and proceeded to make many slats, of which only a small number worked. I successfully made an almost complete set of ribs for the Koniaq Eskimo kayak I decided to work on, leaving the second Aleut deck frame for another work session. That is the state of my kayak building efforts thus far. This April I will resume the boat building projects. Starting with the remaining 4 or 5 ribs, each rib will be fastened to the stringers and keelson, and I will began the process to cover the hull and deck with thin wood slats and planking, and make the cockpit hoops and seat. Once this process is complete the kayak is coated with fiberglass resin and paint. This endeavor has been a long involved process, Just collecting the wood took 5 years, the time it takes to bring a few kayaks to completion, will add to the joy of paddling in the remote waters I intend to find.