My name is Christa Kotiesen. I am an artist living in Québec. This endeavour is called Crowsticks simply because I am fascinated by crows. I have spent many entertaining hours watching these intelligent, comic birds. A few years ago, I did a series of paintings on interactions between them and humans. The illustration on the front page of this web site is taken from one of these works. Only after selecting the name did I decide that it could be used as an acronym. So officially, "Crowsticks" stands for "Christa's really original walking sticks."

Making these walking and hiking sticks has allowed me to combine my love of the outdoors and my art. The paintings which decorate the sticks are all original designs created especially for this purpose. I handpaint each stick individually so that different versions of the same design will resemble each other but never be identical. Each rendition of a design will be numbered and no design will be repeated more than fifty times. Most designs can be adapted to either walking sticks or hiking staffs.

Walking Sticks

The staffs are all sugar maple stained light maple or dark walnut. Some of the sticks have a smoky, medium brown colour which I get by combining the maple and walnut stains. I mix and apply all of the stains by hand. The handles are solid brass in two styles:

Regency

Eagle

The sticks are finished with a brass and steel ferrule or a rubber tip.

Sticks with rubber tips may be cut to the proper length by the user but the brass tipped ones should be ordered in the correct length. (To determine the correct length for a walking stick, stand straight, let your arms hang relaxed at your sides and measure the distance between the floor and the crease below your wrist bone. Make sure you are wearing your normal walking shoes.) For sticks with sugar maple staffs, the maximum length is 37"; however, longer staffs can be ordered.

Hiking Staffs and Natural Canes

The availability of these depends on the amount of suitable material that my husband and I, and a few of our friends, find on our walks in the woods. This means that I cannot guarantee the type of wood that a stick is. I simply look for hardwood that seems sturdy and suitable. Each piece is dried for at least eight months before being worked. The staffs are fitted with a woven cotton strap, a wound cord hand rest and a rubber tip. They have all received three to four coats of varnish.

Not all the hiking staffs displayed are currently available; however, orders based on these models will be filled as soon as suitable material is ready. In placing an order you should indicate the length you want - typically, the stick should come to the top of the shoulder - and whether you want a light or a heavy stick.