Paddle to the Sea

Paddle to the Sea is a film released in 1966 about a wooden toy canoe with an Indian. The film opens with a little Canadian boy carving the canoe, painting it, and then placing it on a snow-covered hill. He hopes that when the snow melts, the canoe will flow to a creek, move into a river, and float all the way to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River.

He names the toy Paddle to the Sea and inscribes a message on the bottom: "Please put me back in the water."

The film follows the many adventures of the Paddle as he makes his way hundreds of miles.

The movie is available on YouTube and is about a half-hour long. I remember it from my childhood in elementary school.

I decided to recreate Paddle to the Sea in CAD. The file is large, but works great. Just load it onto your 3D printer and let the machine do the work. I put my printer on the best quality setting for an eight-hour print. Then I painted it. It looks a little bit different than the original for two reasons: It wasn't easy to duplicate the exact shape of the canoe and Indian, and when I painted it my paint selection was limited, so I went with what I had. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to touch up the paint, spray a clear coat, and then put him in the water like the little boy did. Who knows where it will end up. I'll probably place it in the Mississippi River.

-