Eric Blinman originally thought the idea of hanging a canopy of arrows from the ceiling of the new History Museum's exhibit on the Pueblo Revolt was "nuts." He admits he's more about reality than image.

At the same time, knowing what bad arrows are sold on the open market, the Museum of New Mexico's director of archaeological studies said, "I didn't want to turn this into a Route 66 roadside attraction."

So, after receiving a call from a museum designer inquiring about what 17th-century arrows look like, he asked volunteers from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation's Friends of Archaeology if they wanted to help. The group has experience making replicas — blankets, ropes, etc. — for education outreach and it was "no stretch to think we could make some arrows," he said.

The group bid on the contract and won.

Working mostly at volunteer Dave Brewer's studio, they made more than 300 arrows using cane and willow collected at the Bosque del Apache following last year's Festival of the Cranes and turkey feathers donated by poultry farmers in Stanley and Taos.

Tommy Heflin, a skilled flintknapper from Portales, made about 150 of the arrowheads using alibates and Edward's Plateau chert collected from private ranches, mostly in Texas, and some purchased obsidian. Archaeologists from around the state contributed other points. And Blinman slipped in one made by an Albuquerque flintknapper, the late Luther Rivera.

Later the volunteers also bid on the contract to install the arrows. Ultimately, Blinman said, "I (was) completely won over from thinking this was silly to start with to (thinking that it is) clever and effective."

Visitors, who will get their first look at the exhibitions at the new museum this weekend, will decide for themselves.

Lead designer Sujit Tolat of Bethesda, Md.-based Gallagher & Associates, said the arrows are just one of several dramatic overhead elements in the museum that will help people follow the stories.

He had to sell the idea, Tolat admitted. "These are just meant to be emotional, visual triggers," he explained. "It was a violent time. This was the only time the pueblos got together and the Spanish were defeated."

Tolat said he assured his clients that he would do what they asked, but, "for me, it's just a mechanism to get people into the story."

The first task for the arrowmakers was to straighten the shafts, a job that required a bit of muscle and heat. Then the flintknapped points were inserted into hardwood plugs (for the cane shafts) or the willow shafts, secured with synthetic sinew and hardened with hot pine pitch. Before the shafts were sanded and stained to make the arrows look old, they were notched using a bench-mounted jigsaw. The fletching for each was made from three matching turkey feathers — taken from the same side of the feather — attached in a similar fashion. The last step was to tie six feet of 2.5 mm monofilament line to each end of the arrow for hanging. That step nearly "drove people crazy," Blinman said.

The whole process involved a "bit of trial and error," said Barbara Chatterjee. "I gained a lot of respect for the knowledge involved in working with these materials," she added. She plans to visit the museum Sunday and is "interested in seeing how this work holds up. "The material is not always as cooperative and you might wish," she said.

Not all the arrows in the exhibit were fashioned by the volunteers. Blinman used some of the contract money to buy arrows from artists he knows and acquired others from religious leaders at area pueblos. "There are some tribal arrows," he said. "In some cases you can tell; in some you can't." The tribal arrows are similar to ones made for hunting rather than those used in war, which are produced using different rituals, he said.

Before turning the arrows over to the museum, the volunteers shot some of them. Cane arrows shoot faster and farther than the solid-body ones, but, Blinman said, "both deliver the same force when they hit the target."

The arrows were transported to the museum in four large cardboard boxes from the floral department at Whole Foods. According to Brewer, they were frozen to kill off any insect larvae in the plant material.

Blinman and the volunteers also formed an engineering and carpentry team that figured out how to mount the flight of arrows. A toothpick attached to the monofilament on each end of the arrow feeds through a hole in one of three black panels suspended from the ceiling and can be tightened or adjusted using pegs on the ceiling side. "If you look at the top of the panels, it's a complete mess, like cobwebs," Blinman said.

During installation, the platforms were raised and lowered by pulley and ropes so the arrows could be secured in place and the whole display lifted into an overhead position. The volunteers turned over about 30 replacement arrows to museum staff.

The end result, Blinman said, is "true to the designers' intent to create a really graphic, attention-getting device."

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.

VOLUNTEERS

Eric Blinman

Denise Lynch

Mary Weahkee

Karen Wening

Gary Williams

Kathleen Yount

Mimi Burling, team co-leader

Kathy McRee, team co-leader

Barbara Chatterjee

Carol Elwood

Gary Hein

Micheleelys Runyan

Sarah Hende

Marjorie Mizarak

Colette Pogue

James Smart

Dave Brewer

Daniel Hart

Tommy Heflin

Richard Blake

John and Diane Lenssen (peahen feathers)