Frame Wagner-Canoes are handcrafted in the style of the Native American birch-bark canoe, with plywood stretched and bent, like birch bark, around a wooden frame and sealed for durability. This style is lightweight and elegant, and built in varying lengths to accommodate different needs – i.e. single canoes, as well as double for tandem paddling. Each canoe is custom made in the Frame design, with variations inherent to the natural materials, and allocated with its edition number and a unique icon.

Once again melding sleek wood design and practical function, Wagner’s paddles are sculptural objects in their own right, while suiting the needs of paddling, whether long or short distance, on rivers or lakes – implementing a variety of sizes and shapes for comfort and utility, such as thin blades for lake cruising and shorter, wider ones for shallow water. The smoothness and warmth of the wood, along with the palm grip, which is formed to fit naturally in the palm of the hand, allow for a comfortable feel, not only for the paddle itself, but also for the water, through each stroke and manoeuver. At times, Wagner also integrates his artistic practice more explicitly, featuring intricately carved images on the handles and blades.

Alongside building canoes and paddles, Wagner is a practitioner of freestyle paddling techniques, which he also performs in canoe ballet – an artistic form of paddling. The sport is a melding of useful paddling skills with expressive movements on the water, demonstrating the efficiency and grace of precise and deliberately executed manoeuvres. Through American freestyle and Canadian style paddling, a feel for the nuances and mechanics of movement is honed, as well as for the connection between the body and the tools at hand. Such processes and skills are also evident across Wagner’s art and design practice, as well as inform his boat-making craft.