Post #110200 by Aaron's Akua on Wed, Aug 25, 2004 2:03 PM

I’m mid-way on my 4th Tiki, which is my first one made of wood. This one is fan palm - my first 3 were AAC block. Below is the rough-out. I’m going to take everything about an inch deeper, and add more curvature to the nose. The lips will also move deeper, then the teeth deeper still. I’m saving the detailing of the teeth for last. I wanted to start with a real simple style for now just to get the feel of carving wood.

The ears will be sort of Easter Island style. They are very rough now. I’m saving the detailing for later.

The eyes are only outlined right now. I’m going to take the level a lot deeper between eyes and eyebrow/nose (see below). This will give me some height to sculpt out some rounded eyeballs for more 3D effect. I really like the eyes on Cheeky Tiki’s sculptures. Mine will be different, but I want the same general effect.

This tiki is NOWHERE near done. I was going to wait till it was completely finished before posting, but I know you all will have some great tips for me, and I have a few questions:

I’d really like to get a 2-tone stain/finish effect once all of my carving is finished. (I really like Tikifreak Gary’s “Badass Tikis”). I’d also like to get a real glossy sheen with Marine Varnish like some of Benzart’s work (Giant Maori Warrior). Any tips on finishing would be much appreciated.

I’m thinking that I’ll do a lighter shade for the whites of the eyes and the teeth. The rest will be a darker slightly reddish brown. Does it help to carve a tiny “gutter” (for lack of a better word) between the different colored areas to keep the stain from spreading? Will the Marine varnish create any overrun between the colors?

Would it help to bleach out the lighter portions before staining? I may need to bleach other areas to get rid of a little bit of mildew or whatever that’s on the top end. Hopefully this will come off when I use a grinder to flatten/level the top. Will bleaching create any problems when I stain it later?

I’ve noticed that some of the carvers here have used JASCO on their tikis. Will JASCO have create any problems when I stain it later? I just used some JASCO on my porch & noticed that it’s pretty oily.

I’m planning on doing some shell inlay for the pupils of the eyes and the round cut-outs for the Easter island style ears. The eye pupils will be slivers – cat eye type. The outer part of the eyes will be light stained, the inner part dark brown, and the pupils will be shell inlay. I did a search & found a great post by Basement Kahuna on this. The shell may be plain white, or mother of pearl – I’m not sure which yet. Any words of wisdom on shell inlay?

Thanks for putting up with all of my questions. :)

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"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-11-11 18:09 ]