Post #163652 by Benzart on Sat, Jun 4, 2005 7:36 PM

RAffer said id best"we all get that 'what
the fuck am I doing' feeling during the
tiki carving". When you start a tiki it
goes through that "Ugly" stage where it doesn't look like a tiki or Anything. It starts with about the 10th cut and finally smoothes out and starts looking like a
tiki just
before you start the sanding stage.
Personally what I would do is use a
V-liner and mark out All your lines,
carve it right in, that way it won't get erased. Then where ever you start, Don't finish 1 area and then move to the next, you Need to keep the WHOLE Carving going at the same speed or level. The eye you are working on should have another eye next to it getting carved down at the same time, otherwise you end up with a finished eye and now you have
to match it to another eye that is just a
line on the wood and you will have
forgotten all the moves and tools you
used to get to where you are now.
Slow down and be Deliberate with your actions.
You are at the stage where you are just figuring out what each tool does so take it easy.
Do you know a carver you could come watch? Come on down here and I will show you how I carve . Or visit a closer carver. I is different now that you have actually removed wood with chisels so that if you see it being done you see it totally differently than before.
Lots of carvers do the 1 eye at a time, or nose first or teeth first and everything else follows, but don't do that! do it right. I'll add a lot more later cause I don't want to bore everyone. Hope this helps.

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2005-06-05 14:57 ]