Many, many thanks to all of you for the kind replies.
I am pleased with the end result and my only goal when carving is just to try and improve from the last one I did. I have seen several threads lately which say that one carver or another "has raised the bar". I agree that the skill level is improving and it is so neat to see all the unique styles emerging as new pieces are being created. But I want to state here that I am certainly not trying to compete with anyone at all. I just wanted to share the results of my latest project. I will now answer the questions asked by everyone so far.
DOGBYTES: This is going to be an outdoor tiki for summer and indoor for winter.
SAXOTICA: I will be keeping this guy and will place him in a special spot.
ALIENTIKI: I also like the natural grain look of wood for tikis but so far what I have done with most of my carvings
is to add some color to jazz them up. Hopefully not garish or gaudy. I do intend to "go natural" with future carvings.
I do think the sycamore was a good candidate for paint or stain though because it is nearly an eggshell white wood grain. Now if you wanna carve a "ghost tiki" then it might be perfect. Oh and I would say that all together it took me between 20 and 30 hours.
MANOKOA: On this carving I got pretty lucky when it came to cracking. It didn't do that much splitting. I must admit that although I did not do it, I did consider getting some wood putty and filling and then sanding all the cracks in order to make it look EXACTLY like a bottle. I decided that I wouldn't be fooling anyone and just liked it fine the way it was so that's what I did. I wouldn't rule out using putty
on a future piece but that could limit the staining possibilities.
CURB CREATURE: As for the paints used, here is what I chose.
Flat black for the top knot and Amazon Silt Green (#6010-4)for the body. I had it custom mixed at Lowe's paint counter. If you are going to paint a tiki for outdoor use, make sure you get EXTERIOR paint. I selected "American Tradition Exterior Flat Latex"
as the base. I then coated with a MINWAX SPAR urethane sealer called "Helmsman Indoor/Outdoor Clear Satin"
GREAT QUESTIONS EVERYONE!!!
I hope that answers all the queeries to your satisfaction.
Let me know if you have any others.
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR KIND WORDS!!
8FT
I once was lost.......
.....but now I'm found
[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki 2005-07-14 20:58 ]
