Post #201643 by Loki on Mon, Dec 5, 2005 5:50 AM

Weekend update:
Mooney- I did take Benz advice and purchased a handful of wonderful Henry Taylor Chisels. They really make the work easier.

After a long week of working my real job, we finally got back to carving this weekend. Hurricane Wilma did more dammage than we thought. Apparently, high wind speeds can snap the heart of palms. The heart is located at the top most part of the tree where the newest fronds come from. We have a large Queen palm that we were having trimmed and we found out the heart snapped and the tree was dying from the top down. I know people have had a difficult time with carving queen so i decided to give it a go in the near future. As mentioned many time before they will rot from the inside. In an old post someone mentioned that the inside core can be pulled out, making the log hollow. I have posted some pics of the process for those of you interested. The log in the photo is about 4' tall and still fresh. This made the removal of the core more difficult than i was hoping for. There is a very clear line from the hard wood on the outside to the gooey inside. I attempted to remove what i could, but i think it needs more time to break up. I look forward to the stink it will no doubt cause. I found the best method for removal of a newer core is the claw end of a hammer. It is stringy and can be pried out with some effort. I got down as deep as i could and decided to wait until it gets mushier. I did find a smaller log and split it in half and removed the core on the inside. This will make a wonderful mask for future carving. It was much easier with the log split. And again i used the claw of the hammer to scoop it out.

I also had an stump of coconut that had a lot of rot in it and decided to make blocks out of the good parts to make smaller faces. Once my hook knives arrive we will start attacking these guys. One for me and one for lady loki.

So, now that we have some logs ready for our next carvings i should update on our first tikis.

I have affectionatly named my first tiki, Mamae tuara- the Maori word for painful back. My back is really suffering for his cause. I have had a very difficult time with the nose. I made some early mistakes and now am trying to fix it. Basically, i made the nose ridges to flat and they stood out as almost 2D. I have decided to take away more of the cheek area at an angle to salvage the nose. Its working but I'm not happy with it yet. The eyes are an experiment but i'm starting to like the look. Still doing it all by hand with the chisels. The mouth was just an experiment using a gouge, but i think i like the look. I really want to finish him soon and move on the the next victim.

lady lokis tiki has really taken on some progress. She has decided to add a body to it. I really admire her for trying this. I know i wouldnt have tried this. She put it well, "It's my frist tiki, so if it doesnt work, oh well." The thing is it is working. She still has work to do on his face, especially the eyes. Look for them to dramatically change in the future. The arms are really coming out well, and he even has a little butt starting. Kudos for her tackling this.

We even got one of our neighbors involved. The rest of the neighborhood must think were nuts...three people banging away at logs for hours...what fun.

On the queue: I'm going to make a maori kotiate (violin shape club). When we visited NZ last year i'm still kicking myself for not buying one there, so, now with BK's inspiration, i'm going to make one myself. Its not going to be kauri wood of course, but i think it will work fine...Then a smaller face like Benz makes to work on my hand carving skills. Lady loki will attack another larger tiki.

Thanks for reading this long babble...more updates as they happen.
-Loki

"He who does anything because it is the custom makes no choice."

[ Edited by: Loki 2005-12-05 11:38 ]