Post #226254 by Bay Park Buzzy on Tue, Apr 11, 2006 7:48 PM

Continuing on with my saga...
Through trial and many errors, I actually had some prior knowledge to work with now. I spent a few months playing with logs and now knew what to look for. I felt comfortable with my ability to find good logs and not be limited by what the log would let me do, so I shifted my focus to improving my skills as a carver. To this point, most of my stuff seemed kind of flat and I wanted to add some depth. I also wanted to concentrate in working on my transitions between the features on the carvings. I wanted the nose to flow into the lips,then into the chin and so on- as opposed to having it look like a flat drawing with features simply placed side by side with one another.
I also did a whole bunch of research on tikis and design elements. I started by going to google images and looking under "tiki." Then "carved tiki","carved wooden tiki," and so on. I started keeping an album of anything that I found interesting, attractive, or exceptional. Through these searches, I found TC and the carving section. More images were placed in the album.
When it came time to carve a piece, I looked to my album for inspiration. In most instances, I chose something that I found to be aesthetically pleasing to my eye and beyond my current skill level. I looked to challenge myself and measured my results to the original source. I never attempted to exactly replicate my source; rather I tried to replicate the process by which the original result was obtained. In the end, I think only one or two ended up even looking slightly like the originals.(hey tiki central scavenger hunt-find the original source of buzzy's copies-A prize to the first one who can correctly locate and identify them-go!)
Having the luxury of a large supply of logs to choose from was now my reality. I no longer had to make do with what I had. I could choose the finest crack free logs to work with now. Here is a picture of the next three I chose to work with:

I strip them with an electric hand planer to get them to look like this. It takes about 20 minutes to do a five foot log, 16 inches in diameter. I think it took about 35 minutes for me to do all three.

My next step was to draw out the face exactly how I was going to carve it

closer

the eyes were going to be rounded so the concentric circles were to guide the carving of the rounded zones

my technique at this time was to carve everywhere that needed eventual carving...

and then go back and make what looked too shallow look deeper

The sun went down so I had to go inside for sanding(stupid winter). For this, I use the dremel tool and a drum sanding bit. This tool is good for cleanup and forming the rounded surfaces.
Close up after sanding, no stain



I purposely left about 1/16" of the outer bark on for contrast. It will darken more as time goes on, after staining it.

I stained it with brush on Zinsser Bulls Eye clear shellac.

What I learned from this one:

1. Little tikis (this one was 2'1") don't hurt your back as much when you work on them.
2. Small rotary tools leave disproportionally large scars in a freshly sanded area after they slip.
3. Little scars can cause big problems.
4. If I try to make something that looks exactly like the original, it will end up not even resembling it, but will still look pretty cool. Accidental originality rules!