Post #241247 by Bay Park Buzzy on Wed, Jul 5, 2006 11:46 PM

Tikis #27, 28, 29 A step backward?

Was this next set of tikis a step backwards for me? Yes and no. Short term: yes. Long term: definitely not. These next three were carved from the leftover cut outs from the three chairs I did in the preceding few weeks. All three of these were carved in one day. These were practice tikis and were approached more from the technique angle. I was less concerned with final outcome of these than most of my work up to this point. There were a couple of things that I wanted to try with these log pieces. One thing that I wanted to do was try to do more precision cutting with the chainsaw. Another was to work very fast on a piece. Another was to carve the same scale face with hand chisels and compare the results with the ones that I rough cut with the chainsaw. Bye bye slow modem people! See you next page or so...

Leftover pieces from the chairs(one is missing)

chalked and drawn, Yawn! Actually, I had to make the nose way higher than I wanted to because the tree service put a big gash on one spot of the log. I just worked it into the nose...

I cut these lines wearing my safety gear

mouth cleaned with flat chisels(c'mon uncle Sam, send me my refund...)

I cannot see anything different about this picture from the last one.

This one looks different though. Ready for burning...

There is this always pissed off guy on American Hot Rod. I forget how to spell his name, it but it is pronounced like "burnt." Whenever they say his name, I yell "BURNT" as loud as I can. This is now "BURNT!"

I did the next one all by hand, quicker than I usually work, but still trying to do the best I could
Here it is drawn out to symetrical perfection. I should have left it like this. Looks fine to me. Hey, maybe I'll just start selling drawn out logs to carvers. kind of like a carve by numbers kit...

Clank. clank. clank. Pieces fall out.

Just follow the lines.It's easy. Crest White Strips commercial here. (My first sponser. Yes, I sold out. Next up I join the carver's union and charge way too much for my stuff)
Before crest strips...

After...Check out that bright white smile!!!

I kept carving. I just did the face. It's about a wrap for this one...

Slap on some teeth...

Details so that you can charge a couple more bucks for it...

Done. Move on. Next one was done as fast as possible. Mostly chainsaw.

Done.

If Zaya was to be here at this very moment, she would be covering her ears because I'm yelling "BURNT" again.

(If you are actually still reading all this blather, I overburn the burned areas, and then sand off the excess. I changed my mind about the black pupils and made the eyes bigger than I originally planned.)
All together now...yell "BURNT"

C'MON Florida, put your hands up and yell, "BURNT". Now Wisconsin! "BURNT"

Stained it with two colors of stain:

I like the way it looks with the various shades. Looking at these pictures, I almost miss this thing.

I just sprayed on some sealer for the other two. Can you tell which one was done by hand?

Around this time, my tikis really started piling up around my house.

It was about this time that we heard about Tiki Oasis 6. Everything started getting real crazy after this. It still is.
Anyway, What I learned:(Shouldn't I be getting royalties for this part by now?)

1. I can tell the difference between my hand carved and chainsaw carved stuff easily.
2. Do not throw away any good log pieces. I almost threw these away, but kept them for practice.
3. I made about $220 carving these pieces in one day. OOPS! hey IRS, I mean I gave these to a charity auction and they sold them for $220. About that refund I mentioned earlier, If I buy tools for my "business" with my refund, can I use that as a deduction and get another refund, but only twice as large?
4. I have too many tikis now. It is official.
5. My ugly, practice tikis all sold first at Tiki Oasis.
   Geeze! This took forever. I can't wait to catch up to present day tiki making time...
   Reflective Buzzy out!