Post #251919 by Tamapoutini on Fri, Sep 1, 2006 4:33 AM

Kia ora Folks, all excited about joining the community so Im back sooner than expected - Kids are in bed & almost wife is happily reading so I thought Id grab the opportunity to start my ramble on carving tiki in Greenstone/Pounamu/Nephrite jade... Im sure over time this will be seen by a few and I hope that it may educate & perhaps inspire some of you to try something a little different...

I will try to keep things brief & not hugely tech-talk, but this is my pet subject remember :)

Paipo has given you a pretty good rundown on the basic tools & processes commonly used by our local 'studio' stonecarver & I will jump on the opportunity to devote this thread to Pounamu carving in particular. Im a tiki-guy for sure, and this is my material of choice...
We have a bit of a unique industry in NZ, especially here in Westland, springing from the fact there is a natural jade occurance, discovered by the Maori around 1000 years ago. 3 main occurances, all in the Sth Island.
There are many books on the subject so I wont go on & on about the geology/formation/history, etc. 'Mana Pounamu. New Zealand Jade' by Russell J Beck is the book to have, all you could want to know...

*Give me a week & I will try to have the step-by-step Hei-tiki project done and posted here... Hope you enjoy it! I will carry on my browsing of your work for now...

*Basement Kahuna!! Wow! I certainly cant claim to have discovered you but am your latest/greatest fan! What a character, what an artist! Love your stuff!...

**A heads-up for you hard-core wood carvers interested in Maori carving... Try a Google for the work of Roi Toia -He is THE MAN! for contemporary-yet-traditional whakairo/wood carving... I tried a search myself & after a fair bit of trawling came up with a fair bit of 'guff' but not so many pics (you just gotta see!!), but **If you can get your hands on 'Kahui Whetu'-Contemporary Maori Art/A carvers Perspective, by Roi Toia & Todd Couper (Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd), I guarantee it will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!

Thats all for now young Grasshoppers... Im off to browse more BIG stuff... Andy :)

[ Edited by: tamapoutini 2008-06-24 23:01 ]