Post #269112 by Tamapoutini on Mon, Nov 27, 2006 11:38 PM

Kia ora Guys n Gals.

Sorry for the slow postings lately - pretty much over the lurg but overwhelmed with work at the moment. Juggling tikis & customers like they're tennis balls and will be for the next few months Im guessing.

Thanks QueenK! How are your stone creations coming along? Be sure to add the finished products in the Stone Carving thread and/or whistle out for any help...

Hewey: A quick insight into how I come up with many designs... My usual approach is to slab a small block of stone down into jewellery-thickness pieces; have a good look at them under light to show any cracks/inclusions etc & mark these with a pen. I then get them back onto the trimsaw & trim them down to 'good' stone, ie: hack away all of these unwanted aspects, until 'voila' Im left with a small strangely-shaped chunk of material to make a tiki from... To maximise the use of my darling pounamu I pretty much design each tiki to suit the shape of stone available, always trying to squeeze the biggest possible image onto the slab. *I find its kind of nice to let an external opportunity/constraint (the limitations of size/shape) be of influence - it keeps me thinking & saves me from doing ALL the thinking :lol:
The Jackass group are a good example, all were drawn straight onto the slabs I had available.

Benz/JohnnyP: Its funny how the slightest variations make such a difference, eh? Ben you should know -Im guessing that you didnt learn to carve those beautiful peepers overnight!? Im only really picking patterns & moving them about until they look right, but I do realise the importance/impact they can have & take my time when making them.

Here'ya Johnny, more on the swinger...

Took the liberty of putting the doo-dah back. Hope this suits the interested caller? Ill PM shortly.

And the Eureka-Tiki all finished. Quite happy with this one, some good lessons learned.

Ive all but run out of pauashell but a generous friend/neighbour kindly donated some paua jewellery that I promptly smashed to pieces. (it was cheap nasty jewellery but made from nice shell, heehee)

Even when not posting daily, Im here, watching... Let those tikis fly!

Tama :)