Post #330236 by Polynesiac on Tue, Sep 4, 2007 6:26 PM

I'm certainly not a tiki guru (aka "old guy") around here, but I've had the good furtune to talk shop with many of them. Inspiration lies in the literature of what tiki is and where it came from. Study the different styles from all over the south pacific. (take Gman up on his very generous offer of pictures if you can't spend some time at the library or searching through tiki central, BOT or tiki modern). Study how the carvers of the 60's and 70's interpereted the "tiki style". Emulate the original designs, but make them your own and try to actually CARVE out the tiki, rather than scratch into the wood. Look at structural design of tikis - how are their body's formed? Where are the arms? why are they like that? how do the feet look? How does the face/body fit together symmetrically? Look for deep areas and shallow areas - see how the knees come out of the wood, that arms may turn into the wood, and the tongue comes out of the mouth. Search tiki central for tool advice (aaronsakua and the mastah benzart have many great posts about tools as do many, many other carvers), from beginning sets to more advanced and ask questions. The orignal carving post did too - but I was said to see that many of the pictures ahve not survived. I love that post.

Don't be afraid to try something that may be out of your percieved level of ability, grasshopper. If you do not try, you will never succeed.