Post #330634 by Paipo on Thu, Sep 6, 2007 1:52 AM

Cheers to sneaky, Robin, timid...

Yeah Sneaky, I tried to simplify it a little so it is still essentially Maori, but moreso just "tiki". The piece I based it on was totally moko'ed up and extremely weathered.

Robin, no polishing for me...ever! Plenty of sanding though. I sanded this up to #600 to get it crisp, then took it back with the sandblaster and a little dry tooling to weather it (see above), so it appears to have some age. The oxidised stone doesn't take a shine very well and I wanted this guy to look ancient!

Timid, most(but not all) of the nice golden-->green stone is from the Marsden district, but unfortunately this seems to have become a catch-all moniker applied by ignorant ebayers to any oxidised stone, particularly the term "Marsden Flower Jade" . Most Arahura stone oxidises white, as does the stuff from down south, whereas the stone nearer to where Tama and I are often has the nice yellow hues (but also may turn white!). Whatever the case, Marsden jade only comes from the Marsden goldmining area! Have you got any of the 3 editions of Russell Beck's book on New Zealand jade?

Anyway, he's all done now and turned out pretty well. I debated doing some more linework on the face, but decided to focus on the form and the play between positive/negative space. No point covering all that nice colour variation with excessive doodling!