Post #343174 by congatiki on Sat, Nov 10, 2007 1:01 PM

Well, as Lakesurfer will attest, outdoor work is getting unpleasant around here. Days are too
short and the temps are too low.
Here is the finished "Proud Moai."


This feller posed a lot of problems for ole' Conga. First off, the wood (basswood of course) seemed
almost "cork-like" in some areas, the surface would compress and the layers underneath would crumble.
I am sure the chisels were sharp enough, right Ben?
And then I was gonna use a "burgundy" stain and there were huge splotches where it turned black.
So then I decided to cover the entire sucker with a dark walnut stain and that turned disasterous as
well, the poor bastard looked like Carol Channing, just too much stuff covering up too much crap.
So Ole' Conga decided to sand the entire carving to get back to the original basswood, just leaving
some of the dark areas as a sort of "burn."
The end result is this. Sanding sealer topped off with a little mystery spray.
The feller in the back is one that I started prior to seeing Bosko's Moai trio...too late
again. I was gonna just quit and toss him on the burnpile but since we are all friends and no one
is gonna attack me for tiki-plagiarism...I'm going to finish him.
Sorry to ramble.