Post #348612 by AlohaStation on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 6:23 PM

Ok dinner is done and I can move on with this story.

For years there has been a medium-sized tiki in the OUTSIDE garden that made you look twice - "What the hell is that!" It stood next to a small path that leads into a small courtyard in the Rock Garden. It looks like someone eventually came along and painted the outside - how do we know - there are eyes painted on the outside. Similar to the smaller tiki that was inside it was a wooden tiki with an outside rubber skin. Will and I have looked at this one several times and we really wondered what was inside. When you tap on the outside it sounded solid. Something had to be inside, but what condition was it? The tiki had been cemented onto a faux rock pedestal so it was not something we could check. When we asked what was inside, once again no one knew. Remember these things have been around since the 50's and there is no one left that knows the answers. After some prodding Will talked them into removing it from its pedestal. Here it is...

Look familiar. There were high hopes for this one, till it was loaded in the van, ANTS came pouring out the bottom. Oh crap! Well, the bottom was soaking wet and very soft. We started peeling and our fears were NOT met. The inside had been perfectly preserved!!!! Even though the tiki had been outside so SO LONG, the rubber skin had kept the moisture out and the ants were only in the base. So we peeled and peeled and peeled and peeled... That rubber had been on it for DECADES and it wasn't going to release easily. Here are some progress pictures.

Looks pretty nice! Will and I are so pumped that we intentionally made ourselves stop and regroup every few minutes. We had two goals: 1) remove the tiki from its rubber tomb 2)preserve the rubber for future casting. My fingers hurt so bad right now, from working the rubber off the wood and out of every little crack. 3 hours later we had reached the end. here is the treasure that we found...

The wood is rock solid and gorgeous! The tiki had been so well preserved that there are even pencil marks on him from when it was carved! He had been in that skin for DECADES and he looks like he was just carved. We are very stoked at this point. He needs very little cleanup to get some of the more stubborn rubber off and maybe some rejuvinating oil. Here are some detail shots...

Any info on this guy is welcome as well. This was a blast and a lot of work! This was my first opportunity to do some urban archeology and it has gotten me more enthusiastic to give Will more help in his restoration project. I hope that everyone gets a chance to check him out after the final cleanup is done. Well that concludes our tiki treasure quest.

If you have any pictures of either tikis in their spots please post them.

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2007-12-09 18:33 ]