Post #355238 by ErichTroudt on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 11:19 PM

The sanding the colors off is an excellent idea. Many years ago I was given these tiki masks as a gift. (the bird of paradise in the pic are now over 15 feet tall)

They were bright, (in my opinion) ugly colors, and not the look I wanted. rather than throw them away, I repainted them green and the other brown. I sanded of the extra lines so the faces were smooth.

I placed a palm frond behind one. The other I took palm fronds, peeled them back to create long pieces, bunched them together, tied them to his head and made him a head dress or hair.

now, they aren't traditional, and I'm sure some people won't like them, but in my eyes they were original and looked a hell of a lot better than they did. I've seen worse stuff in tiki establishments....

Imagination is a big part of this and can often help in the pocket book department.