Post #383409 by harro on Thu, May 29, 2008 8:36 PM

thanks Benella, Bowana, seeksurf, Robin, Ben, and Gman - appreciate you guys stoppin' in and helping me out...

battling against the clock now as we have to move out of our apartment in 2 days... urghhh, and then moving overseas in one week today... and now the freakin' cold has swooped in like a rapidly advancing glacier (such a thing?). In other words its freezing out (1 deg C / 32 F), so I took advantage of the now near empty living room and moved the entire workshop (read: one portable workbench) inside near the toasty heater.

I tried to do what Bowana makes it out to be so easy and have a contrast of smooth drum and facial features, contrasted against a rough, chiseled body (kinda like mine :lol: haha, stoppit). But i've got a bit of work to do to be able to get the chiseled finish looking half decent. Of course a newbie can always blame his tools, or lack of, and the poor wood. So yes i will do that. :)

Here it is with carving finished (sorry bad pic):

THEN I started the stain last night and it all went downhill!! Firstly I got pretty high staining inside in a tightly closed apartment and then didnt open a window until this morning, haha. It would have been ok with one coat of stain, but I stupidly went ahead and did another on the body and it was just too much. Too much bright RED cedar stain. Good for a Santa tiki, but Mieko's already done one of those. So it's a bit of a mess at the moment, but with a bit of guidance from Ben maybe I can save it. Unfortunately don't have time to sand it right back as I probably should do.

I dont have a camera now so I cant post pics of the poor fella but I will keep you guys up to date, and something will happen soon as I have no choice!!!