Post #398675 by tiki beat by marcus thorn on Sun, Aug 3, 2008 8:25 PM

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to have been away so long. Just home again after another trip to Hawaii.

Thought before I got stuck into projects here I’d say an overdue Hey, and follow up on what’s been happening in Hawaii.

I arrived in late June and finished “Henry”. His Hawaiian name given by Karen’s uncle Keoki, is Heneri Kumu Manako- which translates to Henry Mango Tree.

The tree came from Henry street on the Windward side of Oahu and was really nice to carve, initially it was softer and had a texture similar to palm.

It hardened up between trips with very little cracking. Our mango didn’t have a lot of color or character so we decided to finish it in “Trader Vic’s”- which has nothing really to do with Trader Vic’s is just is the name of our Antique finish. We are really happy with the results.

This trip I began an 8’ New Zealand style carving “ Kappy”.

Kappy’s Hawaiian name is Ohai Kapiolani - after Kapiolani Boulevard and Ohai the Hawaiian name for Monkeypod.

Kappy is made from a beautiful old log, it is my first time with this wood and I loved working it. Kappy has a beautiful long sweeping grain, a light sap wood and deeply colored heart. The result is a nice high/low shading similar to what occurred on the Tiki Beat tiki. My plan is to do a lot of surface tattoo work on this piece which I’m looking forward to.

I arrived in June and the late July date for the Hawaii all-collectors show rolled around quickly. Loading sculpture at this scale is a challenge. Karen’s cousin Pomai has never missed a Big Tiki move for her, even though he lives on Maui. Pomai, a Maui fireman and former Honolulu Bus driver got the driving honors because I prefer the other side of the road and don’t really know the city all that well.

There were moments that didn’t go so smoothly, someday we will show the film under heading; “How not to move 1000+ lbs. of wood”, but Kappy, Henry and their stupid humans survived.

The show was such a good time we signed on again for next summer. Ilene and Wayne who run the show were awesome to work with. They offered so much assistance (fork lift) and support, and are just the nicest people. It’s an enormous show, and I highly recommend it as a not to be missed experience for anyone interested in seeing lots of Tiki, Hawaiiana and Vintage Collectables.

Karen has always had a lot of support from her family for her Antiques and Collectables business, so our double booth was fully staffed with Pops, Cousins, Nieces and the indispensible Auntie Irene.

To date I’m the only non Maguire ever to work in the booth, so I think this means I’ve been adopted into the Ohana.

With my 2 big carvings Karen showed a nice collection of Vintage Velvet paintings: Tyree (2), Leeteg (1), Behan (3), and Miller (1).

I met some great Tiki Central folks. Freddie- House of Ku is a new mate, enjoyed the good times we had enjoying Pau Hana beer and poke. Max is a new friend too, many of you may know him from his association with the Thor store. Mr Van tiki whose been doing outstanding work with art mugs also stopped in to say aloha. The Tikimaster himself; Jerome made a point to come in to the show to welcome me to the Islands. I really appreciated the support he offered for our venture. I also met a couple that share my love of Art and Hot rods; Jason and Tracy. Both artists themselves, they treated me to a nice ride in their sweet old 51 Chevy and 53 Dodge.

Yvette, made everything possible by holding down things at home, I’m looking forward to a trip soon where she’ll get to meet everyone in Hawaii and experience the Aloha Spirit first hand.

I will post photos later today.