Post #402558 by Bay Park Buzzy on Wed, Aug 20, 2008 11:10 AM

Tiki Oasis 2008 Journal Entry #4: The feeling of being watched

While I was down at the hotel on Friday morning, Zaya went to a leather supply company and picked me up a piece of rawhide for the drum head. I talked to the leather store lady about it the day before and it sounded like a pretty easy process. She said the hardest part would be cutting it. As soon as I got home, I took the hide and placed in the bathtub. It needed to soak for a little over an hour, so that meant that it would be ready about the time Jonesey and Bullet left. The funniest part about the rawhide was the reaction from the dogs. They were all over it. Pieces of rawhide for what I needed range in price from $50 to $200. Even though I got a low end piece of hide, it was still highly interesting to the dogs. We actually had to lock it in another room and they were still pacing and scratching at the door. When I put the hide in the tub, Kiva actually tried to take it out. I countered her advances by putting a bunch of rocks on it so it was completely submerged. That made it worse, because now I had in my bathroom a very tempting big bowl full of 20 gallons of warm rawhide soup.
The dogs were distracted by the arrival of our guests and the hide quickly softened. After Cammo had his second consecutive day of vending hats out of his car trunk out on the street in front of my house, and a mysterious package exchange between Bullet and LolTiki, everyone left and I had to get back to work. The whole time we were out in the street, I was wondering what my nosey neighbors were thinking. For a couple days now, Cammo would show up, open his trunk, and then people in Hawaiian shirts would gather around for several minutes and look at what he had in there, money would be exchanged, the trunk was slammed shut, and then everyone would quickly depart.

So now on to the drum head installation session:

The leather lady said I should cut the hide with a big pair of scissors. I tried that and it would kill my hand to do the whole perimeter cut. I then found use number #126 for my hookknife. It worked perfect and took about 40 seconds.
I started by making a paper template for it. I cut the head just a little larger than I needed. Based on how easily the hookknife cut the hide, I figured it would be real easy to cut it to size after I nailed it down.

I was kind of nervous when I was doing this because I had attack of paranoia because I was feeling like I was being watched the whole time

The next step was to nail it on. I stretched it and tacked away

I'm getting freaky forearm muscles from carving so much

Too much to do, not enough time. Freddie calls in the middle of the process so I have to multitask.

"Hey Buzzy, Howd the drum head turn out?"
" Freddie! I'm working on it as we speak."
"Cool! Where's Bullet and Jonesey They're not here yet."
"Carls' Jr. they should be there any minute now."
"Ok Buzzy, see you later tonight."
"C-ya Freddie."

Pulp Fictionesque cut to another setting:

Bullet, Freddie's Friend, and the Carl's Jr cup that is a metaphor for...

And now another quick cut to a flashback scene from the Bail hai the night before:

House of Ku and Zaya

Freddie and another one of his friends:

How does all this fit into the big plot? Keep watching to find out!

And then a quick cut back to the House of Buzz as the soundtrack switches to Bob Seger

I just about have it all nailed down as "Night Moves" rocks da House

Next step was to carefully remove the excess hide.

I have this troll who lives under my couch:

He darts out and grabs the scraps of rawhide when they hit the floor and quick as a flash he darts back into his den with them and gobbles them up.

The head was still loose and wet, and it would take a day or so to completely dry and stretch, so I just wrapped the rope into the recess I carved for it to size it so I could attatch it the next day

Here's the "finished" product:

And the dogs' patience finally paid off.
Ringo with a scrap larger than he is:

and Kiva finishing off the first of many pieces:

TC is real slow right now so I'm going to wrap up this post now and finish it up later.

Next Chapter: It's Go Time-Saturday's Fast paced Tiki Action Fest, featuring some of the most notable tiki personalities in the scene today!
Stay Tuned!

This is taking forever so no wonder I never did this the last couple years.
Buzzy Out!