Post #465256 by TikiMango on Sun, Jun 28, 2009 4:05 PM

El Stingray, thank you. Real lava is hard to come by in Florida, so I had to improvise.

AlohaStation, Surfintiki and Savage Daddy, I appreciate the support for "non-tiki" art being posted. I agree that it all loosely ties into Polynesian and Oceanic art, with tiki being a huge percentage. If I stray too far a field (posting carved elk, rabbits, etc), please reel me back in. It's great hearing positive comments from you guys.

Benzart, looking forward to visiting with you one of these days. Now when you say "real", are you telling me the paua shell I bought on ebay isn't real? Heaven forbid such activity takes place there. :o :wink: I'm not burned-out, but I am out of bone. Time to visit the pet store again. The people behind the counter must think my dog is a beast. Thanks for your stellar comments.

Grapa-RuHa, you can spell "awesome" however you like, no need to listen to GMAN. It's not like he has a PhD in English, but do listen to him when he starts talking about the ocean and its critters. Thank you both.

Tikiyaki, I miss The Rumpus Room too. Glad you're checking out my stuff. I hope your new CD sales are through da roof!

I managed to make another set of earrings. They are 1.5" long and .75" wide. Ladies, am I on the right track with these things? Again, symmetry is a real pain in the rear.

I tried a couple of different light sources and directions to highlight everything on this guy. I'm no photographer.

I'm calling this guy mostly done, he's all polished at least. I'm still waiting for my paua inlay, and a piece will go in his eyeball socket. Contrary to some comments I received from a few locals here, I did not carve his beak. What some people are thinking is the beak is just a coiled tentacle.

I liked carving the tentacles overlapping other ones. That was fun, and gives the piece some nice motion/interest.

This signature is all Benzart's fault. Usually I just carve simple back-to-back R's (for Ray Reynolds) on my bone stuff, but this squid, I figured it needed to be a little special. Benzart, thanks for the inspiration, even though my signature is much more simpler than yours or Clarita's.