Post #470119 by TikiMango on Sun, Jul 19, 2009 12:06 PM

Surfintiki, thanks for the comps!

Benzart, I think I actually can manage a 3-plait briad, it would be the 4-plait that I would have trouble with.

Hiphipahula, thank you for the kind words. Bone treats a person right as long as you treat it equally kind.

Laojia, thank for your comments. That is a great looking piece, a real challenge for sure. I'm not sre if I am ready to go there yet.

Tiki 65, sorry for not remembering who you actually are from Hukilau. If you caught me at the right time I was lucid and sober, but it was rare. Thank you for the compliments. Grab some bone and go for it.

So... I've had my 6 year old son (Clark) visiting me in Florida from Los Angeles. During Week One we've hit the beach a few times, spent 11hrs at Walt Disney World, and I've tried to get him interested in other things I did was I was his age. I think he really enjoyed walking down a few blocks to 7-11 to grab a Slurpee. I told him the trick is to drink it all before we get back home before it melts, without getting brain-freeze. He failed.

Then he was bugging me to make a tiki. I knew he didn't have a clue as to how involved a tiki can be, but I humored him. We sketched out a few designs, but in the end he kept changing his mind, so all the designs flew out the window. He basically told me what the eyes, nose, and mouth should look like, and I did my best to interpret his ideas while giving him a whack at using chisels and a mallet. Luckily we had some constant shade under our Mango tree, but it was still hot. So I present my first tiki collaboration, dubbed by my son Whatever Tiki.

We sketched a design on the palm log, but it changed slightly. I think the 18oz mallet was a bit too much for him.

I told him he could just push the chisel if its sharp enough, you just can't take as much off. He seemed to like this. Check out that look of concentration on his face.

He was having a hard time getting a good angle on the chisel, I told him, "Sometimes you just have to climb on top of the tiki and show it who's boss."

He wanted to sit on the tiki all day as our dog Matai chilled in the chips.

Clark exhibiting and exerting some carver mana into his first tiki.

Not too shabby for his first tiki... of course I had to help out here and there. I might let him try some finish sanding on it, and maybe even some stain if he's up to it.