Post #479293 by Grand Poobah on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 4:49 AM

I had spent the early part of the summer working on the landscaping in the yard. I was able to find a few tropical plants that will (hopefully) last through the winter. After a while I wanted to update an old sign I had made several years ago. Here is the yard and the sign.

I then carved this guy. Sanding sure is a drag. I had again stained it and was immediately unhappy as I could not see any grain but could see a lot of imperfections. I sanded him down and torched him. The grain really popped.

I had started working on the next one when a neighbor asked if she could buy one! She was interested in the oak tiki I had carved (the first one I made). My wife said the others were off limits. I could make a new one or sell one that hadn't made it to the yard. The oak tiki was not my favorite. In fact I have never completed it as I was unhappy with his body. I told my neighbor that I would have to work on him a bit more. I cleaned him a good deal and then torched him. The grain came through nicely. I sold him for $100. I wasn't sure what to charge as I never really gave a whole lot of thought to selling these guys. My wife thinks I could have charged more as she said I had worked so hard on it, but I didn't’t want to overcharge either. I must admit it felt really good to have someone appreciate something I created to the point where they actually paid money to have it. This brings me to a question: How do those of you who sell your work arrive at a price?

Here is the next guy I am working on. I am really happy with the fingers and toes as they seem to resemble hands and feet this time. You can see that he developed a nice check right through the eye! I am really growing frustrated with the sanding part. My goal is to sand him as smooth as possible. I I will sand and sand, file, sand again while working up the grits, but it seems like I make little progress. I ended up throwing in the towel on the sanding. I began to burn him and immediately panicked as all of the imperfections jumped right out. I calmed down and began to stain him. As I did the grain started to pop out and the imperfections started to fade. I feel like I am chasing the white whale!

Finally my wife and I are hoping to get away for a week. We were sucked into a time share (I can hear some of laughing!) several years ago. We were looking to exchange into the Tahiti Village in Las Vegas. It looks very nice from what I can see from the web site. There is also a tiki bar called Tahiti Joes. If anyone has any goods on the place your advice would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.