Post #488829 by SDshirtman on Sun, Oct 18, 2009 11:50 AM

I've been working on my first tiki for several weeks. I did lots of research for design ideas here on TC and its been a great resource. Been doing lots of reading and studying on the artform. I'm an artist by trade but have never worked in 3d or carved before. I'm already getting addicted to it.
I took my tiki to Monkeymans chop a few weeks ago and got to meet lots of cool people. Thanks to everyone for all the great tips. I've been aprehensive about posting my work but as I promised 4WDtiki, I'm posting some pics of my progress. I'm reasonably happy with the progress but the more I browse TC the more I wish I would have chose an different design path more in line with traditional tiki. Maybe next carve.

So here goes.

Here are the logs as delivered. I have a tree trimming friend who hooked me up on logs. I wish I would have specified logs with out the husk.

I shaved the log down with a ryobi hand planer I got from home depot. $65

I roughed out my design and dug in. I had it in my head to carve my first using only hand tools. I'm using standard chisels and one gouge I bought from rockler for $65 (ouch)

Soon after I started I realized I didnt shave the log down enough so everything I drew got erased when I reshaved the log.

Here is the progress after a week or so. I bought a ryobi mouse sander for $30. I roughed out the teeth. I was going to do simpler teeth but thought throwing a tongue in there would be more of a challenge.

Here it is after some more work on the teeth and some work on the nose.

I wasnt really sure what to do on top so I went with a sort of crown design.

I'm probably being a little too meticulous but I'm using a small sanding block to flatten the bevels on the nose and crown.

I should be taking more pictures but here it is as of Friday night. I roughed out his "crown" and have his eyebrows done. I'm thinking of making the notches over his eye brows into little pyramids but I havent decided yet.

Late Friday night I roughed in the body. I didnt leave myself much room to work so I had to simplify.
I also took Bills advice and bought a 4.5" grinder for $20 and a router speed controller for $20 from Harbor Freight. My neighbor gave me his used electric chainsaw and I started using it Saturday to rough out the legs and arms. I like the control you get from hand tools but love how fast the power tools let me progress. So far I think the grinder was my best purchase besides the gouge. One of the problems I'm having is figuring out what I'm going to do on the feet. I wanted to do toes but I dont know if I've left myself enough room.

Thats all I have so far. My wife is working today and my Daughter is babysitting so I have all Sunday to drink beer and carve. I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-22 13:17 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-28 01:20 ]

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[ Edited by: sdshirtman 2009-11-26 11:00 ]