Post #499710 by Aweulekuula on Fri, Dec 18, 2009 6:27 AM

In the summer and fall of 1997, when I first decided I wanted to carve Ki'i, I ordered a huge chunk of ebony off of eBay. I found out that the Uhiuhi wood I would have liked to carve had gone extinct in the wild and that ebony would be the best substitute to approach its qualities. The second image I carved from that chunk (my third image ever) was never intended to be more than an exercise, to see whether I could get the body posture right before I carved my first Akua Ka'ai (stick image).

This was the result. I was never really happy with it, since the base didn't allow the Ki'i to stand up and it wasn't a pure Akua Ka'ai or 'Aumakua image. So for more than ten yeasr this poor little guy has been sitting on the back of shelves or in the closet.

Four days ago, as I was packing up my carving stuff after finishing the last Christmas gift images, I felt hat maybe it was time to fix those "mistakes" on that image and I went back and removed the stubby base, freed the arms from the torso, and re-shaped the chest a bit. Now he is a pure 'Aumakua style image and sits on my shelf with the rest of my personal Ki'i. I guess he was my own Christmas present.

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!

Marcus