Post #508365 by coconuttzo on Mon, Feb 1, 2010 4:01 PM

Aye, I forgot for post some pics of my first born boneheads.

I am not happy with my first, I still have enough material to try to salvage it, but for now I am too ashamed of it to call 'my own' creation. Maybe I'll take a before & aft surgery pic(that's if I ever decide to pick it up again).

So this is actually my second piece I ever carved out of bone on Jan 27th. It measures 2 1/4" x 1/2"(67mm x 14mm). I made this for my wife who loves green sea turtles. It depicts 3 turtles in a single file line, portraying me, my wife, & our son.

It was inspired by different pieces done by Rainhawk and TikiMango. I'd first seen Rainhawk's piece, & it looked like it was carved out of a boar's tusk. I wasn't sure what it was but imagined what boar's tusks would feel like under the dremmel knife & then a recent post of TikiMango's showed up and I was massively impressed.

Although I had no boar's tusk, I had improvise & had to use bone from the one & only Petco store on the island(2.5 hrs. drive away). Coincidentally I was looking for the new Target(only one on the island) & was lucky enough to find Petco across the street. All Brand New Shopping Centers opened last year July.

I cut the piece off one of those corner edged ridges and started shaping and carved out about 3hrs. later(minus the thinking of what to do & other sidetracked activities)what you see here...

I found dental carbide burrs on ebay and my dentist gave me a few of his used ones that was still in decent shape. So I tried testing it out to see how fine of a detail I can get. I am still not happy with the 3rd turtle which turns out to be 5mm long. My son says it looks like a seal & you know what , I think he may be right. Man, I need to get me a flexshaft. The dremel tool was too cumbersome to hold, especially for that lil' guy.

And yes, that is the 2nd turtle's head on the left rear of top turtle. I told my wife that it portayed her as always trying to take over my position as HOH. She just laughed. She adores this piece very much.

Sorry about the lighting, clouds came, rain gods blessed us after no rain since Dec. 20, 2009.

This is a simple makau design that I just was futtin' around just to see how fast I could make one. It measures 2 1/2" x 1 3/8"(60mm x 35mm). Took me about an hour total. I was confused when it came time to lash it though. There are no decent how to's on that subject with out drilling a hole in the middle for the cord, so I had to figure it out myself. I had to beckon the ancestral mana for assistance and I just started going at it. It holds pretty strong so I am confident that I have it done right.