Post #532296 by Bay Park Buzzy on Wed, May 26, 2010 2:39 AM

Sunsets to warm things up;

I've been away from this thread for a few days while I was adding new stuff to this gallery thread:
All kinds of new pictures of just finished pieces

I'll repost them all here when i have time.

I finished carving, sanding, and burning the new big drum. Tomorrow morning I'll do the rim and then it's stain time.

Introducing, for the first time in public, the official Tiki Caliente Drum:

I incorporated several different relevant sources into the final piece

For instance, the three tikis I carved on the legs are my "tribute" versions to this one by the Tropics pool:


The original tapered too much at the chin, so I had to put the foot under the tongues for stability.

The logo was a carved rendition of Doug Horne's event logo.

Carving this rated high up there in the stuff I've done difficulty scale

His original used the black lines on the letters as shadows to give the illusion of depth. I didn't need fake shadows on my letters because I was planning on carving them raised from the background, but I wanted the logo to look as exact as possible. So, I carved them out with the outline of the letter and shadow, and then went back and added the shadows with the trusty Optima 1 Dual woodburner. The tapa patterns on the frame were carved out first, then I went back and burned in the recesses with the woodburner. They should all be seen under the stain.
When I stain it, I'll do the background in a red stain, and do the outer images in a darker wood than the bell of the drum. Basically, I'm trying to get it like the original.

For the back of the drum, I used some elements from the Tiki Caliente 1 mug that I borrowed from Tiki-Kate

Thanks Kate! You'll have your mug back safe and sound real soon...

and because...

I didn't have enough room to really fit the A-frame the same way it was on the mug, I used this post card as a source for the carving:

The end result: palm trees, flaming tiki torches, and the A-frame

I couldn't do the usual finer details in th ecarving on this part because it's where you handle the drum the most. Smaller details would work, and i would have done them, if it was only going to be looked at.This piece is going to be functional: played and moved and handled, so I had to take that into consideration and carve and sand it with soft edges and duller details.

Now let's turn our attention to the inside of the drum:

Because of the way everything was configured on it, I was able to make the bell part a little larger than it appears from the outside view.
These lines show how it was hollowed out to make a bigger sound chamber:

After putting the head on, when I was testing this drum a few days back...(Here's a video of that and another one of my drums being played)

...I noticed the air/sound wave blowing out the hole in the bottom of the bell when I hit it. Kind of like a blast of air

that got me thinking...

What if I carved the mouths all the way to the hole that runs through the center of the drum?
The two red zones are where I then carved the mouths back through to the hollowed out center chamber

It was only about an inch away so it was really nothing hard to do

I shined a light through the center and snapped this picture to show the new air hole

I made one in each mouth.

Why?

#1 It might help the sound

but more importantly

If you take a burning incense cone and place it inside the drum at the bottom of the hollowed part on a fire resistant surface, then the whole drum chamber will fill up with smoke as it burns away. Then when you play it, the air forced out by the sound wave will blow the smoke out the holes in the mouths that connect to the center of the drum's hollowed part
Like this(in theory):

So while you're playing the drum, the tikis will be breathing out puffs of smoke in time with your playing

That would be even cooler if they could blow smoke rings!

I'll be back to answer old posts soon.
I need to rest now.
Buzzy Out!