Practice Makes Progress (Have A Great Day) Laz - Tiki Carving

N nicework Member Joined: Sep 15, 2014 Posts: 462	N nicework Posted posted on Tue, Oct 6, 2015 4:05 PM Thank you Big T!, I did not know anything about making tikis before i came to Tiki Central . I do have a Ice carving back ground which is helpful but my first shot at a palm i was so dissapointed that I did not carve a tiki for one whole year, Here is that Tiki, and notice those logs in the back i humped them all by my self to find out that they where Queen palm, Absulutley useless. Since The ice carving industry went from real Hand carved artist, to using the CNC machine I got bored with running the CNC machine , I know longer was a Artist I was a operator. This particular CNC machine could fit 9 slabs of ice on the deck. The Ice industry went from 3 d carvings like mermades dolphins angel fish seahorses all cool designs to LOGO The Ice industy is a logo industry and some ice companies have the I - Sculpt cnc which carves 3 d designs and then you detail it , Its a shity product and you can tell it was made by a machine So in the end of my Ice carving career this is what I was making , just running the machine filling the logos with colored sand , cleaning them up and calling it a Ice sculpture. And then people in the ice industry want to call them selfs Ice Carvers, I dont think so Hand carved Ice sculptures is a lost art taken over by the times , here is a Hand carved Ice sculptures I made. hand carved ice sculptures may not be perfect but a its made by a artist not a machine So I left the Ice Buisness and Got a Job as A line cook, so working for myself as a Ice artist it was a big challenge working with others, I guess I had control issues. and I steped on people toes with my self righteous attitude, I just did not fit in . Its hard to when you have worked for the best at the best then become a line cook, My only hope was to give this tiki thing another try. My friend Virgil medina Champion Ice carver called me up and ask me if I had some work for him in the Ice Buisness . little did he know that not only was i not in the ice game but got fired from my Job, I sold him on comming to my house to carve some palms we went to the land fill got some palms and started carving. This is virgil and me getting the palms at the land fill september 2014 We took the palms home in my car, Virgil made a work bench and we started carving. we both had no concept of traditional tiki, So we just carved out of the top of our heads, Our first carvings where ruff because we where not familiar with palm so we did not know the medium at all. I got fired from my Job and Virgil got laid of from the ice company he worked at due to know Ice carvings because the Ice company he worked at did not have the CNC machine and clients where going to diffrent Ice companies, So we both where out of a job, Virgil has it worst then me God bless him he has 3 kids and a wife that was not working and he was on the verge to loose his house, Me on the other hand My wife was working, my issue was I was not going to go back and work for anybody if i had to sell lemmons on the street i would of and still will do if i have to, So in desperation i was doing reserch and I found J ROCK with Rock Tiki Out Post My hero and best friend today, I called him over the phone and i told him my story and asked him if he could help us. He said sure I will be more than happy, God bless him J rock was my stepping stone to this Tiki carving He welcomed us to come over and we did . He gave us basic tips on palms tools he gave us a demonstration, He told us that we already have the carving skills just needed a little basic information on the medium ,Thanks J rock, if your reading this and sorry if i am breaking your annonymity, so with that information we went back to the drawing board with the info that j rock gave us, Major improvement with Virgil I still stuggled a little but having Virgil next to me was helpful . I can write a book about Virgil his brother June Medina was a World Champiomn Ice Carver June Medina Won the 1995 World chapionship In Japan, And virgil has many national Ice carving championships but any how thats another story. Here is Virgils first Tiki Carvings with the help of J Rock Then Virgil made this designed and i liked it so much that this is the design i learned first. . I practiced it over and over Well the story continues Virgil was in serious debt and he could not afford to build a new buisness, I pulled my trump card and called Chef Raffy the Man that taught me everything I know about carving and the culinary arts and Virgil Got a job at a Big hotel here in Orlando He not only needed money but also benifits for his family. So determined not to give up I dont know how it happened but on September 15 2015 I found Tiki Central. What a gift , It is here where I met other carvers willing to help me, I did not have any tools or experince with palms , You guys taught me about traditional tikis types of palms and wood where to find supllies , you guys inspired me with your work, incouragement , I am where I am today because of Tiki Central alway pushing my self to do a better carve then the one before, In september of last year I still was strugling, But I think that the member that inspired me the most was Soul Surf Tiki, ( Jeff ) thier are many amazing carvers here on TC but they did not have what Soul Surf Tiki had to offer and that was HOPE! I needed Hope because I sucked as a tiki carver all the talented carvers on here if you look at their first page they brought some skill and experince to the the table, But Soul Surf Tiki (pjc5150) first tiki was terible ! he joined Tiki Central in June 2009 and in a few years he really became a great tiki carver, He was the carver that gave me the courage to just keep on carving and i have, Soul Surf Tiki 2009 Soul Surf Tiki 2013 So i kept on this journey it was carve tikis or sell lemmons on the side of the road. In doing my reserch I found Wayne Coombs Mai Tiki And Crazzy Cappizi I do not know them but i was atracted to their style. Especially Wayne Coombs . I liked his smiling Tikis and I liked the carving style that Capizzi had as decore. WAYNE COOMBS CAPIZZI So thats the origin of my style of carving you can see the influence of thier style in my basic tiki design This is my basic design that if you ask me to make ten I could make them with out puting to much thought in it So then I felt like I was a fraud, because all I did was combined two carvers designed and called it my own, so I had to come up with my own design, and I have never looked back, What i did was combined my Ice carving skills and combined it with the so called florida beach tiki ,. In the ice buisness you carve what the client wants in the tiki busniss i carve what i like , big difrence . I still look at other carvers designs and try to make them, Latley i have been going on line and carving drawings of tikis, I am just so excited about being able to be part of Tiki Central . I know I do not make traditional tikis , I am sorry I just dont paticularly like them . I am not hawaian . I am a floridian and I make the floridian style tiki, I know i will make some traditional tikis soon . I just been doing this for a year, I cant wait to see what this next year is going to bring, I sold 4 carvings this week for $630 and i sold the spaty one for $400, Because of Tiki Central and the members that have helped me I was able to pay some bills, I am so grateful to be part of this . I hope to continue growing and learning . I am grateful I love will carves quality and skill and attention to details and for thinking out side the Box , I love Aloa Stations skills and schooli tiki designs , I enjoyed alho texas stepping up in the scene and just whatching him improve , and stoopid tikis those carvings are stoopid bud so dam cool the simplicity of them make them so awesome, I just love this journey I am on , I am looking forward to continue! practice make progress have a nice day, So Today My style of tiki carving is a combination of floridian beach tiki with a twist of my ice carving background I wonder what the derection i will go for this comming year, I pray it will be a Safe and healthy year for all Here is a link of most of the carvings i have done in my first year of carving floridain tiki style https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.957588207617535.1073741880.858189614224062&type=1&l=135c257ee2 [ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 17:58 ] [ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 18:00 ] [ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 18:04 ]

Thank you Big T!,

I did not know anything about making tikis before i came to Tiki Central . I do have a Ice carving back ground which is helpful but my first shot at a palm i was so dissapointed that I did not carve a tiki for one whole year,

Here is that Tiki, and notice those logs in the back i humped them all by my self to find out that they where Queen palm, Absulutley useless.

Since The ice carving industry went from real Hand carved artist, to using the CNC machine I got bored with running the CNC machine , I know longer was a Artist I was a operator.

This particular CNC machine could fit 9 slabs of ice on the deck. The Ice industry went from 3 d carvings like mermades dolphins angel fish seahorses all cool designs to LOGO The Ice industy is a logo industry and some ice companies have the I - Sculpt cnc which carves 3 d designs and then you detail it , Its a shity product and you can tell it was made by a machine

So in the end of my Ice carving career this is what I was making , just running the machine filling the logos with colored sand , cleaning them up and calling it a Ice sculpture. And then people in the ice industry want to call them selfs Ice Carvers, I dont think so

Hand carved Ice sculptures is a lost art taken over by the times , here is a Hand carved Ice sculptures I made. hand carved ice sculptures may not be perfect but a its made by a artist not a machine

So I left the Ice Buisness and Got a Job as A line cook, so working for myself as a Ice artist it was a big challenge working with others, I guess I had control issues. and I steped on people toes with my self righteous attitude, I just did not fit in . Its hard to when you have worked for the best at the best then become a line cook, My only hope was to give this tiki thing another try. My friend Virgil medina Champion Ice carver called me up and ask me if I had some work for him in the Ice Buisness . little did he know that not only was i not in the ice game but got fired from my Job, I sold him on comming to my house to carve some palms we went to the land fill got some palms and started carving.

This is virgil and me getting the palms at the land fill september 2014

We took the palms home in my car, Virgil made a work bench and we started carving. we both had no concept of traditional tiki, So we just carved out of the top of our heads, Our first carvings where ruff because we where not familiar with palm so we did not know the medium at all. I got fired from my Job and Virgil got laid of from the ice company he worked at due to know Ice carvings because the Ice company he worked at did not have the CNC machine and clients where going to diffrent Ice companies, So we both where out of a job, Virgil has it worst then me God bless him he has 3 kids and a wife that was not working and he was on the verge to loose his house, Me on the other hand My wife was working, my issue was I was not going to go back and work for anybody if i had to sell lemmons on the street i would of and still will do if i have to,

So in desperation i was doing reserch and I found J ROCK with Rock Tiki Out Post My hero and best friend today,
I called him over the phone and i told him my story and asked him if he could help us. He said sure I will be more than happy, God bless him J rock was my stepping stone to this Tiki carving He welcomed us to come over and we did . He gave us basic tips on palms tools he gave us a demonstration, He told us that we already have the carving skills just needed a little basic information on the medium ,Thanks J rock, if your reading this and sorry if i am breaking your annonymity,

so with that information we went back to the drawing board with the info that j rock gave us, Major improvement with Virgil I still stuggled a little but having Virgil next to me was helpful . I can write a book about Virgil his brother June Medina was a World Champiomn Ice Carver June Medina Won the 1995 World chapionship In Japan, And virgil has many national Ice carving championships but any how thats another story.

Here is Virgils first Tiki Carvings with the help of J Rock

Then Virgil made this designed and i liked it so much that this is the design i learned first.

I practiced it over and over

Well the story continues Virgil was in serious debt and he could not afford to build a new buisness, I pulled my trump card and called Chef Raffy the Man that taught me everything I know about carving and the culinary arts and Virgil Got a job at a Big hotel here in Orlando He not only needed money but also benifits for his family.

So determined not to give up I dont know how it happened but on September 15 2015 I found Tiki Central. What a gift , It is here where I met other carvers willing to help me, I did not have any tools or experince with palms , You guys taught me about traditional tikis types of palms and wood where to find supllies , you guys inspired me with your work, incouragement , I am where I am today because of Tiki Central alway pushing my self to do a better carve then the one before, In september of last year I still was strugling, But I think that the member that inspired me the most was Soul Surf Tiki, ( Jeff ) thier are many amazing carvers here on TC but they did not have what Soul Surf Tiki had to offer and that was HOPE! I needed Hope because I sucked as a tiki carver all the talented carvers on here if you look at their first page they brought some skill and experince to the the table, But Soul Surf Tiki (pjc5150) first tiki was terible ! he joined Tiki Central in June 2009 and in a few years he really became a great tiki carver, He was the carver that gave me the courage to just keep on carving and i have,

Soul Surf Tiki 2009

Soul Surf Tiki 2013

So i kept on this journey it was carve tikis or sell lemmons on the side of the road. In doing my reserch I found Wayne Coombs Mai Tiki And Crazzy Cappizi I do not know them but i was atracted to their style. Especially Wayne Coombs . I liked his smiling Tikis and I liked the carving style that Capizzi had as decore.

WAYNE COOMBS

CAPIZZI

So thats the origin of my style of carving you can see the influence of thier style in my basic tiki design
This is my basic design that if you ask me to make ten I could make them with out puting to much thought in it

So then I felt like I was a fraud, because all I did was combined two carvers designed and called it my own, so I had to come up with my own design, and I have never looked back, What i did was combined my Ice carving skills and combined it with the so called florida beach tiki ,. In the ice buisness you carve what the client wants in the tiki busniss i carve what i like , big difrence . I still look at other carvers designs and try to make them, Latley i have been going on line and carving drawings of tikis, I am just so excited about being able to be part of Tiki Central . I know I do not make traditional tikis , I am sorry I just dont paticularly like them . I am not hawaian . I am a floridian and I make the floridian style tiki, I know i will make some traditional tikis soon . I just been doing this for a year, I cant wait to see what this next year is going to bring, I sold 4 carvings this week for $630 and i sold the spaty one for $400, Because of Tiki Central and the members that have helped me I was able to pay some bills, I am so grateful to be part of this . I hope to continue growing and learning . I am grateful I love will carves quality and skill and attention to details and for thinking out side the Box , I love Aloa Stations skills and schooli tiki designs , I enjoyed alho texas stepping up in the scene and just whatching him improve , and stoopid tikis those carvings are stoopid bud so dam cool the simplicity of them make them so awesome, I just love this journey I am on , I am looking forward to continue! practice make progress have a nice day,

So Today My style of tiki carving is a combination of floridian beach tiki with a twist of my ice carving background I wonder what the derection i will go for this comming year, I pray it will be a Safe and healthy year for all

Here is a link of most of the carvings i have done in my first year of carving floridain tiki style
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.957588207617535.1073741880.858189614224062&type=1&l=135c257ee2

[ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 17:58 ]

[ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 18:00 ]

[ Edited by: nicework 2015-10-06 18:04 ]

Post #752120 by nicework on Tue, Oct 6, 2015 4:05 PM