Aaron’s New Akua (Done!)

hey DoubleA, that guy relly looks great. I Love how Clean all the detail is. Nice and smoothe and good lines. See what the extra sanding will do?

Aron, love the expression on his face.

Er, Okay... How about "Staining will commence next week"...

Small setback... After all that sanding, I thought "I've got to get all this dust out of this guy before finishing". So of course I hit it with a high powered water hose. You can see in the photo that it's still a bit damp.

Two minor problems with this: 1) Damp wood probably won't work well with the oil based stain that I bought. and 2) I noticed that all of the wood swelled up, raised the grain, & a few new cracks appeared. I was pissed!

So, today I went out & bought an air spray tip for my compressor, and spent about an hour going over all of it with 100 and 150 grit all over again, spraying it off with air intermittently.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh! Time to put away the sandpaper & pour a cold martini.

Thanks for the props Ben & Swampy, I'm gonna call it a day!

After couple of days when I'm sure all of the moisture is completely gone, I'll do the 2-tone & post a few picks.

Cheers!
(and I mean that)

Aaron

That is awesome, love the eyes . I cant wait to see him done.

The white edges of the tile were showing a little, so I picked up this high gloss acrylic enamel paint called “Glossies”. The color I used is a deep blue purple. You apply it, then bake it in the oven for 45 minutes or so. I painted up all of the edges (not shown here), and the color wound up matching nicely. Small detail, but the white edges were bugging me.

All ready for staining. The product I’m using is Olympic oil base wood stain. The colors are “Natural” for the teeth & eyes (small can), and “Red Mahogany” for the rest. The green can is Minwax “Helmsman Spar Urethane”. I meant to get Marine Varnish like Benzart uses, but wound up with this instead. Who knows, maybe it will work better. The can says to wait only 6 hours between coats & sand with 220 grit in between. I’m gonna take Octane’s advice and double the dry time just to make sure. Either way, 12 hours of dry time beats 48 hours any day of the week. Just hope it looks as nice.

Started with the teeth & eyes, that way the dark stain is less likely to run from the dry areas into the already stained light areas.

Next comes the tricky part. I used a small artist’s brush to bring the dark stain right up to the light stain. This particular palm wood is dry as a bone, so I had to work fast. The stain directions say to apply it, then wipe it off 5 minutes later. It didn’t work that way for me. This stuff dried so fast, I had to sort of wipe it as I went to keep it uniform.

I took Polynesiac’s advice & used foam brushes for the broad strokes. It seemed to work well for getting into all of the small cracks. Here’s a few close-ups.

Here’s the tiki with the eye & ear inlay set in for effect. I’m actually gonna wait till the next to last coat of polyurethane is applied before I glue these in. They are plenty glossy as is.

Here's the first coat of gloss.

This is my last posting of progress pics on this tiki. I’ve got 9-12 coats of polyurethane to go & he’s done. I hope you all enjoyed this along with me. Thanks to all who posted such great advice. Look for the final product in a week or two.

MAHALO!

A-A

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-10-31 16:27 ]

Aaron's it really looks great. You have finished this with such fine detail its outstanding. It is a simple tiki but you have turned it into a masterpiece. You have to be proud of it, I would.Now is when you are supposed to be roughing out the next one or two. Chop Chop, no rest for the weary

That is looking great , if I scroll really fast I can see your carving being born. Keep us posted on the next one .

You did a great job!!! I think it is so cool to look at the whole progress of it all. That tiki is beatiful!! I can't wait to see it finished.
Later,
Spermy

yeah, bro. Forget about all this staining crap and start carving again! :wink:

I hear your next carving calling...moaI, moAI, mOAI, MOAI!!!

Looks like a real classy tiki - nice job!

AA: tha't top notch...wuznt sure how the tiles would look...thought about it seeming like those resin inlay projects of highschool shop, but it looks very very good.

The single improvment I might think could be the use of Madrone. (yar...)

See you in a few weeks!

Great work Aaron,wheres it gonna go?
Looking forward to more

Aw, shucks...no masterpiece by any means... Thanks, Benz- you've been a real mentor since I started posting here. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

And thanks for all the props, guys. All this positive feedback is really charging me up! Now, while this one's getting glossed up, I'm laying out plans for the next.

RT & Spermy, glad you liked the posting. Hopefully not too much detail? I like doing these progress posts - they keep me rolling. Next one will be similar (start to finish), but not so many questions. I think I've got the basics mostly worked out for now. But don't hold me to it...

Sorry, Polynesiac, the Moai-Ku is set aside for the moment. I'm doing a special request tiki as a favor to a friend who gave me some air tools. (Moai is next on the list).

Gigantalope is bringing me some Madrone logs soon. Can't wait to tear into 'em. Thanks Big-G, that's SO cool of you to bring them down. Yeah, I wasn't so sure about the tile, but it seemed to work out. If I ever develop a "style", this may be part of it. Looking into getting a used tile saw.

Cheeky, my next one will be a departure, 'cause I usually like to design my own stuff from scratch. It will be based on some work by one of our own Tiki Icons - with permission, of course. And there will be some modifications as well. Sorry to be mysterious, but you're all gonna have to wait for the next post....

A-A

It makes me fiendishly envious seeing your work...Maybe I too can devlope my own style...using Orange Wood!

Oye, feck! I fergot, I found a downed melalanka (paperbark)the other day...It seems to have twisty wood like a Euc. I may have time to part it out and bring some along if you have any opinion on it.

There are several Aussie Jokes about these trees as often they grow in riverbeds, and Abbos sleep under them.

Big-G,

I looked up the paperbark wood. It looks a lot like eucalyptus. I worked in a firewood lot in Hollywood a few summers as a teen, & saw a lot of "euc". This wood is real twisty & rough, probably not good for carving. Thanks much for the offer, though.

A-A

Great finish to a nice piece. This will encourage me to spend more time sanding my next one.

Hoo-wee! That came out SUPER!
I agree with Raffertiki, I need to spend more time making sanding dust on my next carving. Looking forward to seeing your next work of art.
Keep it up A2

Chongolio

side note on that paperwood tree...the grain is absolutely beautiful, I haven't tried to carve it but I know that it is a hard wood (insert joke here). I have seen friends turn the wood and make beautiful bowls with it. So...if you're into wood turning....it may be worth it.

Best of luck on your next carving, aaron, I know that it's going to be great! Love you progress pics and thanks for asking all the questions!

Hi Raffer, Chongo, & Polynesiac,

Being rather in touch with my "anal-compulsive" inner self, I just had to sand till I could no longer find any trace of chisel marks. You know those splinters that go half way up under your finger nail? OUCH! Well, after a few of those I decided it might be a good idea to pick up a nice high end pair of framer's gloves from Lowe's. Much better. You can ask all the questions in the world, but I guess that's how you learn.

So Euc & Paperbark is good carving, Polynesiac? My main experience from the old firewood lot was seeing logs mutilated with a hydraulic splitter, & the Euc just didn't look that great. Well, I already said "nay" to Gigantalope, but maybe I will get a chance to try out some of this stuff some time in the future.

Definitely need to learn more about the better carving woods...

Mahalo for the props, Amigos.

A-A

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-11-05 10:17 ]

Hey Aaron, real nice tiki. I particularly like the fact that you sanded the crap out of it. Sweet looking piece. Beautiful finish. Can't wait to see it with the inlays.

As an aside, you may also tape your finger tips with masking tape, keeps your finger prints on and still gives you a feel for the wood.

Aaron that guy turned out really good, looks like you got that two tone look you were after, and the tile is very coll and unquie. can wait to see the next one

Thanks Foamy. Yeah, I was actually doing that "tape" thing, only with bandaids. I like your preventative approach much better though!

Hey Octane, thanks for popping in. Your "mini-book" on staining and finishing came in real handy at the end. That input was super helpful - thanks again!

Still applying varnish coats every two days or so. Going on coat #5. It's looking pretty glossy and nice, so I'd say its close to done. In the mean time, I'm skinning a new log & putting finishing touches on the sketch for the next one.

Cheers!

Aaron

Hey arron that tiki will be able to survive outside for eons with all those coats you're putting on him! and he'll look great the entire time too!
I carved up a few other pieces from that same stringy palm I gave you a while back. Don't get frustrated with the stringyness - some logs are stringier than others (and even logs from the same tree vary on stringyness), just carve below it and it's nice and smooth and soft! Or grind those strings into submission!!!
show 'em who's the boss!!!!

Krikeys Dude. what a wealth of information here. That is so awesome for your first tiki. I'm fired up! thanks Aaron!

Thanks Polynesiac & Vontiki.

At long last, stick a fork in 'im, THIS TIKI'S DONE!

To see the finished product, SEE THIS POST.

A-A

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-11-11 18:07 ]

Muy Bueno! Looks great!

Thanks, Matt. When I'm finally ready to purchase my tiki bar, I comin' to see you... Er, and maybe that other "Bamboo" fella. Keep makin' those bitchin' bars & postin all of your great creations!

A-A

Bumping this one up for you, Ono. Lots of great answers to all of your finishing questions from the TC Pros.

A-A