Art by finkdaddy (#8 restarted, this one's a biter)

I guess this would be my first official carving. Not that impressive unless you learn that I carved it with a box cutter knife and some sandpaper.

Here's the next one I did. I used some poor quality wood carving knives. They dulled very quickly.

Here they are together.

I didn't stain or finish either of these. I figured I would get a few under my belt first. Thought I might try the die grinder on the next one, but I can only afford a couple of bits for it. Any advice on which two or three to buy for my first ones?

[ Edited by: finkdaddy 2005-11-20 07:26 ]

[ Edited by: finkdaddy 2005-11-23 04:34 ]

[ Edited by: finkdaddy 2006-01-08 06:42 ]

Cool Job FD. I like the style of both of them alot. Especially the second one.

hey finkdaddy....they're cool...now
make em bigger...much bigger.....how
about a couple of 20 footers in your
backyard!

Thanks Machtiki, that means alot.

Congatiki, I have a couple of white pines that I would like to bring down next spring. So it's possible!

Mr. Finkdaddy those are beautiful! Perfectly symmetrical and so well done.
But I gotta disagree with conagtiki, (sorry Mr. Conga) but if you carved those at twenty feet they would surely walk out of your yard and into somebody else's. Of course your wallet would feel a little fatter.
Really well done.

Oh, on the bits for your die grinder, look for the Kutzall carbide wood burrs. They come in red, silver and blue. Coarse, medium and fine. The fine ones clog very quickly on pine. Best to stick with Coarse or Medium. They'll last forever, well o.k., not forever, but a really long time. Wear gloves. They bite!

looking good bro! Keep with it!

Nice work Finkdaddy! I like'em!

On 2004-09-01 12:22, Mr. Dale wrote:
Oh, on the bits for your die grinder, look for the Kutzall carbide wood burrs. They come in red, silver and blue. Coarse, medium and fine. The fine ones clog very quickly on pine. Best to stick with Coarse or Medium. They'll last forever, well o.k., not forever, but a really long time. Wear gloves. They bite!

Thanks Mr. Dale, I will try those out. Then maybe I can start some of those big ones for Congatiki.

Tiki Toa, thanks much. How are yours comming? Don't be shy, the stuff I saw looked good so far. I will finish my profile thingy for you tonight, I hope. Maybe tommorow.

Cool Job FD. I like the style of both of them alot. Especially the second one.

The first one was easy, despite only being carved with a razor. The second one however, demanded a blood sacrifice. My first tiki bite!

I like them both,they look nice and smooth. I think it is good that you are starting small. starting small allows you to really focus on the detials and allows you to see how to do the cuts on a small sclae so when you move to a bigger chunk of wood you know what cuts to make.

looks good and keep them coming

Those are great, Finkdaddy. Before you go to buy tools, though, you might want to checkout the "Tools Carvers Use" post. Theres lots of carver techie type info in there and lots of great pictures of carver's tools to look at before you go shopping.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10451&forum=7&36

Without the quarter next to them, you'd think those were full scale tikis. I like the design and the smoothness of them. They look cool!

Looks good Finkdaddy,

If any of 'em need a good tiki bar home, let me know.

Bong

FinkDaddy, Excellent first 2 carvings, Again I cant believe these are your first. Like ,How many other firsts recently?. Us old carvers wil finally be able to take a break. Bring 'em on...
Thanks for sharing, I know it takes a lot of guts.

Thanks Benzart, Foamy, and all the others who commented. You've made my day.

All the newbie carvers who are posting decent pics lately, owe it all to you and the other artists here. I've stared at your carvings for endless hours trying to decide how to go about it. I wouldn't have even tried it, if you all hadn't been so open and helpful. Thanks again.

Tiki_Bong, I am so flattered that you would even ask! But wouldn't you rather wait until I make something a bit more substantial? If you really want one of them though, feel free to PM me. It would be my pleasure to see my kids play with the other tikis!

[ Edited by: finkdaddy on 2004-09-01 23:58 ]

Very cool finkdaddy......I like em both!

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 16:14 ]

Here is a new one I'm working on. I want to do some detailing on the top above the eyes, but I'm not sure what I want yet. This one will be stained and finished, unlike my first two. This one is a little bit larger, being about 10 inches I think.

Sweeeet!

Beauty! I really like him!

nice job finkdaddy....what is the diameter
or that good looking rascal....

Thanks tikifreak, Tikiwahine, and congatiki for the support! It is a work in progress, and since I can't get but a few minutes a week to work on stuff like this, it will be a long time before it's done.

This one, along with the other two I did, are all carved out of 2 inch diameter dowels. At the last place I worked, there was a huge box of these dowels, all about 10 inches long, that used to be part of an old RF Heatseal machine. The machine had been broken for years and was slated to be thrown away so I took the dowels to practice carving on.

fink...how had I missed this thread?!?!

Your carvings are GREAT! - you can get some great detail and smooth lines, my friend.

I agree with carving dowels, they're great fun and good practice for the big stuff!

keep carvin' and postin' - I'm diggin' what I'm seein'!

Poly is right, Great, Precise detale and Very smoothe, Fair lines. Difficult to do when you are down to this size

Your latest one is my favorite. I really like the eyes. He looks done to me, as far as shape, I don't think he 'needs' anything more on the top. Great detail, I can't believe that was a dowel, what a great idea! Great size to have living among small indoor container plants.

On 2004-12-03 14:20, finkdaddy wrote:
...I took the dowels to practice carving on.

Finkdaddy, you're well beyond the "practice" stage. You need a nice chunk of wood to sink your teeth into. Your work is great! Hell, if you were nearby, I'd gladly give you a palm log just to see what you could do with it. Keep your eye out. I've found that once you start thinking about carving, talking about it with your friends, wood just starts to magically appear. Can't wait to see where you take your carving - you've got some serious talent.

A-A

I like this tiki! Very cool and distinct... by the way, any Ed Roth fan is alright in my book!

http://www.samgambino.com

Wow, thanks everybody. You're way to kind. It's not even close to the works of Lakesurfer or so many of the carvers here. But thank you very much. I have a lot of sanding to do yet, and I have to pick out some stain.

Polynesiac, thanks for the support from such a cool tiki guy. It means a lot.

Benzart, big thanks to you. Your art is one of my biggest inspirations! BYW, how do you sand all the small features of your pieces? I can't smooth out little spaces, like in between fingers and the like. Do you just leave it?

ZebraTiki, Thanks much. I do like to put them in my plants. It turns a regular plant into a mini, mysterious jungle!

Aaron's Akua, you are also an inspiration for me. Thanks for all the kind words. All my friends and relitives know, all I want for Christmas is wood!!

Sam Gambino, that is so cool comming from a great artist like yourself. One of my favorite pieces is the one you made called 'The Harem'. I love the self-satisfied look on the tiki! I have and uncle who was a drummer for Black Oak Arkansas in the 70's. He has a big Ed Roth collection, along with a lot of that wierd hot rod art from the same period. Cool stuff.

Finkdaddy, get yourself a magnifyer that you either wear like glasses or one that fits over your glasses. You will see those small areas in a larger window. Then just get some rotory tools that fit the spaces Or gouges that fit and clean it up. When you are done it will look great with no magnification and everyone will thnk you are a genious.(who can't spell)

On 2004-12-05 16:46, Benzart wrote:
Finkdaddy, get yourself a magnifyer that you either wear like glasses or one that fits over your glasses. You will see those small areas in a larger window. Then just get some rotory tools that fit the spaces Or gouges that fit and clean it up. When you are done it will look great with no magnification and everyone will thnk you are a genious.(who can't spell)

Thanks for the advice Ben. There is a huge, wonderful wood-carving store nearby, and my intuition tells me I'll be getting a gift certificate from the wife this Christmas. If I do I will be buying lots of new tools!

Thanks again.

I reckon the carvings are ace - BRING ON THE PALM TREE!

another good magnifying device is something like what the dentist uses - Magnifying glass with an inbuilt fleuro on a moveable stand.

One of my mates uses one to make model cars and swears by it. Still keeps your hands free but not as annoying as glasses.

Hewey, do you hava a name brand or manufacturer of that magnifying piece??

Sorry mate

My friend has moved interstate and I cant contact him, and I dont know the brand. I live in Australia so brand might not help anyway...

I searched for "magnifying light" on google and this is one that came up
http://www.discountneedlework.com/detail.asp?Product_ID=8MG600
this one too
http://www.ocwhite.com/html/specification.html

See what you can find. I suggest places such as craft stores, modelling and hobby shops, etc. A jeweller may even point you in the right direction. My Grandma uses a similar thing because she has bad eyes - see if there are any companies in your area selling these.

I'm giving the carving another try.

Still have to put on some poly, but it'spretty much done. Mahalo!

real nice finkdaddy...is he resting on
another one of your suits from the 70s?

[ Edited by: congatiki on 2005-02-27 14:38 ]

Wow Finky, look at what you did, He's great. Excellent #3(Ithink)and the advancement is truely excellent. Big difference from 1 and 2. I think you have to cerve More and then some more again.

cool carving. The shot from the side looks like hes kickin back and havin a snooze

hey fink - nice one! you're really getting the hang of doing the detail. THis one looks GREAT!

Beautiful, nice work on the shading/highlighting there. Do you have to cover it in Poly? Couldn't you just do a wax finish?

great tiki!
I love the marq/hawaiian combo thing going on, fantastic!

Thank you one and all! To answer your questions/remarks:

No, it is not another one of my suits! :lol: Maybe if I included the tiki though, someone might trade me for it? :lol:

Thanks Ben. He's actually #4. I've started another one today that I'm going to give to a friend who's giving me some free software. I'm finding the thought of letting someone else have one of my tikis very difficult to deal with!

I suppose it does look like he's having a snooze, which is even funnier when you find out that he's laying on my bed spred! :lol:

I tried to put in some detail. A lot of what you see as detail came from pieces that broke off durring carving, so I had to carve around them to make it look good!

Using wax is a great idea. I've never even put any stain or finish on a carving, so I'm not sure how to proceed.

The marq/hawaiian thing wasn't really intentional. I just did one feature at a time, and the ones you see were the easiest for my amature hands and my cheap tools to carve.

It's so much easier to do when you have the support of folks like yourself. Mahalo everyone! :D :D

Thats the best way to learn, break something off and have to work yourself out of it. Thats when your carvings start to get that deep detail, Keep it up and wheres the pic's of the other one you started? come no come on, we need to see'em.

Looks great, FD. It really does look like you've got some stain/highlighting going on there. Great job.

A-A

I can understand the pain of giving him away - but think of how happy you would be if you were given it, that is how happy the other guy will be. Even more so cause you have hand carved it, not just flogged off some crap you found at a garage sale.

More!

Finkdaddy...you are too humble....it's
a great tiki...make a BIG one!!!

That really is some nice work, finkdaddy. Yes, I second that... make a big one!

Here is my latest. It's a gift to my friend Jay who has helped me so much of late with my computer issues.

It's 2" tall and has two coats of poly. I'm thinking of putting the next one I make up for sale on ebay. I've never sold anything there before. Any suggestions? Is it worth the effort?

Thanks everyone, I would never do this if it weren't for you!

Good job!!

You should just offer it up for sale on TC first. You'll probably end up with a list like Benzart. I'm sure that there are a lot of people here who would want one.

Aloha