Off Topic: What made you start your tiki creation?

Just curious- what really tipped the scale for you to start your very first tiki project?

here's why I started carving my tiki in the first place... Last year after hurricane Frances hit (FL), the swells were raging, so I went into a local surf shop (Nomad) to buy a board- where they had a bunch of tikis carved by a friend of theirs, who paints boards, too. He does some great work for reasonable prices. But I stared at one and thought, I bet I could do that! So 3 days later when cleanup was underway, I find my first 2 palm logs...

I go online to find some random tidbits of tiki inspiration and ideas, and what do I find- a FORUM for it, FULL of polynesian-maniacs, SPECIFICALLY dedicated to creating tiki and to mixing cocktails in obsessively collected mugs... I was hooked. Instantly. But it's also in the blood from too many Zombies at the Kahiki..

[ Edited by: Capt'n Skully on 2005-06-04 10:13 ]

The devil made me do it.

I was inspired by Bosko. Thanks Bosko.
Although the first couple ones I carved I either threw away (just terrible) or gave away.

i have always liked tikis. it started when i was a little kid and saw the brady bunch rerun with the tiki that tried to knock off the family. it was reinforced later when i took a pacific island art history class at asu. when i had the time to make my own creations at the glass/metal studio i was apprenticing at, i made my first glass tiki "wo-fat". now that i have my own studio tiki production is up %110
-john :tiki:

too cheap to pay someone else

my story is basicallly the same as yours...We got hit but Frances and Jeanne... I found 10 2.5' cabbage palms lying beside the road and decided to load them up and start carving. Really glad I did. I cut and sold all of the those and enjoy it more and more as I go. Great topic though.

Ps Great carving dude

Watching everyone else on here have too much fun, and feeling the need to contribute. Then found out how to post pics, and away I went

like the Capt'n and Flacookz, the hurricanes (or more to the point, the damage that they caused) inspired me. we lost a couple of palms in the storms and i cut them specifically to have someone carve them into tikis, but then decided to do it myself, searched on-line, found TC and the rest is fairly recent history. now i'm harvesting and carving pine trees that got knocked over at work.

Avast!! More unruly tiki locals on the treasure coast! :)

Hey Capt- My father sent me a Chin Tiki ashtray that he found at a yard sale, and that got the ball rolling for me.

http://www.samgambino.com

[ Edited by: Sam Gambino on 2005-06-08 10:10 ]

Well mine is a mysterious one! I've always had a desire for palm trees, warm water and sand. That was before I went to Disney as a kid and saw a Hawaiin Luau, which I'm sure planted some kind of seed. Surfing most of my life, gives you a connection to the Hawaiin "sport of kings". And being an artist looking for another medium helps .
But my friends were/are still like..."how the hell did you get into that?" For a while I answered... I don't know! I already have WAY too many hobbies to get into anything new.
Anyway, being a hiker, going up to the mountains, I'd pass carved bears along the roadway, and say..".I gotta buy one"; that changed to "I gotta make one of those." Then, floppin' around on the internet looking for bear carving stuff, I found tikis...and MAN, I freaked...where the hell have YOU been all my life!!!! Suddenly all the planets were in perfect alingment. Cats and dogs living together. Life is GOOD. And to find Tiki Central, oh my god, I can submerge totally in the whole world of it.
It was a long road to get here, but I'm home.

I went to a car show saw a guy selling tikis. I thought they were a little expensive. i thought to my self; "i can do that."
Once home from the car show iwas talking to my friend and told him i was just going to carve my own tiki. that got a laugh and a sarcastic, sure just carve your own. That answeronly made me more motivated to start carving.

scully... ow much do you charge a pirate to pierce his ears....... A buck an ear (buccaneer) HAR HAR HAR

kahiki?!!!!. cap'n, you from columbus? thats the place that got me started. that and my good friend hoffa, (who recently moved to fla.) he got me collecting, and it snowballed. then we ran into a 7 foot tiki at an antique mall for $1200. I thought man I can make one. that was 6 or 7 years ago and I still cant stop.

I work on the computer all day and this gives me a great escape.

I don't like most of what is out there. I like more traditional styles. BK stopped carving, so I can't ask him to do any for me. I can afford a few chisels and stuff, but not $300+ for a tiki plus shipping. I have way too few projects I'm in the middle of and need another couple around the house. My hands and shoulder were feeling way too good.

Ultimately, I want the Marquesan tiki that is at the entrance to the TV in Munich. I can never afford such a thing, if I could actually find one, so, I will have to get good enough to make my own. I also want the Cannible Tiki Trio and I want a very large Ku and Kane for beside the pool... I have neither the money nor the time for those, but I have more time than money... I also need to start digging a hole for that pool...

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky on 2005-06-08 10:25 ]

Jimmy Buffet made me do it. :D

On 2005-06-08 10:03, chisel slinger wrote:
kahiki?!!!!. cap'n, you from columbus?

Aye!! Columbus be my hometown... And the Kahiki has that effect- Hope they do open once again. :)

Flounder- That's cold, brethren. I don't believe you for a second!

I guess the tikis made me do it. I woke up one afternoon covered in sawdust, a chainsaw in my hand and this tiki standing over me and I could swear he was saying "Don't stop now, c'mon, don't stop now!".
I shouldn't have listened to him. I should have stopped there and left him unfinished.

BENZART made me do it. okay not really but after seeing his incredible work and all the other mega talent people here I had to try. And with some comments and critique I made another and another ....
Damit its all your guys fault..

Thanks to all who share thier works and comment on others works.