Great Tiki Carvings for sale on Ebay

I was searching through ebay and I found these really cool Tiki statues for sale. The carver seems to be new to Ebay (he's only sold 3 items). I think these look pretty cool and if I wasn't a poor college student I would've bid on all of these and told everyone about them later =) just kidding. MaHAlo!!

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=palmtiki&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

I've never seen that style before-

That's funny F!

Charlie is a really nice guy, I met him on a drive to NOL last December. His talent in carving tiki is pretty obvious, what's not shown are the life size sculptures of sea turtles; sailfish; pelicans and a huge (400x life size) Blue Crab. The non-tiki carvings are for the most part carved in Cypress and have a really rich texture.

Charlies shop is situated on Hwy 98 which runs the edge of the gulf coast of Florida, it looks like a little patch of paradise as you drive by, must be 20 or 30 tiki carvings in the front of a small tin shack building. Some of the tikis are 12 to 15 feet tall.

When I pulled into the lot, there was a little smoke coming from the roof of the shack, turns out, Charlie is using a small wood buring heater to warm the interior of the building - which is where he keeps some of his more important works and happens to live.

He really enjoys meeting people, and loves to talk about surfing. If you're ever in the Gulf Breeze, FL. area be sure to swing in and see him and his work, it's worth the effort.

Here's a link to his web site:
http://www.palmtiki.com

My mother in law lives on the Gulf coast in Mississippi. About 4 years ago was driving thru Florida. She drove by Charlie Knights place, she stopped and bought me a tiki. How cool is that.

Recent post have brought attention to the fact some don't like "The Floridan Style". I think this is a good example:

1. Big "human" type nostrils.
2. Big "human" type lips and/or teeth.
3. Slit style eyes.
4. Often times Notched or ridged noses
5. peaked or carved foreheads, (pineapples and such)
   Anyway, I've allways liked this style.

Hey check my new tiki. It's "Indonesian". It's the tall one on the left

7Tikis, I could not agree more! I've mentioned this before (probably on the old Yahoo site), but Charlie Knight is a very personable guy.

I've never met any artist (for lack of any inclusive description of vendors, carvers, painters, labors, etc.) who stops whatever he is doing and sit down and talk with you.

And that is not his 'sales-pitch'. This guy will offer you a drink, sit down and talk about just about anything you want to.

I wish I had taken my little notepad out and wrote down stuff he was telling us! He will tell you where he has gotten his influences and whom he has worked for, where he has adopted his styles, what is difficult, where he gets his material, how he does it and any partof the carving process. And then, everything you want to know about the Gulf Breeze, Ft. Walton, Pennsacola area - he can tell you.

His Tikis are top knotch, made from Palm. He also has other carvings, but naturally, Stacey and I only focused on picking out which Tiki we wanted.

If you ever get in the area, he is hard to pass up, if you're not looking. But an absolute MUST SEE. You will not be disappointed.

:sheckymug:

Yes, Charlie is a cool dude to talk story wit. I wen met em in Oceanside CA. I was at Bamboo2U talkin' to Judy da owner, den dis wun trailor pulls up to da front and offers to sell Judy some tikis. He opens da back doors up and WHOA! he get like tirty or forty tikis in da back!

we wen talked story for bout a half hour. His sea animal carvings wer ono! real nice!

On 2003-02-05 00:00, fatuhiva wrote:
I've never seen that style before-

THIS, my friends, is Fatu Hiva style sarcasm, and I must say, I quite agree.
This style was already being repetitious when only Wayne Coombs was carving it. And when his ex-helpers and others started copying it, it spread like mailboxes across Florida, and in lieu of other sources, even as far as the Hard Rock Cafe in Lahaina.

Now, I love Wayne, his heart is at the right place, and a lot of his stuff is really cool, I have some. And I am glad he has been able to make a living for many years (survivng the Tiki drought years) carving the same Pineapple Head Tiki overe and over. And I can say this now because after he got copied too much he came up with other styles.
Because the great thing about Tiki is the ifinite varieties it can be re-created in, out of the different island styles mixed with modern art abstraction and cartoon whimsy, there is no limit to the creativeness of the sculptor.

Is this Charlie identical with Palm Tree Charlie? Because if he is, his website shows he can do better: http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki.htm

Now I like only a couple of Tikis on that site, many are too whacky, and some just plain don't work. But this guy has the guts to try weird stuff, and sometimes it comes out great. Barney West was like that.

Now it might be that the Wayne Coombs Pineapple Head has been proven the commercially most successful design for many carvers, so it's not lack of imagination that makes it being repeated, just like Leeteg kept on painting Rapa Hina.
But why offer three of them on e-bay at the same time?

All this is off course just based on my personal taste. Please feel free to differ.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2003-02-05 17:12 ]

Yes, I was being sarcastic :)

You're right sven, there are some cool tikis on that page- stuff that I would even like to own because they have that unique old school look that I'm attracted to. Maybe I'm a tiki snob, but the biglips-homedepot tiki is a real yawner for me. You are probably right about them being "good sellers" but then again, I wouldn't be suprised if many of these MaiTiki style carvers had neve tried anything else.. I agree that its good to see the guy you mentioned thinking out of the box. (or the mouth?)

Anyway here are some much more interesting (and dare I say, more tiki) tikis from that site-
Heck these make me proud to be a Floridian:

http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki25.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki13.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki27.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki17.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki002.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki11.htm
http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki16.htm

now that I'm looking at them closely, some of them I like so much I think I'll get one!

Guys, I think these are two different carvers? Sven, I'm working on your piece. Call me.

these are definately 2 diff. carvers one is "Palm Tree Charlie" the other is "Charlie Knight" I spoke w/ palm Tree Charlie a couple a times, and yeah this guy is a little different from a lot of other FL. carvers. as his style is very unpredictable.tries different stuff all the time. Chikitiki I've seen your stuff here and there too, mad props to you kid , I like youre work..Kreepy tiki jaksin

It really is kind of a tired old style now and really never bore any resemblance to anything in the South Seas. To me, if it ain't at least slightly South Seas, it ain't tiki.

One more thing (I know i'm an opinionated S.O.B) but the price of logs is really cheap. Experimentation is painless with tiki carvings. I just paid 7.50 each for some gorgeous, straight, clear white pine logs in 7 foot lengths with 16 inch diameters. (one hopefully par my dream will become a Caliente Tropics style tiki with the huge seperatley applied tounge). If you blow it on one, you can still burn it for firewood.

On 2003-02-05 17:08, bigbrotiki wrote:

Is this Charlie identical with Palm Tree Charlie? Because if he is, his website shows he can do better: http://www.palmtreecharlie.com/tiki.htm

Definitely two different Charlies...
Also some pretty significant differences in style & technique between the two carvers. Knights has finished / smooth edges, while PT Charlies are left in roughed out condition, which I suppose adds to the antiquity effect.

Knight also has some pretty significant works done in Cypress that are not shown on his eBay auctions that more accurately demonstrate his ability as a carver / artist.

Somehow though, I suspect much of the influence on the styles we see today are more as a result of economics than artistic in nature. Carvers have to eat too, so - maybe they carve what sells best with the least amount of effort (time) required.

7

On 2003-02-05 23:47, Basement Kahuna wrote:
I just paid 7.50 each for some gorgeous, straight, clear white pine logs in 7 foot lengths with 16 inch diameters.

Where might I ask did you get these? Because i'd love to start carving, i don't know a thing about it, but if i have some wood i bet i can start! =)

Go out to most any local sawmill and you will be shocked at the amount of wood available and just how cheap it is. I've pulled some nice stuff out of just the scrap piles. Most of the guys there will be very helpful...it is important to remember that they are in the business of selling logs so don't be afraid to ask about anything.

MaHalO BK! I'll go check it out.

Anyone ever heard of Chainsaw Charlie? He lives on a pink tiki thatched boat in Cortez/Bradenton area? I have some of his work just wondering if anyone else has heard of him also...

DivyChic,

Haven't heard of "Chainsaw Charlie" but all of the work displayed at the http://www.palmtreecharlie.com website is definitely created using a chainsaw.

Would that be Bradenton Fl? If so, that's not too far from here, maybe I'll try to look him up... sounds interesting.

7

Hey 7Tikis-Yeah that's Bradenton, Florida. That's not him from the website. I think Chainsaw Charley just deals mainly around here with carvings in the back of his van that he takes to shops and carves them on his boat. Everyone knows him around the Cortez area(in Bradenton near the beaches). I think he's even in the background of Denzil Washingtons new movie filmed there. Great work and great prices. Haven't had time to take the boat out and hop on his to check the inside out. But man what a way to live.