Basement Kahuna -New Maori Bone Pendant 3/04

Thanks for sharing your work BK.
I know, in the past you've done detailed work on larger carvings but I had not seen you working on smaller stuff till recently. Is this a new direction for you?

More Excellent BK Work for some Lucky TC'rs. You're really getting this Bone carving down pretty well.

Again thanks! Ben-looking forward to learning/sharing some tricks in two weeks! Jungle-It's another facet but I'll always be doing something in log form! Have a 4-foot Tongaroa right now..should be done soon.

Your work is outstanding and inspireing. Makes me want to try to carve smaller objects. The little bit of detail work I have done makes me appreciate your talent even more.
JP

Cool stuff mang! Very nice indeedy.

-Gman

Aloha Kakahiaka Bruddah BK!
Howzit? Hey brah, the minke whale and walrus bone tikis are pono!!! Im proud that youve taken the small amount of precious materials I gave you and made beautiful masterpieces that will last generations!!! The walrus bone is pleasant to carve , yeah? its one of my favorites fo'shua...The texture is so nice to carve and after final polish, it feels like buttah in your hand!!! Im gonna send you a nice chunk of Sperm whale bone and maybe you make me da kine Maori pendant? Ive also got a few more of those minke scales you could work your magic on brah... Let me know what you think...

Your kicking OKOLE as a bone carver BK! And, Ill know youll keep up the good work!

Malama Pono!

BK the bone work is awesome keep up the good work.

Thanks, Johnny, G,Marcus, and Cab! CM-I have to thank you again for the material start....the walrus is my favorite thus far. I'd love to do you a piece in Sperm Whale...the Minke whale is nice stuff with a great, ancient mana and color, too. And props on bone carvings coming from a true master like yourself mean a lot to this old wood chiseler! I'll PM you in a jif! Aloha!

New Tongaroa born today! He's 4 feet tall and about 14 inches in diameter. One of my favorite Cook Island images. I may bring him to Coontiki just for some scenery! I'm loaded to the hilt with comissions right now, so Tonga was sort of my "spare time" carve for a while. Aloha!

beautiful. i sure wish i could go. where's my maori!! ;-P

is this more accurate?

Sweet Rarotonga BK, I see you are still carving the "Bone"

very nice tangaroa...I love it

Nice job B.K. I likes it;). Good to see your wood work again. What's next?

Wonderful spare time project. Was this all hand chiseled?
JP

Thanks, Gary...You're unstoppable, man. I have two 7-foot 13" half-rounds in Basswood, a 5-foot 23-inch diameter pine log, a 7-foot, 18 inch diameter pine log, and a ton of nice, thick poplar and basswood 3x's from 4 to 7 feet and 18 to 24 inches wide. I have to complet a lot of deposited comissions on jewelry and clubs before I start. I'll probably embark on one of the big logs to try and get some rental stuff going for spring and summer, then start on my next epic Maori panel (that'll be available at Hukilau: Hint-it'll be a full sized one! I'm admittedly homesick for the big tikis right now!

P.S. Johnny roughed out with an electric chainer, then chisels take over for the long haul and finish. I'm a chisel devotee mostly.

Great-Beautiful-Bouncing-Baby-Big-Woody, there BK!!! W-O-W! and in your sparetime at that?...really tough to keep the ol'chizle in your pocket no doubt?!! Seriously folks, I'm new to floppin 'round TC and the artist community here is jaw-dropping! I'm fortunate to stumble into Basement Kahuna's thread and catch his boneworks. My knee jerked to see if I could get on a reserve list...MAHALO BK for makin' time! I have since read-thread-reverse to see the TRUE diversity of your talents AMAZING!!! 'Nuff said!

Alot of posts to read and I hope to meet more artisan's on my walk-about.

CHEERS! --TravelingJones

Thanks, Jones...You're promoted to assistant VP (And just meet me outside and I'll slip you the fifty bucks...:wink: ) The talents here are pretty amazing for the obscurity of our TC community. These people are rock stars in their own right. I'm still pretty wowed by being around the talent and diversity here. Sometime I don't feel worthy of the company! If you like, check out the old carving post at the top of the page for some background on how "Creating Tiki" got started. Those were the early days around here, and much like today, we were just feeding off each other's creative energy and whatever sources of inspiration we could get our hands on. What has come along since is just amazing...there are a lot of "natural" carvers here...born to do it. Some of the people's first pieces that come along here just amaze me. It's a great art form, and one that lasts.

Great new picture posts of your artwork, you have such talent!

Love that Tangaroa. It just looks right.

[ Edited by: foamy 2006-03-24 05:21 ]

"I did this in my spare time"......sh-t...I couldn't do that with ALL my time.
Just beautiful. I love the dark stain.

Thanks all...here's a Sali (Fiji) I just finished...this an off-commission piece which I'm using for the Coontiki finishing demonstration, so it will be for sale right after the seminar. It is one of my nicer Salis...This is usually a very crude, simple club; more refined examples like these were used as dance clubs or chief's weapons. This piece is carved in cherrywood.

BK, That's about as fine of a club as I have seen from you yet. Excellent, true detail. Cherry is the Absolute Best wood for sharp detail. Love it.

It is the tops..hard to find clear, thick, and free of cat eyes. I got sort of luck a few years back and got two very nice pieces of it...this last piece gave me two club blanks, this being one of them.

BK,

Nice club; very sweet finish. What's up with the chickens man? Do you eat those or fight them?

-Gman

Flip-flop-flip-flop-flippp...

Beautiful club work BK! You and Benz...details man, Details!! Oh yeah, I will say this for those lucky'nuff to 'COON TIKI'...er, uUghmm..."What a Deal!" (plug)VP wanna 'nother 5-O$$$? TeeHee Central!

Later...fLip-Flop-flIp-floP-flippp --TravelingJones

On 2006-03-25 16:05, GMAN wrote:
BK,

Nice club; very sweet finish. What's up with the chickens man? Do you eat those or fight them?

-Gman

Just pets..The hen lays me one fresh egg a day..and roosters are better than dogs for letting you know when an enemy target has entered your compound...they cackle up a storm :wink:

I'm impressed once again. It looks totally impeccable. I saw the club and the chickens and thought you were getting ready for dinner.
JP

The first is Napolean II...The second is Josephine..earning her keep..I do love those chickens! The third is Jammies...Jammies wouldn't know what to do with Napolean and Josephine unless they were already in a can and processed into morsels suitable for a queen of her stature...The chickies always have a nice bed of wood shavings to roost in....

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2006-03-26 18:41 ]

Those chickens and the cat look so life-like! That one chicken can ride a bike? Wow! He must be your spokes-chicken!

You're carving has improved quite a bit! :wink:

I hate smileys... sorry about that.

[ Edited by: tikigap 2006-03-27 10:47 ]

Hmmm...what to do with these 3" x 20" x 7' basswood panels? And all of this abalone....

BK,

I dunno whatcha got in mind for that wood and ab, but you could always forgettaboutit and mail it all down to me! I could use it :lol:

I hear ya about the watch-chickens. My neighbor in CT had a rooster and the thing tried to kill me every time I tried to cut though their yard. Plus, with hens, you get eggs to throw at potential invaders.

It looks like you all had a great time in TN. I'm glad it all worked out.

-Gman

That really is a nice piece BK, even to my untrained eye - seeing it in person illustrates how little pictures do it justice. The detail is excellent.

Thanks Gap, and G-that rooster just got eaten by a hawk and has been replaced by a new rooster named T-Model Ford (After one of my fave blues guys). The panels have been curing inside for four months now, and are actually about to become a full Maori house entranceway carved in the Unaunahi (Auckland area) style with the full PaePae doorcrown. It'll take months to carve but should be ready by Hukilau.

Sweet stuff B.K.. Man I can't wait to see this entrance way piece when you get your chops off of it. You've been busy up there in them woods haven't you. Guess your upping the bar for Hukilau. I know you'll be ready this year;) I guess I better get busy...........

How was the Coontiki? Going back next year????????? Looks like everyone had a great time on the surface. Nice to get away huh.

Sorry to hear about the rooster... bummer dude.

Poor Chickie!! Maybe you could make some smaller chicken size versions of those war clubs?? Napolean could have kicked that Hawk's ass with one of those!

It'd have to be beak sized! Now...This panel ought to be a nice challenge. 6'3"x19x3. 38 inlays. North Auckland style. The darked out places are the deep carve pattern around the figures. This will be decorated, too. The two Manaia supporting the top (rebirth)figure are pretty neat.. Also, here's a new U'U in progress...

now that looks like an ambitious project....and you are the one to pull it off! Where is
this one going...I assume it already has a home.

Wow. If I got that far, I'd claim victory and hang it up. Your work is always worth a look, BK. Great stuff.

BK, I have to tell you, I was in Rotorua NZ a few years ago and your carvings rival any that i saw there. I know this is going to be one hell of a beautiful and time consuming piece when you finish.

Stupid questions. Could you explain how you draw your designs? pencil and lots of eraser? Does the design just come to you as your drawing or is there a master plan using traditional shapes? It would take me a lifetime to even draw that out let alone carve it.

By the way, are those paua shells from NZ?

Oh yeah, I'm gonna enjoy this. Post progress so we can see how it evolves. This should be pretty neat.

-G

BK.... you're nuts.

Now get to work! :wink:

Always upping the ante...

Ambitious project. I hope you show a lot of step by steps and progress photos. The U'U is off to a great start.

JP

That will be a winner for sure. I had to miss Coon-Tiki, because i was in Hawaii. Don't know if you have been there, but the Polynesian Cultural Center is Increadable! Here are a few of the 300 pics i got while there. I will PM you some of the more interesting war club pics i got. The pics below are from the New Zeland carvers that are on site, there are 7 full time carvers there (all from New Zeland). All of the carvings in the park are done by them. I labeled the first 2 pics wrong they look more like Marq's to me.

http://www.allcasinodice.com/Maori-panel1.jpg
http://www.allcasinodice.com/Maori-panel2.jpg
http://www.allcasinodice.com/Maori-panel3.jpg

[ Edited by: tikimecula 2006-04-12 20:24 ]

Conga-no home yet. It will be mainly a "joy" carving for me and pretty expensive, in the 1000-plus range. It will be costly and time consuming to complete. Loki-what I do for the symmetry aspect on a larger relief carving like this is pretty easy-I do a drawing of one side of the panel! I take the full size of the object, scale it to the size of a sheet of drawing paper, and split the scale in half. I draw out from the half line until I have what I want. Then I do a transparency of the drawing, f l i p the transparency, join up the ends, and do another tranparency of the joined piece..then I just put it on an overhead projector and trace it full size onto my wood stock. Viola!

BK-

For that next panel you're doing, I think you otta go all the way and shave your head and tattoo it too!! To help you "get into it".

You one crazy mutha!!!

I might just sleep under it, Ben! Here's the latest bone piece, a miniature Maori Kotiate, or disarming club. This is one of my faves so far...

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2006-04-15 07:49 ]