Paipo's Stone Tikis - 1st Thread - Jun 06 - May 08

Thanks surf-n-turf, feel free to adapt the designs if you like. It's pretty cool having a design sourcebook on your arm! I love the Cooks carving & tattoo designs, they are amongst the pinnacle of Pacific art in my opinion. The bold one running down the "haft" of the adze is one of the Mangaian variants of a design called "tikitikitangata" which represents a row of people with interlinked arms. I've seen about 4 versions so far but I'm sure there are more. They were common on the Mangaian pedestal adzes and drums. Watch this space, as I'll have a few Cooks inspired pieces coming up.

Paipo, I just caught up with this tread and like everyone else, I am blown away. More than that we are deeply touched. My daughter and I love NZ and Maori. Needless to say we have spent a couple hours pouring over this thread and your website. Your "Mini Marq" is the bomb! How can we Yanks acquire some of your work? (my daughter after spending a full summer in NZ 2 years ago wants me to say that we DO NOT drive a Yank Tank) BTW we do a pretty good HAKA! Thanks for blessing us with your art.

Paipo,

I'm a bit late getting to this thread but just wanted to say that your work is gorgeous. Your hei-tiki blows me away:

Keep up the great work (please),
Tiki Chris

Hey Paipo, the Shells came today...Awesome, thanks Big time. Those JAde stones look great and as much as I would Love to have some, I'm afraid they would just sit there waiting for me to quit Dreaming about carving them. Wood is my thing and I could Never produce the MAsterful pieces that you do. All I can say is Keep carving and producing your art, as Good as you are, you Will get even better as time goes.

Bananabobs, thanks for the very kind words. I am selling a few pieces over the next while due to necessity and the "Mini Marq" will probably be next. I'm always open to offers or commissions, so just PM me if you see something you like.

Tiki Chris, thanks for stopping in.The Navigator is my "signature piece" of sorts and has generated more feedback than any other carving. I'm still going on the mini remake and it will be in this thread when done. I'm using some of the proceeds from the sale of "Ku" to order your travelogue!

Benz, I know you'll use those shells to their full potential, and I'm sure you'd carve stone beautifully too. A lot of the best Maori wood carvers carve jade and stone too. Going from wood to stone would be a far easier learning curve than vice-versa.

I'm happy to try and get Paua for any other carvers reading this too if it's unavailable in your area. They are pretty cheap and easy to source, but it works out around US$2 per shell to air post them.

Finally, I've done some more work on the last pieces I posted, but not enough to justify pics. I will post the beginnings of a new "mystery" project that I can't wait to finish. Hopefully I'll get some serious tiki time in the workshop over the next few days. The centre pebble is 1" long!

Is the mystery project going to be a really small stone bikini? :)

OH MY GOD!

The "Mini Marq" is AMAZING!!! absolutely astounding stone sculpture! I love those beach stones - took a backpack full back to Hawaii with me on our last trip to NZ. Really astounding work - let us know when you have some stone tikis for sale!

Mahalo for posting!

VanTiki

Just wanted to add, while at the Hawaii Collector's show last weekend I asked to see a small Marquesian stone tiki (2 1/2" high) I spotted in a case. As soon as I had it in my hands I let out a small sigh and handed it back to the lady at the booth. Sadly, it was resin. "Why can't anyone make things like this in actual stone?" I asked myself - and then a mere week later I discover the Mini Marq! Whoo!

http://www.vantiki.com

[ Edited by: VanTiki 2006-07-28 11:51 ]

Unfortunately no progress on the earlier stuff as non-tiki carving has taken over of late. I did feel the urge to get going on a new pebble carving today. I love doing these because they're entirely carved with the handpiece with a very small selection of tools. I will be finishing this guy up tomorrow hopefully. Once I drew him up (just freehanded it onto the stone), I realised I've probably been reading Benzart's threads too much. Ah well, you know what they say about imitation :wink:
The headdress part will be pierced right through.

Hey Paipo, keep up the beautiful work! It´s amazing what great Tikis you carve out of STONE. Can´t wait to see more pictures of your work!

What can I say but Sweeeet! I think I'll leave the stone carving to you.. Big thumbs UP!

Thanks haikai and Benz. Got a little more done on this guy today (not that you can really tell) - he's proving to be quite challenging, but that's why I like making stuff like this.

Genius

Thats awesome man. Love teh use of the holes :)

Looking good Paipo! Man, it must take forever to remove that much stone. Gads!

-Gman

Thanks flynny, hewey and GMAN - I hope the next pics of this fella will be of the finished version. It takes very little time to remove most of the stone, but hours to hone the detailing and get the flow right. If I go too fast on the cleanup, one little slip will ruin the piece.
Anyway, today is my birthday (36 if you must know), so I have a few goals:

• finish lono instead of carving exhibition/production work and/or painting the nursery- waves- :drink: :drink: :drink:

Benzart once said there is a tiki in ever piece of wood just waiting to get out , now because of you I will be looking at pebbles the same way I do wood.

Awesome work.

On 2006-08-03 15:27, rodeotiki wrote:
now because of you I will be looking at pebbles the same way I do wood.

I have to say I've been looking at rocks a little differently too. I don't think I'm ready to tackle one yet. The lono with the through cuts looks tremendous.

Enjoy your birthday. Number 3 on your list looks like a good plan- cheers.

JP

I live near the Atlantic in Devon, UK and since Paipo's carvings I find myself wandering around in a trance looking at my feet. I'm sure I will get arrested soon. Happy Birthday Paipo, have a great one.
regards
Flynny

Thankyou for the birthday wishes. It took a few days to achieve my goals, but the weekend yielded results on all 3 counts. Start collecting those pebbles guys - all you need is a dremel/foredom/generic handpiece and a few diamond burrs to start out.

Finally Lono is done, and I've also made some headway on #4....
Lono all done, just sandblasted:

Lightly oiled and ready for action:

What's going on here....?

The "micro marq" - all 1" of him!

[ Edited by: Paipo 2006-08-06 22:13 ]

love the lono Paipo (looks esp sweet with the fern background) - but i REALLY LOVE the micro marq, that's brilliant!!! can't wait for more pics.. is this one a pendant too? is it spoken for yet?
PS happy bday too.

Hi Paipo
Lono is my favourite to date, work of the very highest quality, where is he destined for??
What has happened to your staff god / Moai piece ?
I have had a go at some stone, it completely wrecked my diamond burrs even with water as a coolant, I am struggling to get hold of any dental quality burrs so am a bit limited.
I also went pebble hunting on Sunday, you wouldn't believe one that I found, I'll post pics up later.
Best Regards

Most Excellent work Paipo! The Lono is complete genius with the detail so perfectly done. He looks fairly traditional but totally Untraditional. I think Many peeps will want one of those, including Myself.
Your Mini-Marq is another great little surprize. I can see we will be enjoying a very High Quality of art work from you.
Oh yeah, happy belated birthday too.
Paipo Rocks!

Thanks harro - the fern is just above my workshop, which backs onto a nice slice of kiwi bush. I run my sandblaster up there so I don't get buckets of sand all over the yard. Micro marq will be a pendant, but with a difference - the two pebble halves he is shown with will close together when strung to fit neatly around him. Kind of like a faberge egg, but tiki style. I'm trying to decide whether or not to decorate the exterior of the "egg" or just leave it plain.

Flynny, Lono is my favourite so far too (at least until micro marq is finished!). The staff god has evolved into a Tangaroa and is on the cards for this week. How did you set up your water for carving with the diamond burrs - and what sort of stone did you use? Show me your finds!

Benz, you had some influence over Lono, as did the X eyes mug and my Coco Joe's Lono, but I think he has got a fair bit of Paipo in him too. Next step will be to try and get a body happening on these guys. Anyway, if I can evolve my work to get half as good as your pieces I'll be happy (x3).

As to what to do with these guys, I'm not sure yet. The last one went pretty high on ebay, which is good for me but bad for someone who wants a piece of my work. I am hoping to have limted edition cast pendants available shortly to address this problem.

[ Edited by: Paipo 2006-08-07 04:49 ]

awsome work man. i like the little guy with the big eyes. keep them comming.
good work

all of you work is great, but the micro marq is AWESEOME!!!! it's crazy how good he looks for being so small. great job!

Hi Paipo
I have tried using an aquarium pump reduced down to about 3mm with a copper capilliary pipe taken from an old scrollsaw pointing directly to the burr. I think they are the cheaper type of burr though.
How do you start to carve your pieces, do you carve a marking line first or go straight for the right cutting profile.
This is the stone I found on the beach, maybe you can suggest something I can do with it. It has a natural inclusion, removed it would look a bit skull like, play around with it??

Regards
Flynny

The Micro Marq is so AMAZING! A stone in a stone! I can't take the coolness! Ahhhhh!

Seriously - that is my absolute favorite! Lemmie know when he joins his friends on eBay. Fantastic work.

VanTiki

Paipo,

The mini-Marq is fantastic. I really like that - great idea. Keep going with pieces like that and you will have your kid's college all paid for!

-Gman

Thanks Tiki Duddy and tiki5-0. I really like the Marquesan style, and I think I can go even smaller next time!

Flynny, I usually try and make the boldest and deepest cut I can, so I have less work to do later. The key (for me) to getting a good cut is to go over the carving in your mind when drawing the design on the stone - so when I make a line, I think what tool I will be using to define that cut.

GMAN, college is a little far away to think of - we've still got things like cots and strollers to worry about at the moment. Hopefully Paipo Jr. will study towards a more lucrative career than full-time carving!

Anyway, the nursery is now painted and looking good with a 4' x 4' tiki painting on the feature wall (gotta start em young), so I've been back in the workshop again. #4 "Micro Marq" is all finished. 3 natural greywacke pebbles and paua shell - pebbles are 34mm L (shell), 25mm L (tiki), 17mm L (toggle).

Thanks for the info Paipo.

Genius
Genius

Regards
Flynny

Simply incredible!

Amazing work - my favorite!

VanTiki

Paipo,

Super killer little tikis! Have you ever tried to carve petrified wood? I have a big chunk of the stuff that I was going to try to carve someday.

Thanks flynny - any progress on your pebble carving efforts yet?
Vantiki, he's my favourite too - until I finish my next piece. I wish I'd started making these sooner, because they're so much fun.
SCTikiShack - just had a look at your site, your tikis are awesome! I've got a fair bit of petrified wood, even pebbles of it from a place I used to live, but it's generally a lot harder to work with than the stone I use. I find with small work the detail gets lost easily too unless the stone is very neutral (hence my preference for grey/black/white stones). If I can find the right piece I'll give it a go.
I've been carving through the weekend to meet some upcoming exhibition deadlines, but found a little time to get #5 underway - another pebble-within-a-pebble piece. White quartz and greywacke:

Hi Paipo
More great work. No progress on pebbles yet, my ebay special diamond burrs must be moulting coz they have shed their diamonds :) I have now found a supplier of dental burrs (NTI) I have their catalogue and I will be ordering some next week.
I am having some trouble with the cooling.
How do you rig yours up to provide a mist spray, right now mine just pumps water via the handpiece into a bowl with an overflow, I'm going through far too much water (my missus is already complaining as we are on metered water)
Any advice would be more than welcome.
Regards
Flynny

paipo, i really like your stuff. i'm interested in how you braid the lanyards, too. it's a very nice touch to finish off an already beautiful piece. can you share some of your techniques there?

Too cool for words. I've been away for a week and just saw this. Wow. I was at a rock strewn beach and kept looking at the pebbles thinking of your carvings, one certainly does not look at the beach rocks the same way. I even grabbed a few for possible future carving, but even with billions upon billions of rocks, it is amazing how few look just right. Thank you for sharing.

JP

#5 looks awesome! i love the skull.

OK, there's some good questions to answer here! I'll reply to each separately because there's a bit to get through.

Flynny, I'm not surprised your burrs shed their diamonds, as out of all the tools I use they are the only ones I won't buy cheaply off ebay. Grinding wheels, core drills etc, are fine, because for the price you get plenty of work from them, but burrs need to be the best quality you can afford. See if you can get the HONGIA brand (Taiwanese) I use, they are the standard for jade and stone carvers here.

As for the water, it needs to be directed on to the burr itself so it never goes dry when cutting at high speed (it's OK dry if the RPM are very slow - this is how I sand my detail). I use a barrel of water that just gravity feeds along irrigation hose, reduced down to about a 7mm clear flexible hose, then down to 1-2mm at the tip. The ink tube from a ballpoint pen is good for this. A friend of mine uses the same idea, but directs the jet onto a block, and just moves the carving and burr under the stream. Whatever feels best, I like my method! Just remember, water hitting the burrs at 30-50,000 RPM will go everywhere, and always wear glasses when using aggressive cutting tools.

Papio...your art just keeps me smiling....great stuff and thanks for sharing.

On 2006-08-13 11:17, pdrake wrote:
can you share some of your techniques there?

The cord is just your standard 3 plait using a waxed black nylon braid which I think is used for saddlery and the like. It's flat and about 1mm wide. I finish the ends with a simple lashing to create a loop and toggle system - this is the most durable method I've found after years of experimentation.
Four and six plait cords look a little better but are time consuming and require bigger holes to be drilled through the work.
For tips on cords and lashings for pendants (as well as general pendant carving techniques) there is a "bible" that most NZ carvers buy when starting out - "Bone Carving - A Skillbase of Techniques and concepts" by Stephen Myhre (linked pic):

[ Edited by: Paipo 2007-11-04 11:31 ]

On 2006-08-13 11:54, JohnnyP wrote:
... even with billions upon billions of rocks, it is amazing how few look just right.

Thanks JohnnyP, and you're right - the good ones are few and far between. I spend hours beachcombing to get just a few stones, even though the beaches here are made of pebbles. I was looking at a maripi yesterday that I made from jade in my first couple of years of carving, and next to your ones it looks pretty sad!

Bullet, thanks for your comps - the "skulleater" is part of a slight direction change towards slightly more offbeat and less traditionally influenced pieces. The tiki mask part is still inspired by PNG art though.

Thanks Loki - you were the first member to welcome me here when I joined, and I knew pretty soon I'd found one of the coolest communities on the web. I am trying to inject a little humour into these guys and it seems to be working.

thank you. book ordered.

Paipo, these carvings within carvings are really excellent and well thought out. Your detail is super precise abd the peices are super appealing. You need to find ways to make them faster, faster, speed it up!

Well, like everybody else who's come across this thread, I am absolutely blown away by Paipo's work. So much so that I featured a profile on him and his work on my Tiki Chris blog.

Check it out:
http://tikichris.blogspot.com/2006/08/artist-profile-rhys-hall.html

Tiki Chris

nice work paipo - each piece looks great.
keep it up, can't wait for more pics.

truly crazy!!!!!!!!!

Threads like these are my favorite thing about TIki Central.

Paipo, your craftsmanship is remarkable.
Thanks for taking the time to explain the creation of it and showing it off.

Paipo, your carvings are outstanding. I love the clean detailed look to your pieces.
I look forward to seeing more stone work from you. Thanks for sharing.