New Maoi castings

Hey everyone! We have been working here and there over the past few months with hopes of moving Tiki Terrace to a bigger location. So we have been making things, stocking things, experimenting with things, etc... Heres some pics

I am trying my luck with a large mold... I ruined the first mold and unfortunately lost $400 worth of RTV... I have a little better mold now and am waiting for the PVA mold release to dry and will add couple more layers.. its a three part mold and castings will be fused in the end (if it works )

We have been working on these tables for a few months now.. a little at a time. The idea is a 1/2" carved table top with a thin cement casted piece in the center of each carved piece. Will have a 1/2 OSB base directly under the carved piece and casting. Carved trim (1x4's) will be on the perimeter of tops to prevent bowing... trim will rise above table top by 1/4 inch for table top resin barrier. I am including pic of the resin as it is the cheapest out there and works well (from my experience)... we used on our bar and it really does nice job as it is not too rigid and absorbs scratches... PM if interested in more info

Here is a picture of a fiberglass tiki torch I built about 6 months ago and never finished. Its about 6' tall x 1' diameter. I built a base for the torch with casters and hidden rechargeable marine battery. I have yet to figure out how to make a tranparent flame with flickering light for outdoor use. Then will have to make some signs to hang on the torch to direct traffic to our place. the idea was to bring it to the street side at night, sink a pole in the ground to lock the thing down so it doesnt get stolen, and then attract mobs of people to our place and make tons of money (that is/was the theory of course), but it has been on the back burner for months... Any ideas on how I could make this flickering tranparent flame??? (keep in mind that I am terrible with molds! Maybe I will find the piece someday?

And here are some masks we are making for the new place. Been working on these for a few months whenever there is time. My brothers and I have a dayjob sculpting foam... so makes sense that most of our tiki stuff is also foam. our process... we order huge chunks of foam (usually 4' x 4' x 8-16') 1-2 lb density. Blocks cut into general shapes with hot wire equip.. then we hand sculpt.. then sand.. then spray with plastic (I tinted the plastic with brown pigment as seen below for easier air brushing).. then sand,,, then spray again, then sand,,, then airbrush.. then seal... masks are all about 4' x 3-4' x 1' deep... weigh approx 5-15 lbs each. If you have any questions or interest in knowing more about the process, PM me:

This one is crap, but I was tired.

This one is very bad and I dont know if I will finish? But this is a sample of raw foam

Here is a lamp frame my brother is doing. He has about 12 frames done and is slowly plugging away...

Here are some pics involving our Tiki Terrace apparel line. We have been working on this around 9 months or so. We hope to release the entire line of apparel in the next month or so, but here is a little of the creation process... we hope to have around 20 pieces at release. oh, the work space you see is our garage.. its a true "garage operation" :) (we built a two story garage to house our print shop and our prop shop,,, sorry for the mess)
Here is a seperation that is used to create the image on the silk screen using silk mesh and light sensitive film

Here is the screen... we use recycleable metal screens

Here is our 6 station press

Lastly,,, here is a photo of a property my brothers and I are buying in the Upper Peninsula MI. We submitted our plans for an A-Frame and it was approved. Still need to alter the plan to give the home more of a Polynesian feel, but the building inspector seems very easy going. The well and septic will be installed on the week of May 1 and I start the back breaking work of posthole digging for the foundation footings/piers. I'll post pics of the progress as we go! I'll post the blueprints if any are interested... any construction guys out there???

When I get the place done, any of you carvers are more than welcome to take it for a weekend of peace and fun! We will never be around on the weekends. Blue Ribbon Fishin, bear/deer huntin, snowmobile, atv, canoeing, boating, downhill/cross country ski, etc.... and a great area to get logs of any size. When its finished, I definitely want to open it up for any of the carvers to use. You guys really provide a lot of inspiration for my brothers and I!

Thanks for looking.
Scott

[ Edited by: Tiki Terrace 2007-02-02 00:06 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Terrace 2007-02-06 18:10 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Terrace 2007-12-23 20:39 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Terrace 2008-01-04 22:44 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Terrace 2008-01-15 13:30 ]

I am speechless.

You have talent for sure. I don't know you but, I'm sure there are many here that do. I wish you great fortune with the Terrace. It looks like it will be a very fun place indeed. You are generous to offer the place up to this merry band of Bohemians. (Do you know Grog?)

Mahalo

McTiki

amazing pieces! Congrats on the new property.. what exactly is Tiki Terrace?
I'm in Chicago, but if I ever do a rode trip up there, I'd love to check out what you've got goin'!
Love the table insert, great idea.

Wow, great stuff! I checked out your website, your restaurant is amazing!

I did screenprinting for many years, so I can appreciate your garage operation. Love the image on the screen of a surfing tiki holding a drink. Is that shirt available? :D Do you have T-shirts for you bar/Restaurant? The website didn't show any.

Post more!

[ Edited by: 4WDtiki 2007-01-26 05:52 ]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

Tiki Terrace is a little hawaiian restaurant in Prospect Heights... just about 15 minutes North of O'Hare airport... http://www.thetikiterrace.com Its off the beaten path, but maybe worth a trip depending on your taste (if you come on Saturday, call first).

Regarding the printing... glad to hear that there is another printer out there! Did you work a manual or automatic? Are you familiar with the software, seperations, screens also? Would love to talk more with you about process printing if possible. I will work on formating all the images and will post here shortly... Unfortunately, it has been a really slow process producing the series and I want to wait until we have a good amount of stuff before going on the web... I hope within a month or so. we hired a couple artists to do all the original art. Will have 4 lines of apparel... teez, embroidered stuff, Honi-Honi Wahine wear (all fitted ladies apparel), and eventually a childs wear line. All embroidered stuff are really unique. jackets will be 150K stitches and up (which interprets to 7 hours minimum on the embroiderer per jacket)... we have one that is 250K in which only 10 will be run and they will be numbered. 3-10 are remaining.

I have more time on my hands the next couple weeks so I'll post more stuff regularly... We are doing several upgrades at the restaurant that I will also include...

Take care!
Scott

I didn't realize you were talking about the chicago Tiki Terrace... I was planning on hitting that place next week for the first time!
Where is the restaurant moving to, if you don't mind my asking??

[ Edited by: jamco 2007-01-26 09:34 ]

Scott...great post...although I am a Terrace VIP I still haven't made the trip to
Chicago...but I WILL!
However...I am very close to the UP and it would be great to meet another TC'er
when you are visiting the Northwoods....what city is your property near?
Thanks again for the additional motivation I need to get to the Terrace.

What Conga said for me too. Nice stuff!

Great foam heads! I kept playing with the idea of carving foam, but never got around to it.

As far as the torch, it would probably be easiest if you just go buy some of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Malibu-Solar-pack-Tiki-Torch/dp/B000H7GTEM

Costco has them too, in packs of 8. The first run had plastic stakes that melted a little in the summer, and mine are all bent now, but I think the new ones have real bamboo stakes that'll be much better.

If you do want to use your light, there seems to be 2 ways of getting flickering flame effect, number 1 is that they do make small flickering bulbs, I think they are 7w and are like chandlier bulbs. The other thing I looked into is using LEDs, you need a couple of yellow bulbs and maybe an orange. The flicker is done best by having one solid bulb, then the other bulbs cycling on and off at different rates. You'd need to experiment, and I have no idea how to wire them. :) Then, you can cover them all with some tinted or untinted clear silicone caulking shaped into a flame.

Really nice work Scott! Its great how you and your brothers work so well together... I barely see mine! :wink:

You guys have some really cool stuff going on with the decor for the new place!

Jealous! I can't even carve right now due to a hand injury, and its driving me crazy!

Keep up the good work... I'm sure I'll see you soon.

Nice work, Scott.

Can't wait to see these installed in the new TT.

I know you'll keep us informed on the progress.

Awesome work! Love what your doing with foam! The restaurant looks like a lot of fun I will have to put it on the top of the tiki road trip list! Aloha!

What a great varity of different kind of projects. I'm going to send you a PM.

Welcome aboard the creating section. Glad you posted.
JP

Thanks guys! McTiki, I have not met Grog, but the name seems very familiar... is he in the Midwest? Lake, saw the pics of your hand!!! Washing dishes is big part of bartending so you best adapt a safer way of washing before the home bar is finished! And to clerify the Tiki Terrace moving, we are really hoping to move as soon as possible. We have several places in mind, but we have to complete an asset sale of the current location (broker is currently handling this). So no clue when, but hopefully soon. And we will stay close so to hopefully keep our regular base of customers.

here are some pics of the Tiki Terrace tee designs we will release shortly. this has been super long in the works and we have been pushing back the release of this for about 6 months now. soon I hope???

Real quick, lots of the outlines you see get altered when I convert to JPG.. something I dont know how to avoid... these will not be in the printed work.

This one was done about a year ago... the first one

For all you surfer guys (I am such a bad surfer that I broke my arm playing on one of those skim board thingys right on Ka'anipali beach.. got a cast, a farmers tan, had to start meds and could not drink... instantly ruined a perfectly good vacation.. that was my last attempt at surfing, skim board, boogie board, etc...):

And the classic joke heard at every luau:

I love Polynesian tattoo/tattoo in general:

This one highlights the uke... if you guys can ever come to our uke jams, the guys bring out some super sweet ukes.. couple of the guys collect and there is some really nice peices that show up occasionally:

Very simple, but the customers really like it.. on a long sleeve

We had to do this one... hey, its just $5!

The following are for the "Honi Honi Wahine Wear".. all fitted womens stuff:

This is the logo that appears on the back of every girls shirt (on shirts they are at base of neck about 3"x 3")... and we have an undergarment set with this logo on the okole of the boy shorts and on the left chest of the matching top.

And last we have 2 embroidered items as of now with a third almost ready. They are on jackets.. the one below is our Miss Tiki Terrace calender concept... we will be doing miss january through december and offer as embroidered jackets or printed tees. the embroidery for miss january came out to 175,000 stitches and about 16" tall x propotion width on a dickies jacket. Miss Feb is a mermaid girl holding a tiki mug.

The other embroidered jacket we have is the "I got leid" design on jacket that came out to 250 K stitches... this one is a limited edition, 10 piece run.

I really hope we can get these on the web soon. I'll let you know when up. Again, disregard the problems with the outlines in the art.. when I have images on the site, they will be problem free...

Here are some images of the A-Frame blueprints. There will be some alterations for the sake of the Polynesian look.... oh, the property is in Dickenson County on the Sturgeon River... Right by Iron Mountain.

If anyone out there is involved in the trades, i would love to chat.. one major aspect that I cant do is the design/layout of the ductwork... we will go with a forced air system if possible. Oh, and anyone with info on metal roof vs. wood/shingle roof in forested areas??? I think the metal option will help with dry rot, but since there wont be a ton of sun beating down on the building (due to the tree shade), this may not be an issue???

Ok, thanks!
Scott

Great stuff Scott - I love the table tops... very nice. I will definitly visit the tiki terrace next time i'm in chi town. Good luck - I think you've got something there definitly. I hope the mobs and mobs come to the place (but not when I'm there!)...

Greg

Here are some pics of Tikis being embroidered:

This one is being made for Bamboo Ben... he has #2 of 10... this one has 15 colors, 250K stitches and is about 15" tall... then a small front left logo. at picture time, it was near 65k stitches:

Sorry, lighting is not the best

Close up:

Creating tiki...... embroidery! :)

I'm lovin the "Got Tiki" Tee. How do we order?

Mahalo

McTiki

Man, all the best tiki stuff is in Illinois...that's it, I'm moving! Might have to post up at the bar and stay a month.

Seriously, very tight stuff....I dig your individual style on these masks...the size makes-um that much more cool. Also like how your bro is approaching the construction of that lamp by suspending it to work on it. The blue prints of the new place are kind of hard to make out, but from what I can see you will have them coming from near and far...."If you build it, they will come".

Wouldn't mind rocking a couple of those tee's...let us know when your go to mass printing.

Yes, EXCELLENT Tee's Awesome artwork. You guys are Right On!

Thanks guys for the replies... re buying tees, we hope to have the website store up and running within a couple weeks.... web guy is setting up a paypal store.

Here are a couple more things we are working on/have finished:

With a little extra time these days, we are trying to do some simple upgrades at Tiki Terrace. Below, we finished the new stage for the Saturday night shows and added a simple bamboo fence. The stage used to go up to that transition trim piece. we added an additional 7' x 8' of stage.

Another upgrade... We bought some more lauhala and covered some bare wall space (we have wanted to do this forever). We had to pull the booths for this, so it may look a little empty in the pics:

Here is a display book my brother is doing... there will be tapa in the sunken areas. it will house all the Tiki Terrace apparel on some type of rigid pages. The servers will bring to each table and try to sell the guests. We wanted it to be extra big for a unique presentation... hope it works???

Here is a mask we bought a couple months ago for $50.. I am guessing it is a tropical wood from the weight/density.. it is about 3' tall by 1'5 wide... The person I bought from said she got from either Kon Tiki Ports in IL (when it closed) or from a flea market... she could not remember. anyone have a clue where this may have come from?:

Eileen (one of our servers) is helping re-paint much of the trim with tiki supervising:

Here is a part of another upgrade... This is about 6' done... it will be 16' total. Interpretation... "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness".. the Hawaiian state motto (the chorus in "Hawaii 78"). I am doing this with a router and chisels... my first time using a router without stencil guide... very difficult to keep steady!

Last, my brother phil and I carved this about 5 years ago.. our first and only wood carved tiki.

Thanks for looking :)
Scott

Fantastic work.
Thanks for the pix.

Benjamin.

That Tiki terrace is going to come out great! All the pics of the stuff you are preparing are really amazing, congrats!

Tiki Candle Maker

[ Edited by: Clarita 2007-02-02 13:19 ]

That big wooden t-shirt display book reminds me of "Fractured Fairy Tales"!
It could fall onto a customer! :P

From the progress shots, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tiki Terrace in some future editon of BOT.

[ Edited by: 4WDtiki 2007-02-02 16:02 ]

Not really a fire at Tiki Terrace, but the owner of Tiki Terrace caught on fire recently! and luckly, there was a photographer to snap a couple photos :)

learn from my mistake... always, always, always wet raffia that is fastened to your body before playing with fire :)

here are a couple cool pics to share. Note,,, since opening the Tiki Terrace, I have been more out of shape and more accident prone with dancing... but my back-bar dishwashing skills are superb with no documented accidents! (cough, cough Lake Surfer).

Above, this happened right before I was to put the fire on my feet... I did not realize that a little fire started on raffia... then it spread... and quick!

My friend quicly ran out with marshmellows :)

I should have taken a pic of myself walking gingerly the next couple days.

Creating tiki... fires!

Scott

WooHoo! That's fire is very realistic!

You guys are doing a great job on the bar too.!

Wow...just absolutely awesome. It is obvious that your heart is in the place. Love the pictures...kepp em coming. Next time I hit chitown...I'll be haning at your place. :)

You don't have to dazzle us with fire, all the other stuff was dazzling enough.

JP

I think you caught on fire from the friction from all of your activities man! :)

Hot Stuff there guys, better be more careful. Nice lookin embroidery, good to see you having fun and making a buck.

Scott, so glad you were o.k. Great posts of all the things you've been making.

Thanks for the replies everyone. with accident, I think my ego was hurt more than anything. Just a few burns on the legs. But as I get older, my ego becomes smaller (less concerned about looking foolish in front of hundreds of people:) Not too proud of this accident as most Samoans carry their scars with pride, but the pic was too cool to not share.

Anyhow, couple finshed things:

The "fractured fairy tales" book... 4WD tiki,,, I actually have not seen this. I was thinking on the lines of the "Never Ending Story" book??? Still are working on the pages for this, but the exterior is almost done... it should be fun bringing this out to guests:

We also finished the jacket I posted earlier. front and back.
Here is the front for #2

Here is back... this was the first large embroidered piece my brother ever digitized and we liked it. But we found out that it was just too big of a job to actually keep in stock, especially with our equipment.

Thanks!
Scott

On 2007-02-07 22:18, Tiki Terrace wrote:
The "fractured fairy tales" book... 4WD tiki,,, I actually have not seen this.

It's from the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoon. At the beginning of that segment, a giant book of fairy tales would fall over on a little cartoon guy trying to open it.

Maybe you're too young to have watched that show.

I thought you were on fire with all the things you're making.... but ops! Glad you're ok, Best wishes!

"how about a little fire, scarecrow!!!!!!

-(wicked witch in the wizard of oz)

glad you are okay!! keep us posted on the new place

...also, you can buy those "got tiki" shirts all over ebay.....they actually refer to tiki barber, the football player, but are great for the tiki folk....seems at $5 yours are the better deal

Merry Christmas Tiki Central! Finally getting around to posting some more photos of new stuff going in the restaurant. We hope to re-open March 1 (we closed recently to relocate to the Ohare area), but I am second guessing at this point??? The city is making us get architectual stamps so this will slow us down. Anyhow, Im posting some pics of our booth concept. We plan to have a Hawaiian style pergola look built into the booths. One of the back posts (that houses the backrest) will extend 10' tall and also house the pergola beams 10' high. Included are the 10' posts and you can also see some of the shorter posts (the other backrest post that is about 46" high). I also indluded an image of the prints for the booths... I think it will explain the concept.

Also, got a photo of my brother who is recovering from a stroke he had this summer. He is paralyzed on the right side... But, he is still working on all the projects with us.. left handed. So I am really thrilled to be working with my brother again. Best Christmas gift I could receive! God has been good to us.

I'll post more soon... we are finishing the tables, finished the prototype of the backrest for the booths, and some other misc.

Scott, Tiki Terrace

Scott, Mele Kalikimaka to you and family!

Really nice work on the poles! Wonderful detail work and character to your tikis. You also have some great logs to work with, well worth the price.

I'm stoked on the new design of the future Tiki Terrace.

Good to see Jim active with you guys and I am glad that he is improving!

All the best to you and yours in 2008!

These are Incredible Tikis Scott, It's Great to see you all working together on this Fantastic project!
Merry Christmas to you all and Keep up the Great Work.
HappyHappyHappy

Thanks guys!
Couple pics of progress and some new projects near complete.

Almost finished with the table tops... finally. Changed the concrete cast to a plastic as weight was an issue. Just need to do final coat of poly on the trim, paint detail on casted centerpieces, and then pour the table top epoxy.

Finished making/staining all the backrests. We wanted to incorporate a natural look. So we came up with this milled log type concept. All the backrests have different patterns. Here are pics of a 4' and a 6'. Just need to Poly these.



Last are a couple pics of a canoe in the works. Its 12' long and probably weighs 250 or so (judging from when the thing fell off the stands)??? I have to build a stand for this as we intend on using this canoe for a waiting room bench. Then going to paint some details with natural whites and reds mostlikely (to match the wall mounted canoe we got from OA). I got the construction methods from some canoe craftsmen. It was really cheap (this cost me about $80) and relatively fast. And manageable by one man.

SZ Tiki Terrace

Looks like a lot of fun Scott! Great work! You guys must be having a blast with the creation of the new space!

Got a new pic that I'm pretty happy about. I have always loved the Maois. For me, they 'seem' so simple to carve, but I have always been unhappy with my Maoi carvings. But I finally got one that I am pretty happy with... at least I think its much better than my last one. I graphed this one out on a front view and side view, but it still ended up different than what I was hoping for... but still happy with it.

This one is the original. I am casting and pushing to do three duplicates. I included some pics of the first cast that is almost done now.

And that is my dog Seiji next to the Maoi.

Thanks
Scott

Below, I had to cast in two seperate pieces as I had undercut issues. Head and body glassed together in a second step. metal stud frame installed within the hallow cast to fasten to wall.

Excellent Moai Scott, I think we All find out After the fact that the Moai is Not as simple a carving as it seems. There is a Lot going on in a very little bit of carving, Very deceptive but it looks like you Cracked the Code! Well done.

WOW! that looks great! it looks like stone in the
picture very cool and huge.

Thats a great Moai. A fiberglass shell. What was the original object made from that you made the cast from? Moais aren't easy, but the head looks 100% traditional. The nipples not so much but add a second style that is nice. Looks like you guys are taking a great tiki bar and making it better. Don't see a completed bar going beyond much these days.

Man, I was just (embarassingly)looking through this for the first time, and I have to give you 100 percent credit for Yankee ingenuity and doing it on your own from scratch. Looks like quality through and through. That's pride at work, right there, brah. Major shootz to you. Good luck on the place. I'll stop in when I'm up there.