Tiki carvings by Tabu.

This is the first posting of my wood carving projects. Thanks to all the other carvers who share their work and advice to inspire and aid us new kids. I don't get a great deal of time to devout to carving with this darn winter thing and my job and all. So to start here are a couple of the main pieces I've done over the past year.

Here is the first large carving I have ever attempted. This pole is carved from a nice ash log donated by my neighbor. I only used chisels and mallet. Ash is very, very hard and as a result this pole took a long time to carve. You can see in the
first shot that I had intended it to be a cannibal theme. I screwed up the victim so he became a tongue.

The finished pole. After sanding I used a blow torch to darken the grain. I stained it with a waterbased rosewood and finished him in tung oil.

The next up was this panel carved from alder. I saw an exhibition of west coast native masks and was impressed with how glassy smooth sanded alder looked. I luckily found this plank at a specialty wood shop in my area.
I wanted this one to be a goof on the melanesian style.
Here it is sanded and stained. I used a black stain in the creases which worked much better than the micro torch on the thin detail.

And the final carving again finished with tung oil. For the eyes I sanded the outer layer off a clam shell and cut two semi circles from the mother of pearl. A dremel was needed to grind the eyes to fit. If you try this be prepared for a great burning hair smell.

Thanks for having a look. I also have two paintings posted in the" other crafts" section.

WOW! great work! really like them. you got some skills for sure.
hey you said "us kids" are you a youngen like me here? if so that is pretty cool.
and another canadian carver is always interesting to know about.
hope you have a great time on TC here

be prepared to cough up blood and/or get cancer if you don't wear a mask when carving shell. it's like tiny shards of glass that you breath into your lungs. please be careful.

the carvings are top notch. good work.

Hey Tabu! What's that blue vehicle in the background?

Nice work on the tiki's, by the way!

PS: Listen to PDrake.

Very Nice Carvings! Really like the Mask!

welcome aboard Tabu! I can see just from these first two carvings that we are going
to enjoy updates on this thread. The detail in the mask is very nice, and the
would-be cannibal is a fine effort as well. Any other wood-work that we haven't
seen?

Thanks for all response. Not to worry I use a dust mask when sanding or grinding anything. No other wood working projects started, but I am on a hiatus from work so maybe next week.
The blue vehicle is a 1980 Bajaj Cheetak scooter(worked when I got it). If I can get the wiring sorted out this spring I will consider giving it a mild tiki themed make over.
Sorry tiki duddy I was only using the term "kids" relative to experience. I'm in the twilight of my 30's. I am Canadian however. You are right, anthing tiki in Canada is worth getting excited about. Ontario is a barren land almost free of tiki. I imagine Manitoba to be the same.

Really nice Stuff Tabu. I Love the stain and the Eyes are Killer.Nice job.

Nice work
Best Regards
Flynny

Cool work...that extra mile and time on cleaning up and a finish really makes a good carving pop at the end, as that last photo proves.

Keep up the good work on the masks! Your design and execution is excellent!

Very nice! Congrats!

Nice detail on those carvings Tabu, and I'm gad to see another Canuk getting into tiki!

Ontario has some good spots for tiki hunting, there's a great antique mall close to Stratford that has released a few goodies when I've been in the area, and a huge flea market/antique mall close to Toronto where I scored quite a few goodies (and passed up a few items - couldn't fit them all into my carry-on luggage!).

Keep up the carving, I'm looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.

-Tw

Excellent firsts, Tabu. Welcome to the board!

Started a new piece today. I'm using pear wood this time. I guess like most fruit woods it is very hard. Hand is sore from just scribing in the outline. Should allow for nice detail though. I will post an update mid week.
Thanks for looking and all the encouraging comments.

nice. you should look into a wecheer/foredom recip carver. a little easier on the hands.

Man, that panel is offthahook! This one looks like it's shaping up right nicely as well!! keep up the fantastic work.

Cool, it looks like the king of the angry monkeys. He gets a crown instead of a fez.

Only had a couple of hours to work on this new panel. So far I'm finding the pear wood really nice to work with. It's very dense and hard but doesn't splinter too much and it's fairly easy to cut nice clean lines.

Tabu, your tiki is really looking good, I Love the design, very original, very good.
When using ghe chisels, you need to be Very mindful of the grain and Not carve against it, That is why you see all those rough jagged edges in your details. It takes practise so don't expect it to happen overnight.
Keep up the good work.

Thanks Ben for the tip. Keeping that in mind should eventually save some time in sanding.
Pdrake I might consider picking up a Foredom tool this summer. That would also give me a chance to try working a little bit in stone as well. I've been drooling over all the work coming from you stone carvers lately. Awesome stuff.
Thanks also for the kind comments.