Conga....Wisconsin stuff!

Conga,

I have bumped back and forth looking at the painted version, and I have to say this guy is great! How fun is that, working from another TCer's painting. Nothing but quality carves from you. You must be going mad with the hook? Thanks for posting an update.

-Gman

Love this guy. But come on dig that mouth out. It would give this a really dramatic edge.

HellYea! That's way cool!

a good old fashioned Conga-style nightmare-freaky-png-something.

I like those too.

The first pic is my version of TikiShark's painting, landlocked so it's
the best I can do!

wow! what kinda boat is that? Holland america cruise lines? carnival? maybe Disney cruise lines??

Right on Congatiki. I like that tiki alot.

Yep, that's a land yacht...a beast! Not sure if that's a real "dog" though? Nice carving Conga. You need to get a print of the painting now! If they are available, git one and hang that sucka over your carving in the Conga Room.

-G

Hey CongaCaddyMan!

That boat aint no dog for sure! - that there's a be-u-tee -

The tiki's really nice too! Great colors.

[ Edited by: tikigap 2007-04-14 12:52 ]

Hey thanks a lot Pockytiki, JT, GMAN and Tikigap. Interesting story on the Caddie.
As you know I peddle cars for a living, and a fella traded in this 1987 Cadillac Brougham
that he bought new 20 years ago. Dig this....less than 57,000 miles...the interior is
virtually immaculate...minimal minor rust (as the books says "looks perfect from 20 feet"...
a ton spent on maintenance in the last ten years...and everything works. I needed to replace
the fourth car in my fleet (the one I drive to work--my wife drives the new car) and I scored
this for 13 hundred bucks. As Ben says...Happy Happy Happy. Now I gotta tiki-fy this thing.

On 2007-04-14 13:01, congatiki wrote:
Now I gotta tiki-fy this thing.

Tikify! Let's see some pictures too!

I want a $1300 brougham just like that. What a deal!

You just keep getting better and better. I just got a copy of "ritual of the savage". The first thing I did was to go look at your version of the tiki. (I've seen the cover in the BOT, but now I had a bigger picture to compare it to. You nailed it, Also it was fun to go back through your thread to find it and looking at all those carvings and updates.

Now is 20 years considered an antique for the caddie?

JP

You just keep getting better and better. I just got a copy of "ritual of the savage". The first thing I did was to go look at your version of the tiki. (I've seen the cover in the BOT, but now I had a bigger picture to compare it to. You nailed it, Also it was fun to go back through your thread to find it and looking at all those carvings and updates.

Now is 20 years considered an antique for the caddie?

JP

That tiki is outtasight! TSA has gotta be stoked about that. Nice "Boat" too. I took a big nice caddy 78 Couple de ville down to Mexico an back on vacation once. What a great car.

Surreal seeing that image in 3D. Sweet!

Many thanks Johnny and Sneaky...always great to get feedback from the talented TC Ohana,
what a good bunch of peeps. I think the Caddie has to be 25 years old to be an antique
but it's one sweet ride. I live in a town where there are almost more potholes than
people..no problem for the Caddie though...just like a little ripple in the waves.
Thanks again guys.

Conga, that is a beautiful piece , the expression is warm and fun.... I like it a lot and it has great detail... wow

Amy

Great job. The finish REALLY looks good!!

That looks great man! Nice tiki :)

Many thanks Queen K, AlohaStation and Hewey, appreciate it that you popped into
the Conga thread. I dig the expression on this guy too, he looks so doggone happy!
This was a really fun Tiki to carve and I send all props to TikiSharkArt for a
great design.

Yeah, What Amy said and More. Your tiki skills are getting outta sight, I think you gotta give ME a Seminar. Looks like you nailed the dog pretty darn good too, looks like he is about to leave you a surprise package there in the yard next to where the Boat is docked. Nice Boat too.

He's so great! I like the lines, they are like the painting, fun with life and movement! Congrats!!

Congatiki, WOW! That is too freaking cool! I am totally blown away, that is the greatest thing I've ever seen! I really like how you set up the shot like the painting! Hats off to you and your amazing tiki making skills, my friend! Very very VERY cool!

Tiki Shark

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-04-17 12:23 ]

Better

Now all the thought provoking elements are there.

Mmmmmmm!

Well what can I say TikiShark, your comments "made my day." Making you happy with
your tiki is all that i could have hoped for. Thanks a lot.
Thanks also Ben and Clarita, nice to have you stop in, and Ben, it will take a long
time before I give you lessons, except for sucking down cocktails. I'll try to keep
you up late at Coontiki II.
Teakey...nice touch. The dog loves chicken but doesn't get much KFC!

You're one of the most single-mindedly creative guys on here, Conga. A person can recognize your stuff right away. Great work.

Many thanks Jawja!

That's AWESOME Congadude! Keep up the great work!

wow!
Wow!
WOw!
WOW!
Very cool!
How many more do you have to do?
Are you gonna carve ALL the Mystic Tikis?
WOW! :)

Many thanks Grog and Little Lost Tiki, and for all the other feedback on the Shark-Tiki.
I am presently producing another batch of wood chips, and I am still not sure how the
finished figure will look. My little dog is helping me chew through this one.

As you can see, still carving in the basement. Our two-day summer is over and we are
entrenched in Wisconsin's rainy pre-fall.

Your dog is doing a very nice job. I like where it is headed. Those big chisel marks add a lot to the piece. What kind of detail are you going to put on it when you switch to squirels?

I'm a fan.

JP

Lookin' good Conga! Personaly, I love the tool mark look on tikis. I'd keep 'em.

Usually you get at least 1 or 2 weeks of summer before fall hits. :cry: Today is in the upper 80's with a few white, fluffy clouds in the sky. I'm telling you, there are tons of beautiful and cheap houses in this town. Imagine the carving parties we could have! Yes, JohnnyP, I'm talking to you too! :wink:

Yes, yes, yes, Conga Man! You are truly a masterful chipper my friend!

Please keep posting progress....Progress pictures like these from you (and all on board) help us beginning chippers more than you know.

Yes Conga, I Love this guy too and I would guess the chips must even be pretty cool too. It's about time you got your stuff together and did some more work. By now the bucket of chicken must be gone so you gotta go work for another one. Cool stuff

Thanks friends (geeze, starting to sound like Nancy Grace) your support is always encouraging.
I am rethinking the "progress post" concept as a result of discussions on another thread,
but what the heck, they do allow for some ego gratification and communication among fellow
enthusiasts.
Since my finished pieces have admittedly fallen deep into the murky soup of too many
progress pics...I am posting a compendium of the past year's chizzlin', the post CoonTiki post
if you will.



I would like to add that with the likes of Benzart, GMan, JohnnyP, Lakesurfer, Paipo, Tama, the
German guys, Babalu, Basement, 4WD, AlohaStation, Marcus, Finky, all the Coontiki alumni,
and many many more, the future of tiki carving is alive and well in this forum. I am proud to be
a small part of it. Carve on my friends...you beginners too!

[ Edited by: congatiki 2007-04-29 13:33 ]

Conga, you rock. Those are all excellent pieces and I can't believe how fast you got to where you're are now. Keep 'em comming!

Kia ora Conga. Thanks for the shameless vanity post! Nothing wrong with reminding people every once in a while! :lol: I admit I missed a few of these; its great to see them all together. Nice to see that you move around a lot & are tackling many different styles, surely the best way to learn.

I try not to say too much amongst you BIG woodworkers as I can offer no technical help but do keep an eye on most of the bigger projects. I would happily watch progress-shots of your work; these pages may be paydirt for some future biographer too, who knows?

Keep it up!

Tama :)

Conga....

Shameless vanity nothing man, these works are simply amazing!

It's really very cool to see your work grouped up like this. I think that it's a wonderful idea to show a collective. I know that it takes time for an artist to do this, but I wished that some of the other carvers that are around here on TC would do the same. There is just an amazing amount of very cool finished work that is floating in what seems like countless threads. It is very hard to find the time to go through it all...I fear I have barely scratched the surface of all these posts.

I sure hope that you won’t give up on the regular posting of your progress. I've learned a great deal by cruising through past posts of yours and many others in order to learn what steps are needed to take a hunk of wood to a final carving.

Not long ago I found a few sections of palm on the side of the road and made my mind up to give tiki carving a go (this had been in the fish bowl for a long time)…I had never worked in wood before in my life…I found TC…What made me stop in was the title to this carving area “Tiki Carving – How to topics for tiki carving”.

I have seen the postings to which you are referring…

One of the things that I have learned over the years of being an artist is that your art is a personal extension of yourself, and this art is something that can’t be bottled up…it needs to be shared. So in essence, the artist opens him or her self up to the world for critique. The artist is bound to get positive and negative reaction to the work…this is natural. The positive feels wonderful…it helps to build one’s self and tends to act as a motivational tool to continue the plight. What takes time for the artist to learn is to leather up to is the negative critiques…this is a must do for all artists, for it is through the negative reactions that we learn. The artist can only hope that if a negative reaction is handed over to them, that the giver of this negative comment also has the abilities to describe what they would do in order to change the work to their liking. If they cannot, then the artist needs to learn to brush it off and move on to the next work. Artists pull their ideas from the world around them, and needs to be continually asking questions…for if one stops asking questions about art, or anything else for that matter, it seems to me, that the question of our children and their futures are a mute point.

I am much honored that you would include me in the above line up of carvers, but I feel that I really need to get a several good carvings under my belt before I could even think to be listed along side of these wonderful carvers (all are masters to me). I have some dues to pay…I am a novice wood worker at best right now as I am still very inexperienced with wood as a medium.

Keep on carving brother! You are inspiration to many.

Best,

Babalu

Maybe it should be standard around here for a picture of all completed pieces getting added to the first post of the thread. All in one place at the beginning.

I stared a long time at the Coon Tiki big guy in my work shed this weekend. I wanted to work on him a bit. Instead I am trying to get my yard to a good place where I can relax and enjoy it in the hot months ahead and then bring the wood to the lanai and carve and enjoy. I gotta get back there. An hour or two here and there. I wanna make some nice big pieces for decor like these guys Conga.

Fantastic Conga! Very impreswsive collection of fine work there.

I like Swanky's idea of puttin the finished ones in the first post, too. That might intice fellow lurkers to drill down into the thread to see how the pieces were made.

Conga, It REALLY is Nice to see all that beautiful stuff all crowded together there for all to see. No matter where you post them, these pictures are very educational to All us carvers no matter what our skill llevel. If someone does not carve, they could Never understand what knowledge can be gained just from Looking at a carving, good or bad, finished or Unfinished. Thanks for taking the time to post all these pictures together, I Know it takes more than a few minutes. One day Soon when you are Famous, you can hire someone to do all your posting for you. :) :) :)
Whats next??

That is a very nice retro-collective of your work. It is also nice to see the outside again without snow.

Thanks for the complement and also for continuing to post. Need to get my Conga-art fix. So did you make up your mind yet on which direction your last guy is going.

JP

Conga,

Nice to see all your pieces grouped like that. I really appreciate the range of Melanesian, Polynesian and pacific rim styles you incorporate while carving. The open form figures carved all the way through are really impressive.

On another note, I think the first post gallery is a spiffy ideer, I did this to my other crafts thread about a month back. I just posted finished tiki or tiki related works there. I know that some people think it's a pain for people to surf thru pages of expired photos or people's comments just to find the eye candy.

Thx again for your encouragement!

S
T

Conga, thanks for the family photos! It is great to see them all together like that because we get a good idea of scale and are reminded of the variety of subjects you have done. Besides that, I really have to wonder how you have done so much fine work in just a year since I met you getting off the motorcycle at Coontiki. I feel like such a slacker. And Wow, how do you do it and still sell those cars and play in the band??? I'm beginning to think that there is a big "S" carved on your chest! Thanks again for sharing the gang.
Your friend 8FT

Many thanks everyone, I don't care what anybody says on any other thread, this "back pattin'"
and mutual masturbation society sure is fun!
8 Foot, you are a hoot, no Superman here. It works out great, I think about tikis and
TC when I'm selling cars, and I think about selling cars when I carve. In fact I'm sure my
bosses think I spend way too much time checking Tiki Central when I should be productive.
Oh well.
You guys are all great and I also like the idea of putting a "collection" of sorts at the
top of the first page, sure would make it easier for people to do a quick check of everyones
stuff.
Working on a couple of things that might turn out okay, will get a couple of pics up soon.

That Tiki family has blown me away, most excellent work
Best Regards
Flynny

Thanks a lot Flynny...
Well...just had to post a coupla pics of things we're working on in the Northwoods Tiki Factory,
this is the big guy starting to take shape. The burn is temporary at this point and gives me
an idea of where shadows will fall one he's finished and placed in the lounge

planning to go a bit deeper to "skinny" up the body and I'm still working out the legs and
feet.
Also working on a mask that seems to show influences from numerous sources

thanks for looking!

Sweet progress pictures Conga!...Thanks for posting man. Is this the Basswood you wre telling me you liked to use?

Looks like some Sweet stuff from Conga's Corner, Both pieces are Very interesting. can't wait to see the outcome. Carve On Conga!