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

as always man.....amazing!

Hmmmm. Some freaky genetics and cross-breeding going on over in the Paipo camp. The new guy is super killer - I always did like the Black Lagoon monster. This new pendant is has some great cross-over features. I love the scales and the beak-like mouth on your stone. Only high quality prodcuts from you! I imagine you will cast him as well?

I agree on the carrving methods you discussed. That's where it is at for me too. A thought, an initial mark or two, and let 'er rip. I enjoy staying with the scheduled program if possible or letting major cuts dictate where to go next. Both methods are good, but one needs to be able to switch gears if necessary.

-G

Nice take on the Creature! Have you seen "Bunicula - The Vampire Bunny?" There is a tiki in there somewhere.

Thanks again...it's cool to have some discussion on the process between conception and realisation. To me art is all about visualising, so I try and do most of my planning and problemsolving in my head, and then project that onto the piece as I go.
Benz, how are you getting your water to your handpiece? Have you got a line on the handpiece or are you working under a fixed line? Whichever you use, there is often a certain amount of blind faith when you are cutting crucial detail lines, but the former is definitely the way to go.
G, I'm not surprised you of all people would dig the Creature...marine biologists, fish monsters, fossils - what's not to like? I found out the underwater scenes were shot at Wakulla Spring in Florida - ever been there?
Anyway, the creature in question is now done. I made a few more additions to the detail (eyes, chest, hands) and sanded him up.....


Then, once I'd waxed him up, he slipped out of my hands and scampered out the door! After a few minutes of searching, I found him lurking in the drain around the side of my workshop....

A brief struggle ensued, and then he was subdued and imprisoned in a crate, awaiting shipment to California for further study..........

Hey wait a second! That crate should go to Virginia! What a cool piece Paipo!

I had a Feeling this guy was gonna get away, he had that Roaming spirit look in his eyes and needed more water. When you finished him, you also turned off the water and that was the last straw.
I work under a fixed water hose, mostly because I use a few different handpieces and am constantly changing them. It is something that will eventually evolve into a workable deal, just haven't found it yet.
Your stuff is getting very Alien recently, have you been "Visited" by strangers from afar? I Know you would tell us if you had, right? Right?
Just keep going where you Are going, the results are great!

I have a lab(bar) of experienced professionals on hand waiting to examine and study this strange creature. I am most interested in what his eating and drinking habits are. I suspect all of the rum should be under lock and key.

On 2007-05-28 14:18, Paipo wrote:

Looks believably authentically old, in that setting, even with the contemporary design.

Cheers gap, Benz, Tiki Kaimuki and JP.
TK, I am a little behind on sending this guy off but he is now on the way to warmer climes. I've been waiting in vain for some good photography weather. I think he likes it here - it has rained virtually every day for over a month now!
Benz, the water issue is a tricky one...I still get lost sometimes under all the water and streak coming off the stone, and just feel my way through some of the cuts. The good thing with the jet coming from the tip of the handpiece is that you can tilt the carving, so the water runs down and away from the work surface as you cut.

The fires have cooled a little after such a good run recently. I have been working on a couple of projects...one tiki which I think is my largest yet, and another little fella in the 1" range. I haven't done a Marq for a while now...

This was all done carving-wise, but after I put the wax on I noticed a couple of areas that will need some tidying. There is more to this piece than just the carving, which I will probably have done tommorrow....
:tiki:

Another excellent piece Paipo. Your methods sound sound to me.I attatched the waterline to the hand piece for the last part and it did help a bit but was still awkward, but I'll get the hang of it soon since I have a block 5"x2"x1&1/2" that I'm playing with now. I also found a source for flexible sanding bands that fit onto 1/2 by 1/2 and 1/4 by 1/2 rubber mandrills which you may be interested in looking at. They go from 60 grit to 800 grit.
Can't wait to see what surface decorations you have in store for your Marq, He's already Awesome!_______________

myspace

[ Edited by: Benzart 2007-06-07 08:21 ]

Thanks Ben. I'd be interested in seeing those sanding drums, as I have some bigger sculptures in the pipeline that they'd be ideal for. You might need to edit your post too...there seems to be a whole pile of space embedded in there that's making it take up a whole page. Maybe your dog was standing on your spacebar?

No more carving on the actual tiki, he was done, but I did go with a slightly fancier cord than usual...

Wow, the Necklace boosted the flavor a bit and gave it more of a formal look, Really Nice.
Sorry about the space bar thingie,,oops!
I posted a link to the page where you can see and purchase the diamond bands. there are also diamond flexible strips which are WAY less expensive than diamond cloth . The bands are on the bottom right side of the page.

Very nice tiki! and I love the fancy cord,for sure too!

wow, love that pebble look. very cool!

Amy

really nice necklace. I love it.

yeah, yeah. that thing is neat. good work!

The pebble necklace "rocks"! Great piece, you are full of surprizes.

ROCK HARD PAIP'! :D Tight lei hits da Marq!!!

Flip-flOp-fLipPp...

Totally rocking necklace, a masterpiece.

I wanna know how in the world you carved that little snowflake in the middle of the central necklace stone? AND, I wanna know how many hours it took you to find all those little flat stones of similar size? Simply beautiful. I'm always impressed by your work.

-G

Thanks Ben, Amy, Jonesey, Kahaka, Benella, Sneaky, Virani Clarita and G. I wanted to make something a little more jewellery oriented than just the usual tiki-on-a-string with this one.
I clocked up a few hours today on a bigger piece in the Rarotongan basalt which I hope will be done by tommorrow.

G, that bead does look a lot like a snowflake. It's a modified take on some Marquesan surface patterns, and I did it with a tiny disc cutter - maybe 2.5mm diameter? The stone is about 1/2" long.
Because I basically made this up as I went (as always!), once I had the wee marq done I knew I needed something else to make the necklace a little fancier. I actually made and discarded about 3 other beads before I settled on the two I used. I also ended up stringing it twice to get it just right! The white bead is also stone (the mystery stone I used for my white marq #17) and the other beads are coconut.

As for the tiny pebbles, I have a special beach I get those from (if you want to know where it is you'll have to come and visit me!). I fill a bucket from the appropriate zone and sort them for size and symmetry when I get home. Then I pick through them again when I need a matched set for a necklace. By the time I do all that sorting and drill the 60-odd stones, a simple looking piece ends up taking quite a while...

[ Edited by: Paipo 2007-06-13 01:28 ]

Necklace looks great, is it heavy with all of the rock beads. I really like looking at all your work.

On 2007-06-12 10:06, kbgator wrote:
Necklace looks great, is it heavy with all of the rock beads. I really like looking at all your work.

Thanks kb. It is heavy, but doesn't feel heavy to wear as the stones are distributed around the neck. The higher you wear a pendant, the less you notice the weight. Here in NZ the tradition is to wear a piece quite high by the base of the throat, but I have noticed the US preference is to wear it hanging well down the chest.

[ Edited by: Paipo 2007-06-13 01:25 ]

Got the next one done today - #29 - "Staff God Fragment", made with another piece of basalt collected from the lagoon edge in Rarotonga. This slice was from the outside of the rock and I left the natural weathering on the back and side so it looked like it had been buried or lost in the sea.
This is probably as close to copying artifacts as I'll go with my carving - usually I would modify the design a lot more, but something about the staff god says "don't mess with me". It still looks totally different to the several examples I used for reference. The little supporting figure was especially hard to work out, but next time I plan to do at least 4 of those guys! He reminds me of a transformer or one of those 70s Japanese robots...
This is also possibly my biggest piece so far, at just over 4" long and 1 3/4" wide.

Paipo, thats just awesome....Drool, drool, drool :)

Goddam! That was a slab-o-stone there brother. Boy did it clean up nicely. Are you going to leave the backside natural or are you gonna go for a second side :wink:

That is really magnificent. You learned a ton on that first two sided guy didn't ya? It shows here. Executed perfectly and super pleasing to the eye. In the chance of sounding stupid....what is he holding?

You're a killer !

You are not only great at doing this but you are also very fast.

Paipo, All I can do is sit here with my mouth open trying to make words come out, nothing but drool. This last piece is WAY Over the top. How did you get it so fair and smooth with no lumps and bumps? Very,very, very, very, VERY Well done. I suppose you will have to go out and buy all new hats now, for a larger size? :)
HappyHappyHappy

#25 and #26 have found their way to cali.

mate, i really dig the pebble cord and the large size staff god fragment. i hope my next paipo is a large pendant with a pebble cord. hint, hint! :D

Very nice work Paipo :)

Dude! The staff god fragment rocks! How you get it so regal and so smooth is beyond human comprehension! You get a gold star! :)

Hi Papio - Your "Staff of God" pendant looks great . . . and I like the "rough stone" touch on the back side. Last year I purchased a small jade toki in which the back side of the jade was left in the rough "split stone" state. I liked the way it looked also. I thought I had a pic but I cannot find it. Will post later for those interested if I can take a good pic myself. Regards, Timid

You fragment my mind sometimes Paip'! Great piece.

Hows that?; a piece of stone travelling from Rarotonga to New Zealand in order to become a staff-god! All he needs to do now is make his way back to da Island to tell his mates of the adventure. Surely a world first!? :lol:

Next!
Tama :)

QUOTE
Goddam! That was a slab-o-stone there brother. Boy did it clean up nicely. Are you going to leave the backside natural or are you gonna go for a second side

That is really magnificent. You learned a ton on that first two sided guy didn't ya? It shows here. Executed perfectly and super pleasing to the eye. In the chance of sounding stupid....what is he holding?
QUOTE
Well, What izit in his hot little hands??

On 2007-06-14 19:20, Benzart wrote:

Well, What izit in his hot little hands??

this guy? (7/8" tall)

It'a another tiki! Well, part of one anyway...

These pieces were usually cut down for easy ship transportation (hence my idea for the fragment), but originally looked like this:

The purpose of these staff gods and the beliefs embodied in their fascinating abstraction can only be guessed at. It has been suggested that they are the genealogical staves of principal family lineages in Rarotonga, or that the succession of secondary figures represents generations of ancestors surmounted by the creator god, Tangaroa. The emphasis given to the ears of the secondary figures has led to the theory that Taranganui or "Great Ears", an ancestral figure, is represented. These same little stylised figures with large ears appear on other objects from Rarotonga. They dance around the terminal of a ceremonial staff and fringe the edges of a specatcular canoe sternpiece.

My next pass at this design will hopefully include at least two each of the frontal and profile supporting figures - single sided of course! (The originals are double sided!) I have spent literally months looking at these carvings in the form of hopelessly inadeqaute photos, and trying to work out the intricacies of these little figures. I wish the nearest museum had their Pacific collection on display so I could go and eyeball one in person.

WELL DONE! The staff god is one of my favorites. I like the multiple eye and mouth cuts and the basalt is really apropo, a tiki made out of oceanic crust! Way cool!

Dammit, There you go again, Totally numbing my brain. I can't take much more of this Paipo, you gotta stop! On second thought, you Can't stop, I need another fix already.

Paipo, the pebble necklace has arrived and it is beautiful! i love the detail and the look, I wore it today already and got lots of compliments...

Happy, Happy, very Happy!!!!

Thanks!

Amy

I'm forgetting my manners....thanks to Freddie, G, benella, kbgator, Benz, Bullet, hewey, Kinny, timid, Tama, Sneaky and Amy (last but far from least!)...

I found another little tidbit of info about the staff god on an auction site:

...Little is known about the function and meaning of these works as their use disappeared with the introduction of Christianity more than 150 years ago. Williams (1837: 117) refers to the staff gods as `national idols' and Duff (1969:61) suggests that they represent Tangaroa in his creative aspect with successive generations of ancestors linked by an elongated symbolic phallus. Phelps (1976: 129) surmises that 'the similarity of the carving and of the arrangement of the component figures implies that they do not represent different genealogies but embody knowledge commonly held by several carvers of a specific historical tradition, event or genealogy. Dodd (1967: 258) further suggests that they were carried on the shoulders of 'acolytes' and placed horizontally on the ahu, or altar; allowing for the most descriptive view from the marae for the congregation.

I wish I'd had more interest in these objects before I went to Rarotonga...ah well, there's always next time!

Speaking of next time, I've started another Marquesan pebble necklace. This time it's little bigger and bolder with twice the tiki. I started out by removing most of the middle of the pebble (a BIG pebble) to make a double tusk form. Hours of contemplation later, with the help of little Arthur Lyman on the CD player, and it's at this stage:

Should be finished this time tomorrow!

:o :o :o Yoinks! - That was a beachpebble??!! wow...

Ouch !!!
You're the master of peebles.

arghar hgahgrhagerhg ... excuse me just the drool on my keyboard !

Hats off.

Benjamin

WOW - another very cool design. I imaging bodies and beads and...?

Well now THIS Looks Promising. Ditto what everyone else already said along with; Man you Sure are Raising the Bar! Leave it to you to take the art in a Whole new direction, and with Such Class.
Thanks, I Needed that!

Thanks fellas!
Yes, a pretty big pebble, especially compared to my usual scale, but not too much work to get rid of the waste. Some overlapping core drill cuts at the top, then in from the bottom with the saw to meet them. A bit of work with some heavy burrs/drums in the 6mm collet and the waste was all gone. I made a couple of other tusk "blanks" at the same time.
The tikis will have bodies, arms etc, and the free spaces will have some surface decoration. It will also have the stone carved beads and pebble cord as on the other one.
Now I gotta get out there and finish it!

[ Edited by: Paipo 2007-06-21 17:21 ]

i dig where this one is going.

Getting closer. Lunchtime!

That is lookin, Slammin', P!! Lookin forward to the next round of pix.