Bowana's Other Crafts

ooohhhh - nice.

I like.

KS

DANG!!! Nice work.
You are the master!!

MONGOWA BOWANA!!

Hence forth, I dub thee "Bowana", or maybe "Mongowa"?! Either way, you is one heavy hitter boss.

And no, you can't be Cheetah.

Thanks for visiting, guys n; gals!

Buzzy, Birdman: Thanks and check yer PMs.

Mieko: Yep, I actually finished something. Good tip about having pendants on hand at all times.

Paipo: Not as small as yours and Tamas carvings, but one of these days.....
I sculpted them out of this waxy mystery clay from China.

tikidreams, kiwishaman: Greetings! Thanks for the compliments.

Moki: I haven't forgotten the pitcher!

Babalu: Bowana say, "Ooga!" (Thanks, ol' bean!)

I love the New Guinea one - it looks like oxidized copper. And it's bizarre.

Do you mean UNGAWA, Babs??? That's Tarzan-speak for "Looks nifty and smells like antelope!"

Nice pendants! Greetings!

Love the New Guinea pendant, great design and color.

Beautiful pendants, Tikidav, I love the lono.

Nice stuff tikidav, I especially love the Yipwan, Really cool!

Sayanora, Tikidav! I've got a new and improved name. I seriously considered calling myself "Spam Sandwich" but thought I would probably regret it later. So Bowana I am!

Hopefully I'll be carving some Tikis that are also new and improved.

Here's what became of Waha Nui:

From this.........

......to this

He is alive and well and now living in Bakersfield. (Where they like it hot)

We'll miss ya, Waha!

The Artist Formally Known As Tikidav

[ Edited by: Bowana 2007-08-23 20:57 ]

Waha is simply perfect.

Benjamin.

Damn fine tiki!

Wicked! Looks like he could have escaped from the City of Refuge - or somewhere more ancient. Great tiki!

Wow Dave, this guy is awesome! (show off) :wink: I really like the hands and feet on him. That finish is beautiful, and really brings out all the details.

Zaya

Bowana, you've got some mad, mad chops.. I love your carvings!

Thanks, and glad you like the pendants Cam, Hilda, Clarita, Ben, and Ben! Hey Hilda, I didn't see you at Tiki Oasis. Where were you hiding?

Thanks for the comps on Waha Nui, Benjamin, Sneaky, Paipo, Zaya, and Cap'n. Yeah, I'm a show off, but who on TC isn't?!

Here's my Tiki lantern finally glazed properly thanks to Babalu and his magic kiln! Before, I was spray painting them with Krylon primer and antiquing with acrylic. Not that those came out badly, but now that I've got a glazed one it seems more legit.

Bowana,

You know I'm a huge fan of your work. I can't wait to see your next endeavor! You come on over and fire stuff anytime you want to. Hope you don't mind me posting this other one you did over here. This is not the greatest picture, but I really liked the way you didn't trim out the eyes and mouth on this one, and glazed the inside the green color. You still have some more over here to glaze up as well.

Peace.

Dave, your stuff is AMAZING. My hat is off toy you, my brother!

Great looking tikis in a range of mediums - simply awesome :D

wow very nice carving! and the lantern is amazing! Congrats!
and I like the new nick, Bowana! I hear some drums when I say it!

Thanks for visiting Babalu, Billybob, Hewey, y Clarita.

No, I don't mind that you posted the picture you have of my lantern, Babalu. (saved me from doing it)

Hearing drums, Clarita? Listen to "Jingo" by Santana for some great Bowana drumming. Turn it up loud.

Stinky Tiki update:

When last seen, he looked like this:

Now he looks like this! I put on a coat of Zar Provincial wood stain, and some Watco Dark Satin wax. Probably a few more coats of wax to finish it off.

This guy has always had a peculiar smell to him, and now that the stain is on it's even more peculiar. Yeah, I broke my tradition of using authentic Hawaiian names, but I just couldn't pass up "Stinky". Fit too well.

I never get sick of looking at your stuff. You're so good it's maddening! I really dig the overlapping reptilian scales/plate look you did up the centre of the headdress. Like your other guy he's very traditional, but you've put your own distinctive stamp on it too.
I wouldn't mind seeing some bigger pics and/or closeups of your detail work so I can try and work out how the hell you do this!

Damn artist fomerly known as Tikidav, that looks awesome. GROG like. How big is he?

Oops, never mind. I checked back through the thread and found he is 32".

Bowana,

These are some serious chops up in here! I am floored! WOW! This last guy is about as perfect as I would think one can be. How you do dat?

-G

Bowana, You just keep Blowing us Away. The Lantern is really Awesome but Stinky is plain ol' Incredible. Beautiful stuff.

Thanks Paipo, GROG, GMAN, and Benz.

How do I do dat, GMAN? Same way you do dat. Lotsa practice, and the willingness to take advantage of your holiday weekend to carve.

Paipo: What! Show detail pictures so you can figure out how the hell I do it? And give up my secrets? Hah! Secret is that there is no secrets. Just a lot of attention to detail and getting caught up in what I am doing.

I just so happened to have taken some detail shots so here ya go!

Here's what became of this guy:

A splintering fall apart mess of stupid rotting palmwood. I banished him to the jungle that I call my back yard, but he seems to be happy here.

Hey, Bowana-dav! Nice detail shots on the Ku. The Maoi also looks good in your jungle. Any self-respecting jungley tiki yard should have a rotting idol hidden somewhere. I always love checking your work.

Cheers,

A-A

I'm speechless.
One word come to me: perfection.
Is stinky a kind of twin of Lanakila :wink: ?
Beautiful moai too, He looks happy among the trees.

Benjamin.

Thanks Aaron and Benjamin. Yeah, Lana Kila and Stinky are twins in a manner of speaking. I have to keep carving like that until I get it right!

...And now for something completely different.

This Yipwan pendant I posted a while back is based on an oil painting my mom did around 1960.

There are two paintings that make up the set, palm trees and Yipwan. I've never seen any photographs of this particular Yipwan carving, so I don't know where the image came from that the painting was based on. Unfortunately Mom has not been with us for several years now, so I can't ask her. Shoulda when I had the chance!

She also made this pendant. It's about 1 1/2" and carved from some kind of stone. It's got "1954" carved on the back. I don't know anything about the design. Maybe she made it up. The stone is soft enough to have been carved with a pocket knife, which is what I beleive she used. Maybe some of my Stoner friends can tell me what kind of stone it might be?

Your mom did very nice works. The pendant you made out of her painting is incredible too. Art has something to see with genetics, maybe.

Sir Dave - (Bowana means sir)

Your skills are over the top brother!

It takes mucho discipline, and love of art to carve major crazy stuff all day long for a living, and then come home at night to carve tiki. You are a true artist in every since of the word.

Your work, Ben's work, and a few others have been major inspiration to me this week....after this next kiln load, I'm shelving the clay and jumping back into carving.

Wow! Love the paintings!(A lot of mana in them.. if you could say that of a painting...)Very nice! Saludos Sr.!

On 2007-09-10 06:27, benella wrote:
Art has something to see with genetics, maybe.

Merci Benjamin. Yes, I don't think I had a choice! In my family everybody is either an artist or a car mechanic.

Thanks Babalu. Don't completely abandon the ceramics though. I still want to use your kiln!

Gracias, Clarita mi amiga. Paintings do have mana.

Here's my latest:

22" of the driest palm wood I've ever worked with. (courtesy of 4WD) Light as a feather, and no worries about surprise cracking.

I made one similar to this guy once before. I named it Ali'i. Since I have no name for this one yet (and "Mr. Noname" is already taken by some guy) I'll just call him Ali'i the 2nd. Gosh, how creative.

This is my Hurry-Up-And-Finish-It-Already-Will-Ya corner. Hopefully it won't get any bigger before I can get these hurry upped and finished.

beautiful work my friend

Wow, oceanic art in the genes - how cool is it that you have pieces your mother made in the original heyday of tiki? Interesting how this stuff manifests itself in our lives later on...
The stone looks a lot like what I carve - greywacke - except mine definitely can't be worked with steel tools. I would guess it's still very similar, i.e. sandstone, but just a type that hasn't been pressure cooked in the fault zone like what we have here.
Magical chizzlin as always...goes without saying!

Dave, can you fix my truck? :P

Cool new one, the wood does look great!

Sir Bowana rules!! Just out of the kiln...Dave I think you could redesign the Space Shuttle into a wheel barrow if you had an extra month or so.

PS...Hope you don't mind Bowana...I just couldn't help but to link your Site...You IS a "MASTER CARVER" my friend!!
http://members.aol.com/kelea98/dave/

You're a maniac! Where can I get one of those 2" gillmen?!?

Pretty Incredible stuff. Where'd you Learn to do that(besides the mentors you were fortunate enough to find). Love the Lanterns.

Master Carver Dave:
One question:

Did you sculpt your hair too?

Nicely Done!
Buzzy Out!

Marcus: Thanks for visiting, mate!

Paipo: Thanks for the stone info. I figured it would probably be you with the answer. I'll set aside a Gillman for ya and give it to you at Tiki Oasis 9!

4WD: Sure, I can fix your truck. I'll need an extremely heavy sledge hammer. That, and a protractor ought to do the trick.

Clarita: Gracias como siempre, amiga!

Babalu: Thanks for the use of your kiln, and for posting the lanterns picture. Saved me from having to do it. Nah, that's okay that you linked my site. It needs updating, one photo in particular.

Benz: Where'd I learn to do that? Well, I do have to give a lot of credit to my mentors. They were extremely hard on me. A lot of ersatz apprentices would come through there with visions of grandeur but when it came right down to it, they didn't really want to work. My mentors kicked my ass every day just to make sure I was not going to waste their time too when they were paying me to learn while I sculpted for them. My sculptures were literally torn apart in front of me during critiques. It got to a point to where I developed a serious thick skin, and had a huge chip on my shoulder. I was determined to make the best friggin' sculptures they'd ever seen, whether it was an Indian figurine or a Winnie the Pooh lamp.

I would say then that it was the willingness and tenacity of both parties that brought my skill level up. (Even though I wanted to quit oh so many times)

That was years ago now, but to this day I am still in touch with my mean ol' mentors and consider them among my dearest friends. Oh, and they still hire apprentices if anyone is interested. (I'm serious)

Buzzy: I hate you , you bastard!

I'm Interested!

You're actually a professional sculptor?!

Holy Kokonuttios, I thought you were amazing, but you get a paycheck out of this! Oh My Gawunga! You are our official Kahuna Bowana from now on!

I love that story about your mom! You did an amazing job replicating her painting in your carving. You really brought it to life. She would be so proud of you!

Ok, so we've known you about 10 months now, and you've been holding out this "Professional Sculptor" career of yours? I think at the next chop we should find out what we all "Really" do. :) I'm still wondering about Cammo....
It was great to see some of the work you've done, it's incredible! I really like the sculpt you did of Jimi. The details are amazing and life-like.

Dave, you have to admit, that hairdo of yours is the bomb! And can we all talk about the color please? A redhead? We would have never known! I think you should grow it out again for old times sake. :) Oh yeah, and if you ever want to see some pictures of Buzzy with a hairdo let me know. :wink:

Zaya

I WANT TO SEE PICTURES OF BUZZY WITH HAIR!!!!!!

Was it long?
Was it strong?

Was it dark?
Did it look like bark?

Was it curly?
Kind of gurly?

Was it wet?
Or in a hair net?

PICTURES OF BUZZY WITH HAIR!
Where?
Where?
Where?

[ Edited by: Cammo 2007-09-18 15:01 ]