Lake Tiki - 8/23/2013 - Red Cedar

Lake-
What type of wood is the tall guy? stupid question!
Thanks, love your fine work.
ray

White pine I guess. Nice carvings as usual D! Somebody say they had a log for me in Sheboygen ?

great looking tikis!
one question - since I can easily see the chisel marks, am i right in assuming that huge gaping mouth was knocked out purely by hand? you dont use any power tools to take out wood faster?
keep up the good work, and the progress pics are really helpful for a guy like me!
cheers,
harro.

conga... much thanks! I love me some yellow pine. Always soft and smooth no matter how dry. I like wrestling around with these big logs.

Moondance... thanks! The wood is yellow pine and these pieces came from a 50 footer that was brought down on a construction site nearby.

Danny... Mahalos! Plenny logs in Sheboygan! We'll go surf some logs than carve some logs!

harro... thanks! It is all knocked out by hand... gouges and 18 oz mallet. I get more control and am more proficient with hand tools. And they don't take too much off in a half a second. For me its not speed though, I enjoy the time spent... even if it takes a bit longer.

Progress! It didn't look like much yesterday... looks a little more like a tiki today.

Fantastic masterpieces.
I love the eyebrows of the pole, it reminds me of one wall-tiki you've made earlier in your tiki bar, which one i love as well.

Great job.

Benjamin.

Thanks Benjamin!

The big one's are a lot of fun to make... and have quite a presence. :wink:

Very nice Lake!

looking good, keep them coming

Heat? We gots. 100+ yesterday. Humid as hell. Mosquitos? Fugidaboutit! And I didn't want to carve last night due to "conditions." And I'm in the shade!

Keep swingin Dave.

Do a round headed mofo fo da yard eh.

You da man!

Thanks guys! Just back from a week's vacation to Canada... some new carvings on the schedule for this week...

Lookin gooood mate :D

Just about continuous rain since Saturday morning and surf the last 2 days has keep me from doing serious work outside. Finally got some sun and was able to sand and finish up the short fat guy.

I've got to get the 9 foot pole finshed up this week too as a friend is throwing a surf party Saturday and needs some outdoor decor.

short and fat is nice and sweet.

Lake, that is got to be one of my favorites from you. Killerrrrrrrrrrr!

Awesome work.
I love how the teeth take shape from the wood.

Benjamin.

Thanks guys!

It was fun to get such a big hunk of wood and really sink into it... pushing details almost all the way through the log.

Teeth are a feature I want to continue exploring and pushing in different directions.

This is another "high quality" Lakesurfer piece....I also like the deep digs and
what you did with the teeth...they seem to flow right into the log. Great finish
too...thanks for posting!

Conga, thanks much! Finally drying out here a bit in Southeastern WI after 7 inches of rain in a week.
Bummed you could never make it down to these parts this summer... now that Finkdaddy is back I think a Milwaukee tiki crawl is in order. :wink:

And don't use up all the Basswood in the state before I get myself a chunk of it again. :wink:

Excellent looking tiki there lake. Looks like you spent a lot of time on the mouth and teeth. Excellent work!

You da man!

that is so cool i love it keep up the good work my friend

Ben, BK and Marcus... thanks so much guys. I've got some vending to do this weekend and then some more fun stuff to show. Its time I get to that pile of wood I've got that's waist high.

Lake,

Killer looking tiki. I looks like it is going to take a bite out of somebody. Hopefully life is treating you well.

Will

Hey there Will, good to hear from you! Life's alright, got out for a couple surfs this week and as couple last week. Life goes alright when you can get some waves once in a while. :wink: I get pretty busy doing this tiki thing but like to stop by once in a while and show some stuff. Hope all is good in SC with you and yours and hope your getting some swell. Scary stuff down there in Marina though, 12 foot Whites munching on surfers... no good! Stay safe and stay stoked!

:drink:

I need a drink.

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2007-09-06 16:39 ]

I need a drink too, because you hinted at retiring from full-time carving. Please,
don't even THINK about it. If you wanna surf and do other things that's fine, but
we all need more Lakesurfer!

:drink: :drink: :drink:

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2007-09-06 21:31 ]

Hey Lake what happened to this fellow ?

Hey there Benella, thanks for asking. I've been kind of unispired lately, life's got me down. We've also had a ton of rain lately and I moved it into the garage where it would stay dry until I find the motivation to finish it.

I'm taking a break... recharging the mind a bit.

As soon as I get him done I'll stop by and show you how he looks.

I picked up the chisels again a couple weeks ago. I did a little carving at Foundation Tiki Bar's party and got halfway through this really hard piece of ash I had.
I've been re-connecting with this guy the last couple of days and finally finshed him up today. I think he may go sit in the window of a local vintage shop nearby.

What a nice "late evening" post to finish off a night of football and baseball! Great
carving and certainly looks vintage....happy that you picked up the chisels. I like
the chisel grooves above the eyes and inside the mouth...nice little detail.

Beautiful head and headdress and very nice color that makes spring the grain out of the wood. Perfect work.

Ben

Loving the grooves. Keep up the good work.

Thanks guys!

I was going through some photos today and came across this one of my booth at Chicago's Exotica this summer.

I guess I made a few things this summer...

On 2007-10-01 21:37, Lake Surfer wrote:
I picked up the chisels again a couple weeks ago. I did a little carving at Foundation Tiki Bar's party and got halfway through this really hard piece of ash I had.
I've been re-connecting with this guy the last couple of days and finally finshed him up today. I think he may go sit in the window of a local vintage shop nearby.

Great work, Lake. I think this might be my favorite piece of yours. Ash--that's some hard wood right there!

wow, what's that Witco kind Ku on the wall in the picture ? The framed one ? I like that...
Great work

On 2007-10-01 21:37, Lake Surfer wrote:
I picked up the chisels again a couple weeks ago.

Sweet! How long does it take you to carve something that size out of ash? That is like carving a baseball bat.

Wonderful table full of goodies.

You were VERY busy this summer lake. No doubt about it.
All that tiki, big and small...that's enough to excite any passer by. What's in store for the winter?

Pappy, thanks so much. I do think this one is different in many ways from even some of the work that I was doing earlier in the year. On many of my most recent pieces, I guess I've let go even more and stopped worrying about the outcome of the tiki. Many times it is easy to overthink what you're working on.
I was shooting for a rough, vintage look on this guy and I think in the end it worked out that way. I've been into curves alot lately too... big sweeping curves.

I got another shot of it outside, gives it a bit of a different feel, even under cloud cover...

Ash... hard wood? You betcha. But holds really tight detail and beautiful grain as you can see here on another tiki I did earlier this year. With the right techniques to bring it out you can get some beautiful results...

Johnny, thanks! A very detailed baseball bat at that. :wink:

I started previous tiki with the mouth... about a half hour with a gouge. I worked on him some more for about 2 hours at Foundation's tiki party. James Teitelbaum was there signing books and talking with people and he would comment every half hour or so about how the wood chips were flying and how fast progress was being made. I was on a mission to show people something that night. I brought it back home and worked on it for another 3 hours I think. So, spread out over three days at about 5 or so hours. I have been known to knock something like this out in 5-6 hours straight too though if I have the time. I kind of get on this mission to see what it looks like done... hate unfinished things always laying around. Kind of like the Trader Vic's pole that starts this thread off... going on 3 years I think and I haven't touched it since. I gotta get back and finish it up.

Thanks surfintiki! As for what's in store for the winter... I've finally sold off the rest of my 2007 work to a store and I am focused on next year's work. Primarily Hukilau 2008 and some new stuff I'd like to bring. Hopefully some more custom work for both commerical and personal locations too. And doing more research on early Oceanic Art that will carry through into my work for next year.

virani, thanks! That one has been kicking around for a while and I actually finally sold it to Hala Kahiki on Wednesday along with a big tote full of other goodies. Here's a bigger pic of it...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2007-10-05 00:23 ]

Lake, classic work as usual. That rope edging looks sweet.
I always look forward to seeing your new carves.

Thanks much TIKI KAIMUKI.

Here's a shot of the bigger guys I did this summer...

I started eyeing up the Trader Vic's pole... may try and wrap it up by the middle of November...

Hey man, Do you want me to have a heart attack ?
Beautiful collection of masterpieces.
The color and the designs are absolutely fabulous.

Did you cut each log to the size you wanted ? Or are the logs at the same size you had them ?

Ben

On 2007-10-16 00:56, Lake Surfer wrote:
Thanks much TIKI KAIMUKI.

Here's a shot of the bigger guys I did this summer...

Now that's a line up to be proud of!

Ben and Heath, thanks so much for the compliments!

Ben,

After I get a few lengths of logs I cut them into workable and useable lengths. From that point I decide on one of the many styles that I frequent that will fit best with the cut piece. I try and make a large variety of sizes to fit everyone's price range.

A shot of the other side... from one foot to four foot...

Wow, what a lineup! Beautiful work. I really love the detail under the chin of that one towards the taller end. Also, like the flat finish of the middle one.

It looks like just the bottoms are squared and the tops are just eyeballed? I've been having trouble squaring the bottom of mine - as I can't seem to cut straight with the chainsaw. Might have to figure out if I can square it up on the table saw.

Great pics!!

I think you need to put a tiki in every window for Halloween! For all to gawk at.:drink: