New stuff added!!

Love the little Ku - "just a bit of scrap I whittled" ho hum.. You make carving those crisp lil devils sound like childs play.

Great stuff.

Tama :)

"Next is another scrap that I whittled on"

Did he say "Whittled" ?

Awesome lil scrapper there Aloha. Thanks for cheering up my day.

Mahalo

McTiki

A.S.

Super clean. Really nice work on these guys!

HA! Love your little ku! And the pendants are pono!!!!
Seriously, keep up the beautiful work and Ill keep admiring!

A Hui Ho!

man, thats some of the coolest stuff i've seen yet! love tha pens. i turn pens aswell not that cool though. hw do ya get the fine detail so clean? good works!

Thanks for all the comps. I'm not downplaying when I say "whittling", its just thats the way it feels. The little stuff is a lot of fun, and instead of doing garden knomes or santa clauses, I carve tikis. Here are some past and new "pocket" tikis. The tallest one is less than 3". Most of these are scraps of wood from past projects.

insane - I started with carving pens in a friends garage and the whole thing grew from there. I now have 2 lathes and more tools than I can shake a turned dowel at. I have more things planned with the lathe that will be coming soon. I use a variety of tools when carving, but mostly use the hook or xacto.

Here are some larger carvings that I just finished up. The first is a mahogany branch from hurricane Wilma. Not thrilled with the way it took the stain. Next is beautiful piece of mahogany heart wood. No stain just natural with clear finish.

Sweet looking stuff Aloha, Love the Mohawk, but the Laughing tiki has Tons of character and you really made him Alive and breathing. Excellent.

Great retrospective! You've certainly got a defining style. From pens to pocketikis; where next..? Love those pocketikis.

Tama :)

Well, I don't really need to tell you again how much I like these little guys, but I will! Love the Mo-hawk-ai - he's got the same punk attitude of my lil' cannibal of yours. Onwards and upwards - you're gonna go places with these fellas....

Your new stuff is just incredible - like everything you do! Love your little Ku - he's so square, yet deeply detailed. Love the stripe of color as well. The Wilma branch guy is great - he's so full of life and laughter. Is he a self-portrait? :)

Here's my latest project in progress. He is a white pine log that Benz gave me recently. Do you recognize the design? I'm making a few adjustments - just because. Love the pine - it carves like butter. Here he is roughed out and ready to be cleaned up. I don't have a lot of time for carving, but will try to have more later this week.

I don't know what is more amazing, the clean style and "fun" that each of the tikis portrays, or the speed with which you carve them.

Keith

Nice stuff...a lil' cannibal action, perhaps? Cant to see this thing finished.

Yes it will be a Cannibal. KingsTD - you got me motivated to do another cannibal, unfortunately this guy might be a load to put around your neck - sorry. I'm really looking forward to doing the detail carving on this one.

kg - Quick? Maybe in the terms of looking at it on the internet? This guy took me about 3 hours to get where I am now and he's not even close to being done! Keep watching and he'll be done done before I know it!!

Beautiful work as always. Can't wait to see him finished. Your cannibals are always amazing.

This is interesting - I have been featured as the Artist of Color Feature Artist at deviantart.com. What makes this so interesting is that I am really "colorless". A white guy that carves tikis. Its still cool to think that out of all the artists at deviantart I was selected. They actually select the artist by their art and not their color - so check it out.

http://artistsofcolor.deviantart.com/journal/

Congrats,
I knew you had a lot of soul.[ for a white boy ]

Way to go Tom! You take credit where ever you can find it. Congrats

That's pretty damn cool!! Good for U, T!

Your'e pretty fly
For a white guy

BTW, this dude is awesome!

Thanks for the comps. I'm really honored that they like my stuff.

Speaking of stuff, I made a major score this week while at work. A shopping center next to where I work is redoing their parking lot. They cut most of the old growth trees out. What I noticed is that nearly half of the trees were Florida Mahogany. I approached the tree trimmers (only one spoke a very little english). Thru a conversation of my limited spanish and hand signals - I managed to get them to help fill my truck. This pile is the result! This wood is a beautiful orange and heavy as hell. After unloading the largest log I realized that I could not move it by myself. The solution was to slice the log in half. I am willing to share some of the wood - PM me if you are interested.

If you are looking for wood in your area, tree trimmers are your best freind. I wasn't the only one, someone (another wood worker) had already beaten me to some of the other tree trunks. Don't feel like your crazy asking tree guys for stumps - its actually cheaper for them with no disposal cost.

How tons ?
How tons are you proud to have been selected by deviantart.com ?
I'm happy for you because it is a deserved tribute to your wonderful work.
Bravo.

Hey! congrats!!

I got to spend a little time cleaning up some of the cuts made erlier. Still a long way to go.

Very cool work Aloha,can't wait to see this guy finished!.

Well not alot of carving happening to the big guy lately but I have been busy with other stuff. For some reason when it rains it pours. Here are two illustration jobs that have taken most of my time. I tried to get some tiki themes in there but the ideas were shot down (I guess not everyone are tiki fans). Both could have used more time on them - but deadlines and money rule. Illustrator and Photoshop.

Look for more carving later this weekend right now I'm off to get the crap scared out of me at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. WooHoo!!

A ton of very nice art. Congratulations on the "artists of color" recognition.

Excellent stuff here Aloha, It can't All be tiki and you certainly DO Your share. keep it coming!

A.S. nice work. :) As a fellow designer I can appreciate this as much as your tikis. Just wish I was making the money doing design work like you are. :wink:
Things have been pretty stale in this city which continues to transition from blue collar to I don't know what.

This is the last serious bit of design I did for shirts, billboards, posters. etc. And I didn't get paid but am still trying to get some product out of Corona for them advertising on my work again this year...

http://www.visitsheboygan.com/dairyland/2007-Logo.jpg

Keep up the good work... both wood and digital!

Thanks guys. The design stuff pays the bills, and the tikis keep me sane/insane. Here are my latest pocket tikis. i recently acquired a stash of dowels from someone that owned a lathe. For some reason he created several boxes of unfinished dowels in several different woods and sizes. Now that i have them they make excellent carving blanks. I have been slicing them in half and whittling on them - Love it!! The wood is Walnut and I think Birch. has anyone carved Birch? Any way these are some pendants that will be offered in the Marketplace in a few days.

I have a lot of stuff that I need to clear off the bar in the next few months, so keep you eyes on the Marketplace for my stuff. :)

Wow, I love these new guys! I'll have to keep an eye on the marketplace. Hey - lemme know if you want resins of any of those guys, I can make them for you, I think they'd come out great. :) I think people would like the cannibal a lot.

I haven't been carving enough, but my latest guy has a bit of your influence. :)

:D SsweeetT & YuMmY! :D

Man, luv the new pendants! And the design work you posted is outstanding! It's always amazing to see the depth of talent the carvers here on TC have. Thanks for posting that!

Great-looking stuff. GROG like.

Those are sweet!!!
I dig the one on the left the best. Very cool.

AlohaStation - Man you are a resident pro dude nice work going down
with you. Keep the chips flying.

Yeah Aloha, i saw those goodies inMarketing and they are Way TOO Excellent for the $ you are charging add another Bunch and get what they are worth.
GOOD Stuff Tom!

Thanks for the comps everyone. I'm really having fun with these dowels. Their perfect for carving while I sit on the couch and watch TV. Here's one more. He's up for grabs too. This guy also has a handbraided cord - my first!! I'd love to see a "how-to" on how other people finish their pieces - suggestions are welcome. Enjoy!

A.S. those new guys are suweet! Birch is good stuff... a hard wood with a tight grain but nice smelling and holds super detail. I'm working on bigger guys in ash and birch... plentiful in these parts.

Love the direction you've taken with these pendents lately!

Super last pendant, A.S. I really love the design of your pieces: every part of the head meets perfectly the others o that the result is always perfect.
Did you use wax, oil or poly to finish this one ?

Ben.

Lake - thanks for the direction on the Birch. I've acquired alot of turning blanks for a lathe. I may round a few off and carve them later. For now I have a bunch of Walnut that I'm making my way thru. For the big stuff i have really nice mahogany that is drying out. I debarked a log this weekend as an experiment - wait and see.

Benella - Thanks. I'm really happy with the way these last few have come out.

Here's another one that I finished this weekend. Its slightly longer than the other ones and has a commanding presence when you wear him. It was actually a mistake - I grabbed the wrong piece - this piece was slated to be a full body tiki. In return the other piece of wood got pissed and bit me last night. Stitches - no - but could probably have used some - OUCH!! Right on the tip of my middle finger. So I will be taking a break from carving for a week or so to heal. Enjoy!!

On 2007-10-15 14:49, AlohaStation wrote:
the other piece of wood got pissed and bit me last night. Stitches - no - but could probably have used some - OUCH!! Right on the tip of my middle finger. So I will be taking a break from carving for a week or so to heal. Enjoy!!

Yeouch, The middle finger is sensitve, I just nicked the tip of mine with a bandsaw, went under the nail and everything. The good news is you can carve in couple days. It will barely slow you down. It will be tender for a while.

These dowel tikis are great, I really like your style.

Nice work, but watch those fingers!

Nice Carvings AlohaStation. I've always loved your style, Sweet stuff, Aloha, Mooney

Here's another one - the one that bit me! Actually, I was so comfortable and just not paying attention that I can't blame him. He is another dowel and about 3.5" tall.

These are GREAT! The "Biter" even Looks mean, so you should have known to watch him, :lol: One thing about getting comfy on the couch, watching TV while carving is that you Don't pay enough attention to the right things and Hand knives will Bite Quickly. And Spouses Hate seeing blood all over the carpet and furniture. But,,, you Gotta do it or not carve at all and you are really doing So Well you CAN"T Stop now!
I ran across a simple sharpening system for your Lathe tools, USING your lathe too! AND, it's Very inexpensive...
HERE is a link to the online store. Let me know how you like it?

OK its been a little busy around the household lately. Here is the finished Cannibal. This guy will be in the Skull Sessions show at the Bird and Bear gallery (www.bearandbird.com) here in Fort Lauderdale, opening October 26.

I had some problems with the wood - at first I loved it then it turned on me. Its carved in White Pine and it carves like butter but can be a bit chippy. The victim originally had an elaborate nose that crumbled off several times (yes, I did try using glue). I originally was carving this for fun then decided to meet the shows deadline, so he's not as elaborate as I originally wanted. That's OK because the color of the wood grain would have overpowered any small details. All in all I really like this one and hope some of you go see the show. I will have better photos after the show. Thanks

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2007-10-22 11:48 ]

That's really nice. I love all the dowel pieces too, especially the last one; lot's of character.