Basement Kahuna -New Maori Bone Pendant 3/04

Lake, Marcus, and all(as Ali G would say...)I got respek, braddahs! If you can believe it I have another log with just about that diameter on my carport. Was going to be a giant Moai, but I think it just got commissioned as another Marquesan.

That bar is Awesome!
Great work.

love seeing the big stuff BK, top work as usual.

BRUDDAH BK!
That marquesan tiki is dope... 6'7"! I like. Buggah is biggah than me! Well, Im not at all surprised at your skillz brah... In a state of constant amazement...

Malama pono!

Jade hei tiki is sick! What CANT you do cuz? Shootz.

For miki'oi Authentic Hawaiian Makau, check out my website! You wont find mo bettah! http://www.cabanillamakau.com

[ Edited by: kaha ki'i 2007-08-31 08:23 ]

Thanks, Vince...coming from a chops braddah like you it always means a lot. Did the scrimshaw fid get there okay?

hey! where'd you get the jade?

you know when i said "crap" i meant it as, "crap! that's freaking amazing!!"

you rock on with your bad self!

crapmaster!!

A recent bone twin Maori Manaia...this one is available. Carved so it can be hung from either end; balance is the same!

man, its just crazy what you can do! incredible skill

I go on vacation and you post the coolest marq. You are definitily one of the cool old guys. I've learned a lot from you! Keep posting.

The mania and the jade hei-tiki are both great.

Beautiful work, BK. From the big to the small, you have an amazing eye for detail, fluidity and "life". Thanks for posting more of your work.

I love that bar! Totally old school looking craftmanship.

Nice one BK. I Love how you positioned the eye coloring too.

Here's a classic Marquesan image I just finished in bone.

Great-looking tiki.

On 2007-08-28 22:32, Basement Kahuna wrote:
'E's a big'un! Trading this cartoony Marq for a week's vacation rental on the beach, courtesy of a good Yellow Jacket classmate/fellow TC'er. 6 feet, 7 inches.

He'll serve mighty fine representing the FB,SC! Roll on down , bruvva--go jackets!

Hi BK, Wonderful pieces you‘ve done. I’m particularly intrigued by those bone carvings. Is bone carved using a flow of water as you do with the jade? What kind of bone do you use?

Mrs Hoptiki

Hi, Miss BP.. I use cowbone, mammoth ivory, fossil bone, generally whatever's procurable. Mostly cowbone. Bone you can carve without water flow. Think of soap, if you increased the hardness factor by, say, ten or fifteen times. It's a very workable material. The pieces you can usually get will challenge your acumen for working in miniature, but one you have the eyes and hands used to it it's quite fun. I'd reccomend using a downdraft fan..it smells when carving it...like burning flesh. Cabanilla Makau here, Vincent, is a very good reference on bone. He's forgortten more than nost of us will ever know! Aloha.

Damn BK, you know I think the world of you and your skills. That BIG Marq has me wondering why there isn't one just like it from you flanking my bar. Wayne Coombs is doin' something very special for me right now. Bigger than life, just like him (well, not bigger than him). I swear man, you're next, when you're available and when I can do it. The spirit of all the great tiki carvers of the past lives in you my friend.

[ Edited by: GatorRob 2007-09-10 16:31 ]

Thanks, all. It always means a lot. If I ever had a complaint about doing this for a living, the appreciation of the folks out there set me straight right off the bat. It's a blessing to do.

A new Taiaha is born, 6 ft., crafted for Freddie Ballsomic.

P.S. want to see one in action? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofybOAqLWZM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfXlskpaFc0

Beauty BK!

Freddie's a lucky man.

Thanks for the link. So that's how ya swing one of those around! :o

Good talking story with ya Monday.

Dear Basement Kahuna,
Fantastic Taiaha you carved, do you know how to use it? What kind of wood did you use? Any power tool?
Thanks and sorry for all the questions.
Hugs,
Sebas

In the first picture, the feathers look like a Ren Clark Severed head mug. The colors are the same. Everything great.

As always.... TOP SHELF!!!

Cool beans!

Thanks, friends...Sebastian, this Taiaha is carved in old growth black walnut. I don't give away all of my secrets, but this thread http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=17450&forum=7&start=15&hilite=upoko shows a fair gambit of how I craft a Taiaha.

This was a nice one. The feathers really make the exceptional carving stand out. Is this the one you had started at Coon Tiki II?

That be the one!

These are the new Gecko'z South Sea Arts/Basement Kahuna resincasts. I think he did a fine job on these...heavy and very detailed. I put instructions on Tiki Marketplace on how to order. 11.60 each postpaid. The originals ran from 125-180.00, so these are an alternative everyone can live with. Aloha!

Nice resins there BK, Excellent offering!

Good, accessible art. Ain't nothin' wrong with that!

BK the Unstoppable Carving Machine. More great stuff bruddah!

I'm knocking some ideas around in the 'ol knoggin and I'll see if between you me and Gecko we can blow some more minds... :wink:

Give me a ring! We'll get these ideas made.

One of my finest bone carvings to date...48 openwork points and 9 inlays..a union of land and sea; a tree lizard spirit surrounded by four joined Manaia. 4 x 2 inches.

Nothing to say except that: PERFECT.

Dear Kahuna,
Thanks a lot for the Taiaha Link, great work and a great warrior in that picture huh? :wink:
As for your bone carving, Congratulations, more than happy to see your new work. I hope to learn a lot from your work, thanks for the photos.
Hugs,
Sebas

Outstanding.

:o

Oh my! Is this going in your personal museum?

Thanks, all. No, Johnny, can't seem to afford to keep anything I carve anymore..been that way for a while, so it's for sale. A little more costly than my usual bone pieces. I have it over on Marketplace. Gets kind of different carving for a living. Have to do one-off stuff like this ever-so-often to keep my passion high.

Tahitian Cannibal Carving, 18 inches. This little guy is a commission for my South Sea Arts design teamate Wendy Cevola. Very often seen in the tiki bars of old. I'll have better pictures in a bit. The tapa behind him is special, too..from my own collection..one of two 7-ft long, 24-inch wide garment pieces of Fijian Tapa that I purchased from the daughter of the WWII veteran who brought them home with him in 1945. They were given to him by a Fijian girl with whom he had fallen in love. These were two of her own garments, made in her own village. I really treasure these for their history and story. Literally from the very nucleus of where the Polynesian Pop story began.

Wow.

You're on fire lately.

I need some motivation.

Off to California this weekend... maybe a dip in the Pacific will be the inspiration I need.

Nice piece BK!

Beautiful work. Scary subject matter too--just in time for Halloween.

Aaah, the Tahitian Cannibal Carving tradition, a pet subject of mine. I want to do a whole chapter on it, but I have to save that for the Beachcomber Book....

Very Nice!Great Cannibal there!
and the story behind the tapa is Pure Polypop History!
Righteous!

Thanks, friends..Is this the title of our favorite author's next book, revealed right here on Basement Kahuna's thread on Tiki Central?

your're on fire more than the west coast is right now!!..nice work cellar dweller...er, basement kahuna.

Great job on the cannibal. You captured all the right proportions and managed to make him look hungry. I think it's the eyes. :o Will we see all three or is this a singe commission?

On 2007-10-23 07:37, bigbrotiki wrote:
Aaah, the Tahitian Cannibal Carving tradition, a pet subject of mine. I want to do a whole chapter on it, but I have to save that for the Beachcomber Book....

A book about Don the Beachcomber? It was after all where the cannibal trio got their start in poly-pop. Donn Beach gave them cannibals a chance when no one else would hire them. Don was a champion of equal opportunity employment.

On 2007-10-23 12:48, AlienTiki wrote:
A book about Don the Beachcomber? It was after all where the cannibal trio got their start in poly-pop. Donn Beach gave them cannibals a chance....

Exactly, if Don ever had logo Tikis, these would be it. But the Beachcomber Book would also be about Eli Hedley, and other historic Beachcombers, and the whole style. Of course the Don part would have to co-written by Jeff Berry, he knows more about the man than even his ex-wives. ---BUT it won't be next, here is what my schedule looks like:

On 2007-10-21 18:49, bigbrotiki wrote:
.....my next BOOK, the LOOK OF TIKI (as announced before), which will be on Hawaiian shirts and Polynesian patterns of the 50s, 60s and 70s, and their links to original Polynesian art and to modernist graphics. I will put outstanding shirt designs into context with primitivist and modernist design, my two pet subjects.......

Then I want to do a book on the Tiki revival, one on the Spanish and European Tiki tradition, and a book on the 20th Century Beachcomber style, and maybe one on South Seas movies and television from the 20s to the 70s...and ...and ...and