tok-tok, German tiki thing. News + pics on pg. 7+8

Hello everbody.

First things first. I´ve been looking around in this forums for quit a while, always fascinated by the quality of the carvings to see. But also all the other stuff to find here.
I myself spent quite a lot of time carving, inspired by the 'Book of Tiki'which I came across about 2 years ago (+ more recently 'Tiki modern' as well).

I must admit, that in the beginning I never made any help lines or drawings on the logs I used and I also do not have any 'work in progress' pics. Or at least a few. Shame on me.

So here we go:

The one on the right was the first, made for my wife for a special reason (which I can´t remember at the moment)

This one was the second (looking nasty and unfeminie, not useful as a present for special reasons)

I can´t remember the wood I used for these two guys, I found it somewhere and it was dry, so it did not crack till now.

The following two where made out of firewood, I was given by a friend.
After starting I anytime noticed that it was rotten, but I had gone to far to throw them away.
I found some progress pics, too.






This is birch, and as you can see, there are marks form rotting all over and in the wood.

But I kept them and put some acrylic paint on them, to let them look good from far.

This one has got some craquelure varnish on his face, which only came out slightly fair.

I myself wasn´t that happy with the effect, but I put them on a shelf and dimmed the lights, so visitors allways say they look great ever since.

What do you think about that?

You can count five little statues, so there is more to come. These 4 introduced ones where made about 2 yrs ago and I had a lot to learn.

At present I´m suffering from a tennis elbow surgery, which had become nesseary because of carving (hm), but with plaster to my left, i will recover soon. Otherwise it gives me the chance to post some more pics.

An please excuse my choppy style of writing for I am not a native english speaker. But I will try my very best further on.

Please feel free to post your replies.

Thanks a lot in advance.

tok-tok

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Big welcome to TC tok-tok. Nice looking tiki's. Lot's of nice work coming out of Germany these days.

Tok tok, welcome. I am enjoying looking at your stuff. Make more and post more please....

Hi man, and welcome to TC.
Nice work.

I'm the same way. I just start carving and see what kend of tiki unfolds.

Nice work ... your English is better than these 'rednecks' down here in Floriduh !!!

Hi there again.

Thank you for welcoming me Babalu, Hiltiki, benella, Tonga Tiki & TikiLaLe.

As I mentioned, there are only old pics at present for me to post.

To show you some more, I picked two other tikis of which I only have these pics left.
I gave them away to some friends of mine.

And again, there where no lines drawn on the logs to give myself a direction. I just started without knowing, where it would end.

The small one on the table is made out of beech, height about 30 cm / ca. 12 inch + the big on in the corner was a birch log I guess (I had barked a few till then and can´t rememeber now.)Height was ca. 50 cm / 20 inch.

I like tikis with bodies better than only the heads, although I think you come to an end faster when only doing the head.
Anyway, it allways takes its time, especially when you got no helplines on the log.
That is, what I found out at first and where you guys at TC inspired me.

When I carve, I still don´t follow any special style or pattern, and so it went with these two fellows.

I sorry for the quality of my photos, but it´s not possible to get them better.

Hope,you like them.

There is more to come.

Peace.

tok-tok

Welcome tok-tok good to see you come out and play.
Im glad you posted your pic's The big guy is great.

Excellent stuff here tok-tok, not bad at ALL for just starting tiki. Don't be afraid to use the tikis that you like in the Book of Tiki as Inspiration for your own, just don't copy them line for line(which would be difficult anyway). Thosa are all pretty much traditional tikis which would be recognized and accepted by any tikiphile, anywhere. The good thing about using them for patterns is that the original artist has worked out all the chops and lines and such which will greatly assist you in your carving, Even though you aren't making identical copies.
Keep up the good work and Keep practicing. Every tiki you carve is only practice for the next one.

Nice to see something going on in Europe.
Great job with your first tikis!
What type of tools do you use?

Welcome to TC and thanks for posting pics of your work. I like how you pose them in a still life mode...like the one next to the potted plant. :)

Nice carvings there tok-tok, I like the last one you posted the best.
Are you burning those black spots or do you use paint ?

Where in Germoney are you ? I am german as well and I'm moving back to Munich in 2 weeks. I'd really like to meet some carvers, since I just started with some small tikis (easier to ship) and can't wait to get my hands on some bigger logs and of course learn and get some inspiration.

Cheers,

Bobo

ALOHA tok-tok, wellcome on TC! Great start, let the chips fly. Great start
Traderbob, if you stay in Munich you have to visit the Trader Vic´s or the Waikiki!
Trader Vic´s is the pearl of south germany! :)

On 2007-10-22 04:38, haikai wrote:
ALOHA tok-tok, wellcome on TC! Great start, let the chips fly. Great start
Traderbob, if you stay in Munich you have to visit the Trader Vic´s or the Waikiki!
Trader Vic´s is the pearl of south germany! :)

haikai,

yep, Trader Vic's is already scheduled for the first night when I get back :wink:

Chip ahoy...

thank you all for finding my post interesting enough to post a reply.

seeksurf: I just read your own topic (again!) and I personally think, you never can have enough chainsaws (I only got one). Have problems with symmetry myself sometimes, but where is your problem with that? Very clean with perfect headdress.

Benzart: Thank you for your words of wisdom, copying is not my style but I must admit, that I tried it twice or thrice with no satisfying results (I will show them later on). I read so much + saw so many pics of yours that I don´t know what to say. I admire your work ever since I came here.

tikidreams: Sweden, I like sweden, great country, much wood, friendly people, big rocks. To tell you ´bout my tools I need some pics, which I can not take as you will see later on down here. (by the way, we have nearly the same interests as I´ve seen in your profile)

vampiressRN: it is nice to hear (mean read) from someone who is around here having fun a lot. The still life picture has been taken, where this guy now normally lives. I don´t have such colorful flowers. Keep on digging this forum.

Traderbob: Well, what can I say, allready replied in your topic. When will you be back? As I mentioned, nice work. Funny is, to communicate in english. But I guess, it is only polite to the bigger part, to all of you at TC. (I´m still not sure, if my syntax is correct, haven´t done this for a long time.)

Haikai: Ah, great. Allways wanted to get in contact with you, but time and stuff, you know. Im honoured to read your reply. Thanks for the surport. I first came across you by reading the article in the "dynamite"- rockabilly-magazine (can´t remember the issue nr.)in combination with the walldorf-weekender. Your are , beside a bulk of others, one of my favorites here.

Ok, ok, enough flattery for today. Back to the pics.

I try to post them in the correct order, in which I carved.

The two following tikis where made during 2005 summer vacation and beyond. I had them stained already but did not like the result so I started sanding them again and changed some details. But there is still a lack of pics.

There is nothing traditional in it; this one reminds me widely of witco, but is from a period, where I even did not know, what that means.



It is a kind of softwood, spurce I think, but I am not sure.

Next fellow ist made of beech, as you can see, I did the same to him by sanding.
To answers traderbobs question about the black spots (before forgeting it): First I had an big, old, evil soldering iron, which I found in a toolbox of one of my relatives. But it blew up soon. Irreparable.
From then on I tryed a lot of different ways, from black stain over chinese tusche to poker work and gas torch. It depends on the tiki.

That was also my first attempt to use a chainsaw, which got me the first artificial lines ( later I started using a pencil for that). The black spots and lines are chinese tusche.

finished.

It is a bit of a copy I was saw on the kreepytiki side. But the rear, arms, legs and 'haircut' is of my imagination.

Ok. Its late (3 in the morning here in germany), I tired now. I only sit in front of the computer because I am signed off sick.

Tikidreams: Most of the time, I use this tool, working on tiki. But it had to be repared. The other still works.
See you all at TC.

tok-tok

[ Edited by: tok-tok 2007-10-28 08:08 ]

tok-tok thanks for the pic's you are kicking butt
I love the red guy he is a great.

Dude my wrists are taking a beating also
I might have to work smart soon.

Keep the chips flying.

Thanks seeksurf. It was more like a chronic inflammation of the elbow sinew/tendon (don´t know the correct term) and they had to do some sugery. But I´m recovering fast.

I´d like to do some update. Here ist a small one in combination with the red tiki. It was done very fast and it is not my very best.

height: about 8 inch/ 20 cm

Some day I will put some poly on it, now that I found out, what poly is (thanks again Benzart for explaining that to everyone). I guess, that is something different here in germany. I will do some tests.

The following small tiki was another quick carving made out of birch. But it was rotten in the middle.

height: about 13.77 inch/ 35 cm


Because of the rotting it catched fire in the mouth while burning it. So I stopped adding details on it, unless staining and torching the small crinkles.

There is no varnish on both of them as you can see, but perhaps they will look better after rubbing some on.

Last one for today:
This one is made out of 'idontknow'-wood. The bark looked a bit like cherrywood but I´m not sure.

I found some progress pics.



At this time, the tiki was nearly ready.

I put some stain on it, tried some burning but changed to painting the crinkles with black tusche. Finally I rubbed two layers of wax on the head which gives it a glossy surface.

height: ca. 11 inch/ 28 cm

That´s all, folks ... for today. Any commentaries are welcome.

tok-tok

This was the first big tiki i carved out of beech. He was about 3 foot high and i
liked him a lot.
I swapped him for some other big beech logs but far to little. Damn!
Pics:

Here is another one I´d like to show.
There was a german guy, who was selling small ones of these on ebay. I guess they were imported. But I like the design and thought I could have a try.
I picked thuja (guess, its the same in english) and gave him a bigger headdress.
Thuja is very soft, I had to glue some small pieces of the headdress twice.
And I wasn´t that firm in carving hands and feet, so I left that open.

The glossy surface came from burning and brushing him.

Can anyone tell me, what style that is?

Respects,
tok-tok

Just to show you the rest, here are some pics of my current colletion of selfmade tikis.
As soon as I am fully recovered, I start some new projects.







Sorry, the pics all look a bit crappy because of using the flashlight on the camera inside the house.
I will try some more outside within the next days. Just waiting for the sun.

Hope you like some of them.
Mahalo,
tok-tok

[ Edited by: tok-tok 2007-10-29 01:31 ]

Hallo Tok Tok,

The new tikis you posted are very nice.
How did you discovered tikis? Since how long did you carve?

Tschüss,

Ben.

Thank you for sharing pictures of the tikis you've carved. You have a very cool personal style and I love the way the tikis are finished. they all look very vintage. post more!!!

Aloha all ya,
first of all thanks for all the support.

@Benella: I discovered polynesian pop about 5 years ago but didn´t start carving at once. I was fascinated of that somehow sunken culture when I first read the Book of Tiki and started collecting other books and tiki-pics on the web. I looked around on ebay and got frustrated seeing always the same offers of statues and stuff. That was the time, when I decided to start doing that tiki-thing with my own two hands. Must be 2 or 3 years ago.

@Polynesiac: Thank you for your kind words. I try to develope kind of an own style, but there is so much that inspires me. Really can´t say where personal starts. I often have to look up some poses or facial expressions to get a hint. But I don´t want to copy step by step. Latest tries where in burning, I guess that make the vintage look. And dark stain.

So, here are some new photos of almost old tikis (okay mixed):

Left to right: thuja, birch, basswood

Come on, where is the booze? Show me the way to the next tikibar...

Call him the pineapple-guy.

He doesn´t stop laughing..

I always have to close the door to the living room at night, so that I can´t hear him.

Quiff-Moai

**Are you looking at me?
**

He should stand next to the laughing guy, perhaps I´ll sleep better then.

Here is a little update on my surgery, hope you like the photo:

That was taken nearly two weeks ago right before taking the stiches out.
But it is all good now, I suppose.

A friend of mine asked me some time ago, if I could do a wild boar for him. I said: Okay, but you should come along and bring a bigger chainsaw with you.
This is a bit off-tiki-topic, but I have to finish it first before starting another project.
He also brought along a big log of white fir a couple of months ago.

So last saturday we finally started carving.

Husqvarna-chainsaws work fine on softwood

But stihl is not bad either.

Me and one of my favorite toys


A couple of hours later, it looked a bit like a mouse with a too short tail.
But there is way to go.

Hope you enjoy what you see.
Till then, stay tuned.
tok-tok

Show me the way to the next tiki bar, I'll don't ask why,I'll don't ask why!!
A lot of cool Tikis You have here Tok-tok!! Keep them coming!!

You have a butt load of nice tiki's.

Nice size log, I like the hog. How many chip per gal on that big chain saw?

Mahalo,

@clarita: thank you very much. You got it: Moon of alabama- Come on barflies, gather ´round me. Please drop me a PM about your rock-a-billy- candle holder, i´d like to know how much one have to spend for this when ready.

@ seeksurf: thank you, too. About the chainsaw: the big one was borrowed. on the picture you can see my friend handling this monster. The blade has about 23", and working with chainsaws daily is his daily bread. Lumberjack/forester.

How many chip per gal on that big chain saw?

Can you repeat that question? I don´t get the meaning.

tok-tok

YES, Excellent bunch of tikis and a pig on the way. I'm with Poly in that I like your Smoothe style. Your tikis all look well-finished and have cool expressions, keep up the good work.

I was just being silly. I was just making a funny about that 23" going through
expensive gas. How much is gas in your country?
Gas is about 3.20 a gal but im sure its more where you are.

Aloha.
Thanks, everyone for visiting me here in my little shack at tc and for your support.
I had not much sparetime within last week, so the boar is still not finished.
In the meantime let me introduce you a slightly bigger tiki I made a couple of month ago.

I got this big appletree log for free together with my workbench about a year ago. Thanks ebay. Its former owner told me that there got to be some wood worms in it. And it had a big crack on one side.
But it was totally dry so i took of 1.5" all around and cut out the crack as good as possible.

Progress pics:

It took me about 30 hrs for start to end.
Apple is hard and I refused to use powertools except on the sides and for sanding.

The last one is for size comparision. It´s, where it stands now. Together with my youngest daughter. Pic-quality is a bit crappy again.

Thanks for watching.
tok-tok

Nice looking tikis! I bet your daughter loves them! Very cool look to your work.

:o wow :o

Did you finish the pig ? :wink:
Ben

Hey man, you are realy busy! I´ll also see a picture of the finished wood pig.
Keep on carving, Kai

Mahalo.
Time for an update.

@sneaky tiki: that´s right , she love it very much. She is standing right next to it every time i try to tak a picture, putting her arm tween the teeth, thinking it is fun.

@ benella+haikai. Thanks guys, I appreciate your support.

It has been a hell of a week at work, too much to do, spend less time on carving. So, where´s my weekend gone? I will show you.

I know, a pig is a bit off topic for carving tiki. One night last week I got a sudden flash of wit. Why don´t do it some kind of tikistyle? My buddy and me talk a bit about it and tried it out.
So here are the results:

First of all, Sven(that´s his name) had to smoke a piece of salami, then we started.

Helplines.

After a bit of chisel and axe using I started to sand the pig.

Suddenly a Soap-Bubbles-Storm came up!!!

But after that, it was all good again. As nothing had happend.
Look.

But that is not the hole truth, the big appeared like that.

It was getting cold now, so ( now alone)I changed the location and got inside to put some more details on, first drawing, then using some chisels an the hammer.

My better half showed up in-between and only said: " It would look funny, if the pig would stand on a surfboard." I knew, it´s gonna end up in silly, but the decision has been made.
Its´gonna be "THE MASKED SURFING TIKI BOAR." YES!
And I will call it PUMBA, like in "Walt disney´s Timon and Pumba".

Crappy old digi-cam.

That´s it with the pig for today. When Pumba is finished, I´ll tell you the story about his left ear.

I only got some questions left:

The wood is not dry. It is actually very wet. Has anyone an idea, how to get it drier ( except waiting I mean) so that I can finally pour some stain on or varnish? I thought, it would be dry enough but it isn´t. Burning it won´t get the wetness out, only at the surface, I suppose.

I hope, to get the pig ready within this or the next week, cause I have to start a new project. Some stage decoration for a friends fortieth birthday. Guess, what it will be.

Here are some goodies as the last for today.
I managed to wax two of my older tikis some days ago, and I´m very pleased with the result.

The small one, I showed you a couple o´week ago.


Call him 'the frog'.

This is a kind of Hotrod-Tiki made out of ash. Ash should be his name. That was quit a job, way too hard wood.

That´s it. TA-DA.
Every comment is welcome, even on my questions. :P :wink:
See you around.
tok-tok

[ Edited by: tok-tok 2007-11-25 16:41 ]

WOW! As a serious boar hunter, I would LOVE to have a carving like that at my house. That is going to be freaking bad ass. PLEASE keep posting updates!!!!!

-G$

Yikes! I knew everyone and their mother is surfing these days...but pigs?!?!
awesome.

Hey Tok Tok,
This tiki/pig is just amazing. Very good work.
I saw some stubai chisels: coool !
The 2 tikis you finished are pretty cool too.

Ben.

The Pig is looking great man. Looks like pine
the growth rings are huge.

The pic has cool details! :) Aloha, Kai

MORE PIG PICS PLEASE!!!!!

Tok-Tok,

They just seem to get more detailed and better the more you do. And not that you early ones were at all bad. Your way ahead of me, i need to get practicing. I love the variation in styles too.
Did you have artistic skills before hand?

The Pig looks cool too.

Tark

Pumba is coming along great. Need to see more progress pictures. It must have taken a long time, you chopped a lot of wood off that log.

Love the Hot Rod tiki, what kind of Mileage does it get.and the Pig, MAN, I can Smell the Bacon already, Slice me off a slab! Way cool.

Welcome again.
I know, I know, time for an update. I got lots of other stuff to do at my day-time job right before the year ends. Business as usual. The same procedure as every year.

GMAN: Thanks for your visit and the rough compliments. :P In germany chainsaw-carving is coming on stronger over the past years. Pigs are a very common motive for that, but not in tiki-style, if I can call it this.

surfintiki: Thank you. This pig´s gonna be a one-of-a-kind thing. It´s only a funny intermission before I get back to "normal" tikis.

benella: Thank you,too. It is a quit tricky job, cause I have no experience in piggish anatomy. Yes, I use stubai chisels , the big ones are called 'Berner Eisen', I don´t know the correct translation for them. But I use Pfeil and Kirschen too, and cheaper chisels. I will add a picture later on down.

seeksurf: Your are doing great,too. For a newbie. ( My ass. :P ) I was once told, that it is white fir, then douglas fir. I´m not sure about it anymore, but I have pictures of when it was turned down. I was there and it was big fun. I´ll show them if you like.

haikai: Thanks. I am finished now with the details. And I finally have received my stuff. Great,great,great.

Trader Trak: Hi Tark, nice that you found your way to my little hut on TC. I know, the old ones look a bit crappy, but I always try to get better in what I am doing. My work is far from beeing perfect but I am learning with every new piece. And my ideas are always getting ahead of me. Don´t know if I got the question right about artistic skills. I did a lot of painting in the past but not much tiki (these are only sketches), also spent time on building diarama and at the moment I am into tattooing beside my dayjob and carving (and nightlife,you know). I post an addtional picture later on down.

JohnnyP: Thanks for the support. You are right, it was a big log and before that, it was a big tree. I´ve got a second one of this size , not sure what to do with it now.

Benzart:Many mahalos. I just thought, that the hotrod-tiki would be a nice shifter knob. He´s got the right size for that, about 19 inch high and 5 inch diameter. Mileage depends on the vehicle, then.
I also left you some slices of the pig already, even if it hasn´t been roasted yet. Take a look further down.

So here is the update on pig pics:

leg without hoof

I tried a jigsaw to get the surfboard form, but it did not work out well.

So, back to chainsaw an there it was.

I don´t know, it this is the right position for the feet to stand on a surfboard. But I guess we can not ask a pig.

Form of the board, with shark hooks.

After sanding.

At this point I realized, that the wood was still too wet, no chance to get a real smooth surface, little fibers are standing up. It feels like fluff but does not like that nice.
As I asked before, any ideas on how I can get the pig dry quick? I read about owatrol somewhere, but not sure, what is best. Or even , if it is possible to dry it quicker.

Anyway, because of the wetness I thought, I should try a little test staining.
This is not, how it´s gonna be, only to see, how the wood would change under the stain.

UUPS. Where did this come from? Sorry. And you other pig, get lost!!

Staining in progress...

Ready. Nearly.

I like the way it moves on the board.

Sorry about this, I was blurry for a moment.

That´s it for now.
Benz, here are some slices. These are up for sale now. :wink: Let me know, if you are interested. I can pile up some nice little packages.

Here is a picture for benella of most of the tools, I used on the pig.

And another one for Tark.
This one I did in addition on that saturday, but there is not much tiki in it.

And finally let me show you some traditional german christmas carving of unbeliveable uglyness. These kind of I don´t know how to say: Santas? are to find on nearly every doorstep around the country. It´s like an invasion every year. I don´t know, where they hide these guys the rest of the year.

Look at this, it´s not even a Santa, it´s more like a bank robber with a red cap.
I sorry for that, I did not commit this crime.

But I have some more pics like these to show you. Anyone interested?

That´s enough picture bombing for today.
Hope to see you soon around here. I´m off.

tok-tok

Wicked Swine carve. Very nice, but, your pics give me a chill.

Mahalo

Mc

Right On tok-tok that is a great looking pig. Love the tiki touch
and the board.

tok-tok does what does tok-tok mean or say?

Guten Morgen Herr Tok Tok,

Your pig looks very good, Ilove the stain too. What's the name of this color ? Chestnut ?

Thanks for the pix of your chisels. The "Bern Eisen" are called gouges bernoises in French and something like Berner gouges in English if I'm not wrong :)
Which ones do you prefer ? Pfeil ? Stubai ?

This pig is really going to be a super piece.

Can't wait for the next pix,

Benjamin.

Hi everybody.
By reading truth my last posting I recognized a kind of rough/rude humor in my own comments. I am not sure, if this is wanted here. There are some details/pics that have nothing to do with serious carving. I know. My excuse: It is always late, when I do my postings (except now). I have much more to show you but this is the carving division of T.C. and it is for carving and tikis.
I don´t wanna poke fun at anyone and promise betterment. I will search for other areas in this forum to post the stuff that is additional.

McTiki: Which one of the pics? A certain or all.

seeksurf: Thanks for your visit and kind words.

tok-tok does what does tok-tok mean or say?
I would like answer that but I can not translate it to proper german. Or isn´t this a question? Sorry...

Benella: Thanks. The color is cobnut/hazelnut, it turned out much brighter after a while.
I don´t prefer a certain brand in tools. What I have the most are kirschen chisels. I also have big v-chisel made by pfeil, which I often use, very often. And as you have seen, the bernese chisels/gauges (iron as translation for Eisen must be wrong).

Well, I have waited for the pig to dry, but the wetness is going away too slow. I will put it aside till next year and do some tests with chemical wooddrying additives, if I find something,that fits.

I will show you some pics of a new project that i´ll start this week. I´m in a hurry with this, cause I promised something till yearsend and the time is running away.
I post picture in a couple of days.

Thanks for showing up here.
tok-tok

Hi tok-tok! Very nice surfer pig! He turned out very well. (I think what people does is getting all the wood they can, to let it dry first for months with a water varnish in the cuts, so it would dry slowly. and then after a long time of keeping the wood, they use it...Because if you try to make it dry faster it starts cracking...But I'm no carver so sorry if I'm saying something wrong...)

So you have Santa-pole invasion in this time of the year? :o !
The new Tiki is looking good!
Greetings!