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

Waiting for the pix :wink:

Ben

Oink Oink
Love it.

Excellent stuff tok-tok, a Surfing Pig? He can have Any part of the wave he wants to ride on, don't take Nuthin from Nobody. Cool! Excellent tikis too! Don't know how you do it in that Cold weather.

Hi everybody,
I am in a hurry getting things done till this years end, but I mentioned this already.

I had a talk with the future owner of the pig about letting it dry a bit more and he agreed about it. I also found a way how to let it dry with additives, have to tell you later.

Clarita: thanks for your advices. It is right to let the wood dry as long as possible, I agree with you. If I receive some fresh logs in the future I will try some sealing of the ends, I heard about using wax-coatings to prevent cracking.
I think, the santa invasion is too ugly to show here. But it is the same every year, they all come out to stare at you before christmas.

Benella: Hi, man. Pics will be coming today. Promised.

Congatiki: Thanks for your visit. You are right: oink-oink. But next year. You inspired me to try and take some mystical pictures of my stuff. As soon as I find the time, I will put up some locations for a photo-session.

Benzart: Thank you again and again for your support. I hope, the pig is going to turn out the way I want it. I´ve got problems to carve out proper hoofs but I think, I can handle it somehow. We´ll see.

I would like to say, that I do not want to bother any of you surfers here at tikicentral by making a pig on a surfboard. My intention is not, to say surfers are pigs. It is just a fun-project for my friend who wants to have a wooden pig to stand around in his house. I only tried to tiki-fy it, cause that is, what I can do best.
I am not on this level to make a realistic boar as some other chainsaw-carvers here in germany often do. I will try someday, if I am ask for it, but realism is kind of boring to me.

Pictures and explainations of the new project will follow today.

Mahalo all-ya.
tok-tok

So, here is what I am doing at the moment.

One of my best mates is planing his 40th birthday to the end of this month. This is going to be a big event in our little town. There will be four bands playing live on stage (rockabilly- country, surf, streetpunk and psychobilly). A bunch of people have promised their appearence.

I was asked to do a kind of decoration for the stage. Two big tikis, one to the left and one to the right. But they are not a present, will be up for sale afterward.

I choosed two big logs of poplar for the project. Booth ca. 4.5 feet high and not dry nor.

Here are the results of this weeks work.

After debarking.

They´ve got some big knothole but I think, I can hide them.

A lot of drawing with chalk and graphite

Doing chainsaw work.

After putting down the saw.

And after some detailing with chisels and mallet.

The mallet ist for size-comparison.

After this session I really think, I can finish both till the event.
I forgo to put too much details on.

What do you think?

Thanks for your visit.

tok-tok (Kay)

This one is going to be top class, Kay.
Let the chips fly :wink:

Benjamin.

Ya, you go boy NICE!

Seek & Ben: Thank you both.

Here is an update on the forthcoming stage-decoration. I am really sorry to not having the time for detailed information.

I was busy the last 3 days and here are the results:

Ready for some sanding.

After sanding. I found the form of the eyes yesterday evening by try.

Read for some burning, but its got too late, so I will finish it within the next days.

I also started another project which has got to be ready at the same time. Guess what thats gonna be?

Made some very rough cuts with the saw.

The weekend is coming, so I have to find some time for more work.
Stay tuned.
Mahalo.
tok-tok

Very good looking tiki you've done here Tok Tok. Amazing.
What will be the 2nd ? Seems like a marq :wink:
Will you stain them ?

I'll stay tuned for sure :)

Ben

Excellent work.

I shall be watching your progress with intrest.

What do you use to do the scorching ? I guess a blow torch but it seems a lot finer and more accurate than mine. I find i cant burn in the sunken details too well.

Oh, and with regards to your earlier posts. I dont think there is much wrong with your sense of fun in the way you post your photos... This afternoon i shall be in my Garage carving Santas , thats for sure.. !! In fact I wonder if there is a "Santa Central" ? Ho HO Ho ... :lol:

Cheers

Tark

[ Edited by: Trader Tark 2007-12-14 06:41 ]

Ya, Nice love the skull, mouth, teeth and the what you
did in the back with what looks like the hair pice.
Nice!! You are moving.

Hello,
time for updating. Here are some pictures of wasting time on saturday afternoons. :P

benella: you are right. Sooner or later one stumbles upon the marquesa-style, so I thought I try one myself. I love this style too and there are some great examples to find around here, including yours.

trader tark: thanks for the kind words. I was not sure, if my humor is understood right, cause I not a native english speaker and was thinking, it might be kinda harsh, how I was doing my postings. And... I found out something about "santa central". Take a look.

It is coming closer. Watch out.

I wonder if there is a comparable cult in other countries. Feel free to show some pictures, if you find some of these santas.

seeksurf: Thanks again. I was not sure, what to do with the back of the head last weekend so I just sanded it. Hair is not the right description for what I finally planned now, it is more like a shield . But I won´t stretch your patience any longer.

Here are the results of saturday:

rough cuts.

A bit of sanding in between and some more details.

I also finished burning the other guy.

Tark: I think, I forgot to tell you, what I´m using for this. It is a small gas torch, which is normally used to caramelize sugar. It has got a very small flame and it take hours to burn the log with it, but the results are finer.


benella: I think, I going to stain both after some more sanding. And perhaps, if the wood is dry enough ( same problems as with the boar) I will use either some wax or maybe varnish for the first time to get a shiny surface.

At least, I asked if I could take some photos of both, and they agreed, but didn´t want me on the picture. I think, I ask again, when they are finished.

I hope, you enjoy my little photo - stretch. I off now for some advent family-meeting .
See you soon with some more updates.

If you like to, visit me here.
myspace

[ Edited by: tok-tok 2008-01-03 05:18 ]

Hey TOK TOK - reat work amazing Tikis
Hope my first chainsaw cuts are like your work
very nice
I'm also a german Tiki Carver living in France but we also have
the same " Weihnachtsmaenner "like you at your local "Weihnachtsmarkt" :)

i will waiting for more pictures

happy christmas

Akuae

:o WOW :o

Superb duet, mein Freund.

Is there a future new tiki standing on the left of the last pix? COOOL :wink:

Benjamin.

That's purdy work my friend. Your posts always make me smile :D

Very nice chop's! you are kicking butt.

A happy new year to you all.

Thanks to AKUAE, benella, GMAN and seeksurf for their kind and encouraging words.

So, you see, I was busy over the christmas holidays because of my deadline for the party-decoration. But I managed to finish the two guys right in time. It took lot of extra time in the evenings and till late at night but I made it. I even did some columns and two platforms to lift them a bit on and in front of the stage. I ws a bit stressful but in the end good fun.

Let´s have a look and the rest of the progress-pics and at the results.

This is the Skull-holder right after the staining, you can notice the wet edges. Till then, I was not sure , what to take for the base so I left it as it was.

The maquesan was kind of hard to figure out, first I thought, that was going to be easy if I do it in a comic style, I really like the style that 4wdtiki used on his big ones. But then I turned my conceration on some traditional designs which I looked up in reference books and googled after.

Here is a copy of something google said was a maquesan pattern. Well, I was not sure, but tried to transfer it as a part of the headdress on the back of the head.


Afterwards I thought, I could have finished the guy much earlier if I had left it as it was, but drawn is drawn. And even when you use a marker for it instead of a pencil.

I also mangaged to carve out something like ears (my first ears), the design was slightly adopted from an old picture out of my books.

More details to the nose and eyes.

Then came the stain, some kind of darkred, alcoholbased, made by clouth. The color has no name only a number, 52...something, I have to look this up again to tell you.


I carved some marquesan tattoo-designs too, as you can see.

The black parts are half stained, half burned. I am very pleased withe the results.

After that i painted the carved tattoos in a combination of beige and yellow acrylic to get more sharpness in and polished the marq with some liquid wax.





It looks now, as it has really aged.

The skull-holder was stained in two tones, but I addtionally sanded the brighter areas to let it look older to and to get a bigger difference between the colors. The base was stained in deep black.



The skull turned out to be very fine. I think I carve one separately one day.

Closer.

And even a bit closer.

By the way, the collumns are made of spruce planks which are only burned and waxed.
I screwed the underneath the bases to prevent both from falling down.


Here is one last one with the birthday boy to the right. He has allready turned fourty by now.

The platforms are made of stacked palettes with some bamboo fencing wrapped around.

Next time I show you some party-pics when I have sorted them.

Many mahalos, tok-tok

Very nice tikis! You finished them beautifully. Looking forward to seeing more. :)

Excellent tikis Tok-tok and I Love your use of different colored stains, it gives a traditional, professional feel to them. Nice stuff!

Nice tikis, and great work on finishing them off :D

Happy new year tok-tok,

awesome progress on these 2 tikis. Love the marquesan and the way you made the details. The skull tiki is also very nice!

Keep up the good work !

Deadline or not you pulled it off big time!

Nice work on the maquesan patterns you put on.
It just gave it that much more for the end result.

tok-tok just a burn, stain and a wax job as a top coat?

Great Job tok tok, you are putting out some
outstanding work.

:o WOw boy :o

Crazy super carvings you've made here Tok Tok !
Both are very nice stained and thanks for the progress pix, very interesting.

Can you show pix by the sun ? 'caue I'm sure they will look even better :wink:

Mahalo,

Benjamin.

Two very nice tikis you carved there, you should be quite proud of your work!

I especially like the Marq and all the extra bells and whistles you gave him. Adds a lot more dimension to the piece.

Keep up the great work!

GOSH! Is it really that long ago? How time flies....

Thank you all (Savage Daddy, Benzart, hewey, Traderbob, seeksurf,benella, Lake Surfer)for your kind words, if there where questions, I try to answer now.
I was astonished myself how the color came out after the stain job and also how easy the wax was to polish. Ok, it took its time but the result was pretty nice I guess. The two- tone stain was inspired by some carvings I have seen in the aloha-station thread. I love the vintage look of it, too.
Unfortunately there hasn´t been much sun till now (it is still somehow winter here), so no pictures in the the sun. And yes, I am still proud how they turned outand that I have made it to deadline.

I promised some more pictures of those two in use and even if it´s been a while ago now, here they are of the two 'in use' as stage decoration:

Left

Middle (stage)

Right

They both have to stand around in a store in our town for decoration and for sale.

For the rest of january if been quit sleepy.
Wrong. HA.

I managed to carve three new ones for an artshow.

First one is a quit traditional marquesan design, again( I starting to love these, too).

The second is called Bigtoe (because of the Surfbeat, make a guess).

(the toes could have been bigger...)

The third I would describe as a kind of comic Kane .

These three are ready for staining and waxing and then sending them away.

I additionaly started a crest for a friend of mine, which has not much to with tiki but with faith, hope and charity.

It´s in progress. Hopefully ready by the end of the month.

Here is another eyecandy called 'fruit salad'. But no longer available, already been eaten.

Carved out of apple.

And as I do not know, where to post the pictures (I am not sure, if the "tiki findings"-threat is the right place for these), here are some pieces of my still small tikiart-collection. Please let me know, if there is a better place to post them, and i will do so.

Squid, Gecko, Bamboo Ben and Crazy Al. FRAMED!

The magik of the tiki makers.

Harmony of the elements.
All these are made by Thor,Hawaii.

Two different pendants made by these crazy Forbidden Paradise-guys (Thanks to Kai and Michael, where are my mugs?)

Basement Kahuna resin replica of his original bone carving(this may not be alone for too long, BK what´s up?)

I will post some more pictures of my progresses on the three little fellows tomorrow.

Mahalos, tok-tok

If you like to, visit me here.
myspace

[ Edited by: tok-tok 2008-01-29 04:48 ]

Your carvings are serious contenders! You've got the marq style pegged. :)

WOW tok-tok you haven't been F#$*ing off.
Im loving your new carves they are getting
very clean with great shapes. RIGHT ON!

Hey Tok Tok,

The 3 last tikis you carved are very good, what kind of wood ?
Love the apple one too :wink:

Benjamin.

Mahalo guys,
JohnnyP: Thank you , I am really trying to get better with every new piece. Usually the ideas are condending with me and I am condending with the wood. Mostly I win somehow.

seeksurf: Now won´t you stop swearing? :P Seriously, thank you, too. I am always willing to try something new, testing new shapes or rebuild old ones. I try to get some more symmetry in the new one but I still love to start them with only a ruff sketch on the wood or only in mind as well.

benella: Thanks, the wood must have been for the bigtoe and the marquesan, I am not sure about the other.

In the meantime I am through with the new carvings. And I managed to carve a new one too. I call it "The Pineapple". Ready to see some pictures?

It was not ready when I took the pictures, by now the head is affixed to the background.

Here are some pics of the ready-sanded, -stained and -sealed Kane.

For the Marquesan I used some red stain and fluid wax to polish it.

The form of the ears I researched from some books about southsea-art.

Finally here are the pic of the "BIGTOE". This one is for a friend.

Let me know, what you think about these.

Tok Tok, I'm Really Glad to see you progressing So Fast with your carving skills. These last few are really good. Keep up the great work!

Aloha everyboby.
Thanks Benzart. It is always nice to see you stopping by. I am glad you like my last outputs. And please try to avoid sneezing. :wink:

I have been very busy to put some thing together for this 'little' artshow in Costa Mesa in the middle of march. Therefore I only had less time to carve something new. But I heard the stuff has finally arrived. So far so good. Special thanks to BIGTOE for the invitation.

Time for a new picture raid. Here is what I did through the last weeks.

I finished the "Faith.Love.Hope"-chrest out of oak. It was an order by a friend and has allready been sold.

OK,OK, there is nothing tiki in it, hope you like it somehow anyway. I enjoyed it very much and it brought the money.

But there are some other small pieces I did for recreation. Made out of cherry- and apple branches and a small stripe of basswood. Still in progress, they all need a little more sanding and of course some stain.

The next bigger think will be a panel made in a more tradional way out of cherrywood. There is much cherrywood available for me these days.

Some more progress soon.

Nice tok tok. I see you are staying busy! Man you have so
many carves going on. The little guys came out great, ben is carving
one similar or at atleast the feet.

That cherry looks choice.

Nice work on the flat carves to.

Nice new works Tok Tok, especially the panel that will be very great.

Benjamin.

Awesome work, but that panel is a stand out for sure! :D

Aloha once again,

the time intervals in my replies are getting a bit long at the moment, as I just recognized. Too much on the road from here to there and back.

seeksurf: Thank you for the kind words, the carvings had to be ready in time to send them to the surfbeat show. Quite stressful but fun, too. I really did not see the one benjamin was carving till I got mine ready. Happened by accident, that we were doing nearly the same concept. His one has got the finer limbs.

benella: Thank you, too. Glad you like what I´m planning. As luck would have it... .

hewey: Thanks, man. It is quit new too me to make a hangable panel without a frame. Sorry that I could not make it to the first swap of the year, I guess I take part on a later one. Too much work.

I didn´t find the time to progress the mentioned panel, there was a slight crack where the headdress will we. I found that quit disturbing and put a bit of glue in there to prefend further cracking. Only carved a bit of the feet and body in the meantime.

What I found quit interessing the last 2 weeks was carving something out of different types of twigs. Just to get a feeling for making some pendants.
I used cherry wood (not as hard as I thought), apple ( awfully hard, even when thin), birch (ok, even when spalted, but not too much), willow(nice and soft), oak(hard)and some logs of unknown origin which has been found at the roadside(quit hard but ok :) ). My thumbs did hurt a lot cause Only knives wheres utilized for the following results.

I used my woodburning station on all of them and the results are quite satisfactory to me.

The usual suspects

I started brushing them with light stain (hazlenut) but did not manage to take pictures of the end results.

Within the next days I´ll put some clear varnish or maybe shellac on them to see, how the grain will become apparent.

Speaking of willow, here is one I carved out of a little branch using knives AND chisels. Willow is quite simular to basswood but the wood fibers are more stubborn. They will stand up every now and then and are not very easy to cut. But with a piece of sanding paper one is able to kill them.

I will post some more pictures of the bunch within the next days. Promised.
Mahalos. tok-tok

Nice tok tok you are carving like a machine.
The detail you are coming up with is getting fantastic.
Keep them coming!

Man Tok-Tok, your tikis are getting some Extra Fine doses of Detail and I Mean Excellent, WAY Above Board.. You better find a big pile of logs because from the looks of your stuff you will be needing Lots of raw materials soon. Bring it ON, Love it!

Nice stuff Tok. You did a GREAT job on that relief carved panel/crest. NICE!

Wow a lot of new great stuff!! Congrats!

Great stuff!! I really like the one-eyed alien guy! Nice work on that chest, I'm sure the owner will cherish it. I like how your pendants look with the burning and the stain, I'm starting to do that a little myself, I think I'll be happy with the results.

I really like your last guy too, great headpiece on him.

Thanks for the wood information too - I'm always looking for ideas on woods to try, I've got some different tree trimming contacts and I don't know what to ask them for. :) Willow is on my list.

Great little assortment of goodies! I like the last guy posted, he's got the "tough guy on the corner" look. Great little cuts that give him a lot of animation.

Keep on carving!

Wow, so many replies to my last posting. i am really staggered.

seeksurf: congrats again to that really fine last one. Great stuff. Thanks for your surport. I do my very best, but it´s kinda hard to get enough detailing on these itsy bitsy branches. Some of them are less then a 1/2 inch diameter. Chisels are nearly useless for this kind of carving.

Benzart: thanks for your visit. It´s good to see you start again after your recovering. Maybe I should take some pictures of my lumberyard. I allways get some pieces here and there, unfortunately less of it is basswood. That really would make me faster.

howland: Thanks for your first stop here and the kind words.

clarita: congrats to you, too. Some great ideas you are playing around with on the tiki-billy.

mieko: nice to meet you here in my little hut. I´m glad if I could assist you in choosing some new type of wood. my advise: take the young sprouts, these are the softest. They are getting much harder when older. Like in life (uh-oh, now this sounds kinda florid).

lake surfer: the one-man-carving-factory is in the house. Thank you for your shouts. I really love you designs. Will show you now, how big the tough guy on the corner really is.

Here is the latest progress of what i did the last few days:
tough guy after a little more sanding and cleaning.

Even tough guys can sometimes be small.

group photo with monsters

these guys haven´t got there coats yet

new arrivals, willow, cherry and lilac!!!(from left to right; lilac again very hard and stubborn)

Sounds a bit like girls names.

here is a quick one made on one afternoon while I was waitig for someone to pick me up after work.
spalted birch has got a nice grain, as I personally think



Hope, I will not loose the grain after staining it a bit.

And finally the results on the cherry panel. Still in progress.

Mahalos. See you here.
tok-tok

Aloha Tok-Tok!!!
Excellent Tikis my friend and a sweet relief carving there!!! Very nice flow all the way through, Mahalo for sharing,and look fwd to seeing more Aloha, Mooney

More Great carves Tok and I LOVE that Spaulted Birch, a bit of poly will Really bring it out!

On 2008-02-08 00:55, tok-tok wrote:
Mahalo guys,
JohnnyP: Thank you , I am really trying to get better with every new piece. Usually the ideas are condending with me and I am condending with the wood. Mostly I win somehow.

seeksurf: Now won´t you stop swearing? :P Seriously, thank you, too. I am always willing to try something new, testing new shapes or rebuild old ones. I try to get some more symmetry in the new one but I still love to start them with only a ruff sketch on the wood or only in mind as well.

benella: Thanks, the wood must have been for the bigtoe and the marquesan, I am not sure about the other.

In the meantime I am through with the new carvings. And I managed to carve a new one too. I call it "The Pineapple". Ready to see some pictures?

It was not ready when I took the pictures, by now the head is affixed to the background.

Here are some pics of the ready-sanded, -stained and -sealed Kane.

For the Marquesan I used some red stain and fluid wax to polish it.

The form of the ears I researched from some books about southsea-art.

Finally here are the pic of the "BIGTOE". This one is for a friend.

Let me know, what you think about these.

WHERE You BEEN Tok-Tok, Been missing you 'round here!
got any new stuff?

Yes! where are you? :)

Ya, I'm expecting great things!

Aloha in all respects.
Where did the months go? What happened? What time is it? I don´t know.
I guess some of you have missed me allready.
I can see there is a lot of good stuff going on here and maybe it is time for me to stop bumming around and show you some pics of my (partly impelled)vacations from TC.

OK, I wasn´t as lazy as I´m saying. I did a couple of vendings and some carving shows. But not that much. Some pieces even changed owners before I could take nicer photos.
Here are some comented appetizers.

I didn´t want to sell this head first, it was done every quick on a weekend at a vintage car show in my town. But the lady who saw it, wanted it nearly as it was. No stain , only a bit of sanding and some clear wax. The wood was spalted birch.

I also managed to get the cherrywood panel ready. So detail-pics will follow as it is too late today.

I have allready shown the pendants, will post some more of the framed stuff late. The sculpts where all made quite quick which lesser details as usual.

And maybe some of you remember the clear moai a couple of pages ago. I found a nice pigmented wax for him. He´s looking really aged now.



Well, who are you looking at????

The last months where kinda hard for me, as my tiki workspace had to be moved and I had to store most of my tools and equipment. Still searching for an adequate replacement.

But I forced my tattoo experiences a bit more and out came this.
Pinup-Tiki-Girl on a friend

I maybe should post this in the "Does anyone have Tiki tattoos?"topic.
Originally I wanted to have this design, but he was begging for it. So we sat down for 4 hours and out came this.

Some more pics of this and that later.
Thanks for looking.
tok-tok