Lake Tiki - 8/23/2013 - Red Cedar

great designs, I can imagine how hard the sewing part can be.

Lovin' the new boat, super cool with the sail. The dude being all alone in there makes it feel like it's an epic journey.

I remember seeing your bar a while back, and it's cool as can be to see the Hale Nalu in it's full glory.

Nice little piece of tropic paradise in what has been one hell of a weird spring so far.

Wow, only 7 days since I last stopped in here... seemed like a lot longer than that. Sorry I missed your comments surfintiki, Johnny, and Flat Black, but things are cooking here. May is here and I've got about a month to finish up a bunch of work still on my list.

surfin, hope so! I look forward to it!

Johnny, that's why it's good having the wife around to show me how to do this kind of stuff. :wink:

Flat Black, thanks! I was going to go with a couple Tangs in the boat, but after doing some research I found out that a lot of the ancient voyagers went out alone on voyages to new islands. Sometimes with their families and enough food to get them through. But alone, this guy is on an epic journey to new lands.

Thanks for the kind words on my home bar! I pass through it everyday on the way to my studio and still marvel at all the work that went into it. I'm currently working out in the backyard this year to turn that into a Midwestern "Tropical" Paradise. Quite a few plants on my list are hardy for this zone, yet still have a "tropical" look to them. Of course I'll have a bunch of tikis sprinkled through also.

Just a quick post of something new... I had some extra pieces of wood laying around and I hate to see that. So I set out to create something out of them.
Here's one of them, a carved Marquesan panel.

Gorgeous Lake, love the subject and i love the colors.

Seek, thanks!

I've been carving some tikis this week, its been a while since I did that. Having a blast doing it though, I got a few new chisels and they have totally changed the way I used to do things... for the better. I'm kind of carving things assemble line like in big batches but I'm going to try and get some shots up this week.

I'm currently working out in the backyard this year to turn that into a Midwestern "Tropical" Paradise. Quite a few plants on my list are hardy for this zone, yet still have a "tropical" look to them. Of course I'll have a bunch of tikis sprinkled through also.

Sound pretty damn cool. I would love to see what plants you are talking about. Unfortunately I don't own any yard yet (living in a condo) but would love to see some inspiration for a back yard once I find myself a house.

Flat Black, I'll get some pics up when its finished. Lots of tilling, building berms and other landscaping right now. And the weather has taken another turn for the worse... way below normal temps for the next 2 weeks so I won't be planting anything. Still a danger of frost.

Here's some of the logs I have been hacking at this week. They came from my pile of cedar I have all prepped.

Wowsers! I get tired just thinking about all that carving. The chips must really fly at your place. Nice stuff.

Lake, this is about the Best looking bunch of tikis I have Ever seen from you, Period. Nice finish, not too thick and they just look Great. I did a double take to make sure it was you doing these!
NICE

pappy, thanks a ton!

I try to stop for a while, but end up coming up with more ideas I want to try. Next thing I know I'm making a bunch.

I've got a ton of different stuff for Hukilau that I've never done before. I'm excited to see how it goes over.

Benz, I'm still doing double takes after this last batch. I had these guys sitting in the studio last night while I was carving some more and I kept getting distracted by staring at them. Its been about four months since I carved any log tikis since I've been doing so much flatwork. In that time I thought a lot about new carving techniques and tried some new tools I hadn't tried before. I experimented with some new finishing ideas also. The result is what you see here. It all came together.

I'm really impressed with how these new guys have turned out and the results have given me a real boost.

Thanks so much for the compliments!

Very nice work Lake. Still envious of the white pine availability.

nice work....i like the brush finish..it suits your style more...all that clear coat you used to use washed out the details in your tikis....these show off all the detail nicely and cleanly....i suspect this marks the end of your old way of finishing your tikis..as well it should...these are great...save one for me!!

Holey moley those are looking great! NIce lines going on.
Love the color what are you using for the stain ?

nice work Lake - Keeping busy as usual!! Sounds like your going to have a truckful for Hukilau.

I too really like this finish.

McTiki, thanks! These guys are cedar, and I have a yellow pine and a bunch of hard ass ash logs kicking around next to the garage, but I haven't come across white pine anymore. I do like the cedar now, and I may go back to basswood one of these days. A bit more forgiving on the tools and you don't have to sharpen as often.

Tipsy, thanks much! I'm done with polyurethane, sometimes it comes out matte, but more times it comes out gloss. Takes forever to dry in this climate and is generally expensive. A lot of times that's what people wanted in a "finished" tiki so I got used to doing it. But now, yea, I'm moving on and doing my own thing.

Seek, thanks man! Not the kind of detail you stuff into your masterpieces but they've got some. The stain base is Jacobean, but I end up mixing 3 or 4 other colors of stain into the whole thing along with some other little tricks to give the tiki endless layers of color.

harro, thanks for your compliment! Kind of in the home stretch right now with a few weeks to go before June. I hope to have things wrapped up a week before the trip to kick back a little. I think I may have gone a bit overboard now that I look at the stacks of stuff in the studio. :D

Blown away once again by your work man... the one on the right is so killer!

I gotta agree with everybody else, those look great! That stain color, the aged look, I want one!
My favorite is the double headed Marq on the left.

On 2008-05-07 23:31, Lake Surfer wrote:

Here's some of the logs I have been hacking at this week. They came from my pile of cedar I have all prepped.

Hacking at?? Damn - they look great! Love the four with the rope detail together. Keep hacking!

T :)

Damn Lake, you should be good and ready for Hukilau after that run. I Really like the one on the far left.

You guys are are too kind, thanks so much for your compliments!

I was going strong for a while there and now I've got a little setback.

I was playing some Ultimate over the weekend and I dislocated my patella again. I've done it twice in the last three weeks.
That's not that big of a deal, carving doesn't involve the knee much and I can rehab my way out of it. Its just that when I popped my knee I fell to the ground and
put my right hand out. That's the hand I wield my mallet with. I came down on the thumb joint and sprained my thumb.

Crap.

Well, over a day the swelling is starting to go down and I've got it taped. Its amazing how much you need a thumb for. I am going to give it a go with the small mallet and try to grasp it with my fingers and palm and keep the thumb taped. At least I've got use of my left hand, the one I write with and carve detail with.

I don't know what it is with me and hands/fingers. :roll:

Well, it took a few days to figure out how to work with this thumb but I'm about 80%. I've carved 7 tikis this week and its Friday, so that's not too bad. Here's one of them...

Swelling has gone down but there are tendons that need to repair themselves. The thumb is going to stay in this brace for a few weeks.

Its amazing how much we use thumbs for, you don't realize it until you can't use it. But I figured a way to grasp the mallet in my fingers and my palm.

Pressing on... I've got a show at the end of the month!

Two thumbs up!

Nice job there on the thumb Lake and Excellent job on the tiki. It's a bitch to be hurting like that when you have so much to do. Take it easy a bit and get better.

Knockin out the good stuff with only 4 fingers and your palm.... That's dedication.

Too bad for your thumb, hope you'll heal as quick a possible.
The tiki is very nice, I love the chisel texture.

Benjamin.

Thanks guys for the compliments and well wishes!

I think the tikis are telling me I have enough carved for Hukilau... I took a jab at my hand with a Flexcut gouge tonight... slipped off the wood.

Yep... the hand with the bad thumb. :(

Time for a break!

Yes I think it's time to Back away from the tools for awhile. I'll have you covered with a piece of Koa!

benz, nice talking with you, and thanks for setting aside some of that Koa for me. Look forward to seeing you in a few weeks and I hope you guys get a little rain to douse the embers.

Whew. I've been carving my butt off non stop since last October. I think I have enough for Hukilau. Time for a little break.
If it ever decides to warm up here in the Midwest I can get out in the backyard and do some landscaping. I also have an eight foot tiki to finish up after I return from Florida.
He'll be taking up residence in an esteemed place in the yard.

The gouge I put in my hand is healing up nicely and I've regained a bit of flexibility in the 'ol thumb. Still wearing the brace, but I should be good to go within a few weeks.

As I put in for my R & R, here's a formal look at the goodies I'll have with me in Fort Lauderdale...

Aloha Lake!
First, sorry about your hand my friend. I hope all will be well with it.
second , Holy cant catch my breath !!!! Your collection of carvings look Great!
Looking forward to seeing you at the Hukilau! Bring your surfboard! If you have time coming down or back if i'm not on shift I'll take you to a couple good spots.
Also, give me a call 772-631-1075. I see that you are into surf music! I have a collection of over 100 CD's from all over the world. All instro!!!

Great looking collection LakeS. Time to take a break and heal up.
Your recent "flatwork" is tremendous, should be a real hit at Hukilau.

Lake I can't wait to see it all!

Incredible Lake love the fly-er. Take well on that thumb my friend.

Thanks guys for all your support!

Mr. Mooney: The thumb is getting better. I've been wearing the brace most of the time but have been able to begin rehabing it. I don't have the range of motion yet, but it'll get there. I'm counting the days until Hukilau... it has been really chilly here the last 2 months, abnormally chilly, so I'm looking forward to warm temps and sunshine. I will have my surfboard in tow, hoping to pick up some swell along the way. After Hukilau, we will be making our way up the SE Coast all the way up to Wrightsville Beach, NC. If there's a ripple, I'll be on it. :wink: Its been a very flat spring here on the Great Lakes also. I'll give you a ring before we head down, yes, I love the surf music, usually with lots of reverb! I'm looking forward to seeing all the work you have been creating also, especially your carved panels. They look spectacular!

Conga: thanks much! I'm a big fan of your work also. We've both come a long ways and I think that's pretty cool considering how isolated we are from any sort of tiki scene.

surfin: looking forward to seeing you in Fort Lauderdale! A little surf talk will get me through those long vending days. :wink:

seek: thanks man! The thumb is being well taken care of.

All this stuff is totally amazing.
Hope to come one day in hukilau to see in person your super work :)

Benjamin.

Benjamin, thank you so much... a shame, this will be the last Hukilau. I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures for those to see what they missed.
Or for those of us who may not remember everything. :wink:

Not much to report, but I am busy right now. I have the honor of making some special creations for this year's Hukilau staff. They are coming out very cool. I'll get pictures of them and put them up after the event so as not to spoil the surprises.

One of my big guys got a new home today. My wife and I spent the whole weekend landscaping our backyard now that we have a fence up. This is one of two tikis that will watch over the yard. There's an assortment of flowering bushes and grasses rated for our zone and some tropicals that will all grow up around him over the summer months. I hope to wire up some low voltage spot lighting that will light up the tikis at night. The other tiki is one that I have pictured in some posts from last summer, as soon as I finish up the body on that one he'll get a place of honor along the side fenceline.

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2008-05-26 23:50 ]

Nice work on the yard, now that its fenced you can
also get a dog? if you don't have one?

Seeks, thanks! It was some back breaking work shoveling dirt and mulch, but nothing out of the ordinary for a tiki carver. :wink:

I had a dog once as a kid, but my reef tank keeps me plenty busy. Fish and invertebrates are enough pets for me.

Wednesday I have to carve a couple dugout canoes. 1/4 scale or so. Should be interesting since I've never done one.

I'll bring the camera with me, and although its not tiki I'll toss 'em up here in my thread. I'll try and carve some tiki into 'em. They are just props for my mother and father in-laws luau themed party. I opened my big mouth, they secured a log, so now I've got to go and carve 'em.

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2008-05-27 23:30 ]

Well, we finally got some surf Tuesday. We suffered on land with a 49 degree air temp with winds off the cold lake, but at least those winds kicked up some swell.
I headed to a spot a little south of me that's sheltered a bit from the wind. There is a limestone shoal a mile offshore that filters out some of the windchop and lets the swell in, plus the spot is shadowed a little by a point to the north of it. A fellow surfer snapped this shot of me on a left...

Wednesday I set out to the inlaws to work on my first ever dugout canoe. Its going to be a cooler for drinks at their luau/pool party at the end of June.
I was severely undertooled. I really could have used an adze to get the job done quick, but considering I'm not making anything off of this I didn't want to plop down the minimum $150 for one. I checked the flea market on the weekend, but no luck. So I toughed it out with a chainsaw and a gouge. I made some progress. I may pick me up a bigger gouge this week and take another crack at it over the weekend. I don't know for sure the wood species, seemed like basswood. My brother in law hauled it out of his woods. All I know is that the carpenter ants inside were not the least bit happy when I started sawing away at it. Not the best log, but again, it didn't cost me anything.

Here's some pics of my attempt...

Lots of log... I'm only using a portion of it for the canoe

Put some wheels on it and you've got the Flintstone's car :wink:

A start

Back to Hukilau awards Thursday...

You have to love it when someone takes your pic surfing.
It just doesn't happen much. Looks allot like the Groins, rocks and a left
minus the fresh water that is. http://www.westportcam.com/multi_pic_put.php

Nice size log. The dig out looks like fun. It doesn't look to rotten.

wow,

Super canoe. Did you want to be part of the maui canoe fest ? It would have been sweet :wink:

Benjamin.

way more wave than we get here, minus the occasional hurricane or tropical storm. the canoe is one of those things-you just do it 'cause you care. looks great! looking forward to seeing you again next month. maybe get to know each other a bit this time. can't wait to see your kick-ass carvings this year. gonna buy something more than a pendant this time around. your stuff's too solid.

HOW COOL!
Cool landscaping project you got going, the idea of adding lights in the yard would be a really cool thing. COOL surfing picture Dude! And the canoe is coming along great!

Dude, I've ben backtracking through your previous posts in your forum topic here and I have to say that you have some great tiki art posted in here! Awesome work Dude! Totally cool surfing pictures too! YOU DA MAN!

nice carves, nice waves and great canoe!!! looks like a big sucka.

Nice job on the canoe. Glad to see both hands are working again.

Aloha again guys, a real busy weekend for me. I had some customers over Saturday, (many thanks again Dave and Debra if you're reading this) and then a little supply gathering. After that I packed up some work and headed off to the Hawaiian Surf Party over at Foundation Tiki Bar. A good time was had by all as we enjoyed the sounds of The Bikini Beachcombers and The Cocktail Preachers. Always good to see The Cocktail Preachers up here in Wisconsin!

seek: It is rare when someone is on the beach taking surf pictures here, let alone a surfer. But Burton had surfed earlier and was on the beach watching us and snapping some pictures for his Blog. I like that break of your's you posted the link to... I'll keep my eye on that camera watching for swell. The log for the canoe isn't too bad, part of it was on the ground for a while and there are some carpenter ants in it. They come out when I saw on it, but once the stain goes on I know they will evacuate quickly.

Benjamin, thanks, but I think they'd laugh me right outta the Canoe Fest. :wink: I've got a lot of practice to put in before I get any good at making dugouts. Its pretty primitive, but will work for what my inlaws need it for.

greentikipat: thanks for all your kind compliments! Some of our surf is similar to your's on the gulf side as in we rely on winds and fetch for waves. Much of it has a lot of chop involved, but we take what we can get here and make the best of it. Somedays get really good, there are coast surfers that are pretty surprised at how good condition get here.
I look forward to seeing you also at Hukilau, swing by my table and say hello!

Bete: good to see you back here again! Thanks for swinging by my thread for a looksee!

harro: thanks, with more material removed from the inside of the dugout I can lift it myself now.

t-mec: thanx bruddah! Both hands are working, still regaining full mobility with the thumb, but at least its working enough to get things done.

I did some more work on the canoe today, forgot the camera though. The canoe is done, I have to make a cradle for it to sit on. I'm heading up that way again next weekend to finish things up and I'll remember to bring the camera this time. I've got some work in progress Monday, I hope to have done by midweek and I'll post some pictures.

Thanks again guys!

Cool Lake, You going to paddle into some waves on the dugout? :)

Ya keep a eye on the cam you will see some surfers out when
the swell picks up. It has been pretty flat for the last week.
I had a couple fun sessions the last 2 weekends.

Looking forward to picts of the finished canoe! Lets do the Maui Canoe Fest next year. That would be a sight, a couple of northeners..... :)