New Tikis from Germany!

HOLY MACKEREL!!!! That TOTALLY kicks some serious ass!!!!!

Excellent! Awesome! Incredible! etc, etc.

GROG wish GROG could see it in person, but GROG can't make it to Hukilau.

Keep up the great work.

Simple amazing !!!! The cabinet carvings by itself is insane but coupled with the details of the Polynesian Paradise makes this bonkers. Your eyes really get lost admiring this piece. Great work, and thanks for the post...

Wow! Can't wait to see the whole thing. Beyond excellent!!

Great work Haikai, one of the coolest pieces ever, along with your
"Voodoo Box" from a while back.

ho.... sh!!!!!!!t! nice!!... some day I'll scan my old (1 hr. fast photo) Kodak pics of an 18 year old school project.... Cabana Ritmo! Afro Cuban Hut with little, lit tiki torches & marque, Bamboo beams.... Back then I paid myself with student loans to make great art like this! maybe I should take out another loan and get to getting... GREAT WORK!
for now the characters are found in the shrunken head case here in quick-time vr:
http://biffinc.com/CrazyAl10yrVR/CrazyAl50.mov

My grand father made miniatures for museums of the pueblo Indian runes of the American South West. He used them in his 'moving picture' documentaries. He also used footage he shot on summer trips down rout 66 from Chicago Cir. 1940-50s. (the titles where shot by stop animation and little ceramic letters laid down on felt) OLD SCHOOL IS GOOOOD!! once again Great Work!

[ Edited by: crazy al 2008-05-17 14:31 ]

WOW. Very impressive attention to detail. A true work of Art!

Add me to the fan-base Kai; that is amazing! Proof that you are a little crazy perhaps?..but amazing! :wink:
You've even solved that age-old problem that most 'diaramas' suffer from: being kind of ugly from a distance. Your carved elements atop the cabinet and the beautiful cabinet itself will be dragging punters from across the room for closer investigation. :o

If only it wasnt forbidden. I think I want to go live there..

Perhaps a few images of this should/could be added to the 'Tiki-Microcosms' thread too.?

Treetrunk? Avacado stone? Matchstick? whatever - Haikai can pull a masterpeice of anything!

Tama :)

Hi mister best european carver.

Your cabinet is wonderful. A paradise where everyone of us would love to live in.
The tiki above is an amazing masterpiece too.
Thanks for sharing your beauties.

Bravo,

Benjamin

P.S: did you get my e-mail ?

[ Edited by: benella 2008-05-19 08:05 ]

Haikai, you are amazing, once again I am amazed how great this piece is.

Oh Yeah, Now you can Honestly say you OWN you own Tropical Island get-away! :lol:

Can I book it for July 15th for 1 week?

Kai, einfach grossartig! You have this Polynesian pop thing down, man, I am so proud of you! Big slap on the back from your Big Bro. :)

Haikai,

you are NUTS ! This is just another masterpiece, everything you post here is outstanding ! I'm always impressed by your attention to detail and creativity, this is just another perfect example !

Are you going to be at the Wassermusik Festival in Berlin ?

Have fun on the boat trip, as the german sailors like to say:
Mast- und Schotbruch und immer ne handbreit Wasser unterm Kiel !

Aloha from Munich,

Bobo

HaiKai - I'm speechless, I'm also still in NYC and that's why I haven't yet commented on your piece. I cannot wait to see it in person!!!!! All of us here were just ohhhhhhing and awwwwwing. Truly fantastic!

I only wish you were here to be with us and see everyones reaction!!

great work Kai! I love it! hope to see you soon!

[ Edited by: lemonsqueezer 2008-05-19 07:12 ]

The case is incredible, but the contents were over the top. I just wanted to climb in and explore that island paradise. How long did that take?

Top notch, nothing less!

That's museum quality right there. The case, the models... and then to wire it all up to light up in the dark... too much!

Great work Haikai, I look forward to seeing this in person at Hukilau!

Ho-ly CRAP! that kicks ass! whoa
that's freakin awsome!

...whoa

GREAT
i'm speechless - very crazy cabinet
your idees rocks and rocks and rocks
Hope ( i'm sure ) all the american guys will love this crazy thing
perhaps here in Europe we also have a chance to see this live

see you latest at the Hangar

bye
Akuae

This guy is just outstanding. Every single piece he produces is just amazing good.

speechless

:o :o :o

Man your attention to detail is absolutely amazing!!!

I hope to see this in person one day.

Congratulations.

An amazing job. The cabinet is a beautiful piece of work on it's own, but the model island is fab. Love all the islanders going about their day, plus the bonus of the night lights. Another amazing complete piece. Where do you guys go now??

Just beautifully done and so intricately detailed. Wonderful, magical work.

Haikai...This work and some of your other shadow box stuff is some of the most amazing stuff I've seen on TC. This direction is just the coolest! Your building new foundations man...CHEERS!

I want to shrink myself and go in there and play! Great work, Haikai!

Wow! :o

Hi guys,

that´s so great! Thank you all for these many entries and your nice words.
I´m happy you enjoy my work. I hope you could see my big smile. :)
Last Monday I came back from holiday and I directly started with a lot of work.
I try to answer all your questions at the weekend. Sorry for waiting so long!
Aloha and a sunny weekend, Kai

KAI Will be at Hukilau??? Truth or Rumor?
TRUTH!

[ Edited by: Benzart 2008-06-04 12:43 ]

KAI, What can I say, We Finally meet. Seeing your work in Person was totally gratifying, it is just SO GOOD, it doesn't seem like it can get that good but there it was even Better. How do you DO IT. Anyway I was really stoked to finally meet you. Hope your trip back home was easy and quick, Let us know.
Cheers.

I know what you did last summer... something Leroy Schmaltz style... :wink: Got pix ?

Benjamin.

love your work .
great pics . great skill ,more more please

Aloha everybody,

sorry for my absent presence on TC in the last month. But I collected a lots of pictures
for you to show why I had not enough time to stay here. Hope you like the following stuff.

The first pictures are from the Island Rügen, were I spend some time togeher with my buddy Andi from Munich.
Once again I carved some new tiki stuff for the Surfhostel Rügen in the north of Germany.
I created 7 barstools out of ash wood.

Here you can see the marquesan Tiki I carved last year with a great weathering. I like the natural dark color!

Doing an other small marquesan one.

The bar with some of the stools

Hanging around with Andy.

After work having a Mai Tai and a cuban! :) :drink:

And some older marquesan Tikis.

Fantastic as usual..
What wood is the big one made of?

Trader Tark, thanks very much! The big one is out of cottonwood.

And here are the next pictures.
In July I visited a Hot Rod Race in the Alps of Switzerland.
I made a live carving show at the festival and finished this Leroy Schmalz Tiki in one day.
It was a hard job and I was totaly done after that job.
The Tiki is now standing at the "Tiki Bar" in small town calls Sargans in Switzerland.
Here are some progress pictures.

I used spruce wood for that job.

A funny tiki friend from Germany.

Thats my carver friend Alex from France. On TC he is calling AKUAE.

Very impressive, hope to be as good as you someday.

Haikai,
looking good, man!!!
I really dig your Marq's. Especially the texture in that big guy. i hope you don't mind if I use some of your work as inspiration. Marquesan is next up on my punchlist of traditional carves. Keep posting!

Tyler

Definitely Grapa-RuHa, take only a piece of wood and start a new Tiki and above all have fun :)

tikisbytyler, surely feel free and use the inspiration. It´s an hornor for me. I did the same and I think it´s the only way to learn. Let the chips fly and let me know how it works.

The next pictures are from August when I visited the Rod & Kustom show organized by the Road Devils at Weil am Reihn in south-west Germany. A realy great festival with lots of beautiful cars, lowbrow artists and nice people. I carved there this big tiki for the executive's office of the Carharrt Colothing Company.

Some progress pictures!

The finished Tiki together with lowbrow legend and JUXTAPOZ founder Robert Williams and his wive Suzanne.

Dangerous toys for adult men!

A friend brought me this awsome present, which he created himself.

Enough for today, now I have to search for some more pictures. I finished some carving jobs,
made a sand-tiki at the french atlantic coast and some smaller stuff.
Aloha, Kai

Kai, it's so nice to see you back with a lot of pictures. It is so refreshing to see all your work, which by the way, is flawless and a pleasure to look at. You can tell I am a fan. :)

WOW, It's So great to see you posting your Excellent carvings back here again Kai, we've Missed you a bunch. These are excellent pieces you have been saving up for us. The wood grain on the last one is just SO Awesome.
Tell us all about the show you are doing in Miami next month? and a Maikai visit there soon?
We are Truly Blessed.
HappyHappyHappy

WOW :o
WOW :o
WOW :o

Awesome, man. I've been missing your fantastic work.
Akuae sent me during te holiday some pix of the leroy that is fantastic.

Hat's off,

Benjamin.

How do you get such clean lines on such small pieces? Great looking stuff. GROG like.

Fantastic! I am really jealous of the big logs you have to work on. I just feel bad that you only own one T-shirt. I look forward to seeing you again at the Mai Kai.

If you want to see his piece for Harold Golen's show look for the link in the upper right - Mutant Tiki Monster Madness!

http://www.myspace.com/kaijumonsterinvasion

Amazing stuff, my friend! Absolutely outstanding! I wish you two guys all the best in Miami and I hope we'll meet soon again. Kind Regards from Arkansas, El Buho

Miami??? you dang industrious German types!! best of luck, are you tieing your large tikis together and floating over on them?? Miami may be excepting boat people again... Dos Kon-Tiki Boat!!

Absolutely wonderful work! You guys make it look fast and easy. Keep up the great work.

Wow is a understatement Fantastic Love them WoW!

I have to jump on the Kai Bandwagon too...awesome...this thread is
filled with some of the coolest stuff around...always a real treat
and inspiration.

Kai!

Good to see you back here again!

Your work keeps getting bigger and bigger!

I envy the logs you get to carve, and the locations you get to work in are beautiful!

I don't know which I like better, the surfhostel with all the tikis and sawdust or the beautiful backdrop of the Swiss Alps!

The finished product is precise and sharp on all your pieces! I still love the huge Marq at the surfhostel! He looks great weathered.

Good luck at the show in Miami!

I still laugh at the pictures of us all swiging Cuban rum at 3 am on the beach at Hukilau!

Good times!

Keep up all the great work! Hope to see you again in the future!

BEaut Kai! Wat to do things, BIG! I'll contact you in the late morning(mine) .

Danny

Damn, :o I wish you great carvers lived close to me. It stinks not having any carvers around so I can have one of these huge tiki's made. The cost to buy one is one thing, but the cost to ship one is crazy! Love your work, keep on posting all your photos. I sometimes go back and start at the beginning of each of these threads to see them all over again. :D: Simply amazing, OK well not simply.. Lot's of hard work going on in here. Thanks again for all your hard work. Now I'm cracking my whip on you to go out there and make another one. :lol: