Tufa Tikis

I'm new to this forum and have interested in the Tiki style for a few years. I've been interested in carving my own tikis but it's hard to find palm trees to carve here in North Carolina. I decided to create my own logs out of hyper-tufa. Here are my first 4 attempts. The lighter colored one was my first attempt. Let me know what you all think.




I borrowed designs from magazines and web sites.

Alexdog ,
they look grand .
I have no idea what hyper-tufa is and what tools are need to work it tho.
Can it be coloured , or glued ?
Tell us more , I'm interested about if it can be turned on a lathe.

cheers again .
Jock

On 2008-06-04 17:19, alexdog1 wrote:
I decided to create my own logs out of hyper-tufa..
I borrowed designs from magazines and web sites..

Kia ora Alex - welcome to TC!

Well I know what hyper-tufa is; a friend of mine used to operate a small business making cast garden ornaments from the stuff. Im assuming you pre-cast your 'logs' before carving into them?

Heres an explaination they'll understand Alex: 'tufa' or 'tuff' is the common term for the aerated volcanic rock that Easter Island is formed from.. 'Hyper'-tufa is just formed a lot quicker.. :wink: Very similar to 'hebel'..?

You seem to have a knack for reaching in and pulling Tikis out of nothingness - but if I may be so bold (no insult intended), your design-sources suck! Once again, welcome to TC - Youll find far better reference/inspiration/info here that anywhere and if you stick around Im sure your Tikis will thank you for it! And you might even discover the perfect Mai-Tai recipe while youre at it..

Ill leave you with the log-doctors, theyll help you out. Im not much use in the technicalities of larger work as the scale I work on is microscopic in comparison.

Happy carving!

Alex,

Welcome. I can help you with some source images of artifacts if you are interested. Just email or PM me. Hope to see ya around...

-G$

Hyper-tufa is a mix of portland cement,spagham moss and vermiculite. I poured the mix into cardboard cylinders used to set fence posts and let it sit for about 5 days. After that period, I cut the form off and began to carve. The tufa was still soft enough to use wood chisels (no mallet needed) and some other homemade tools. I let it sit out in the sun for a few days after carving and then sprayed with concrete sealer.
I can handle the blunt criticism but I have a question. Do my sources suck because the tikis aren't traditional or authentic enough ? I was aiming at something that I could put on my deck that wouldn't freak out the wife too much. She's not a real big fan of tikis.

It's alright, your tikis are great for first tikis . You can see improvement from the first to the third. True, Source may be an issue but so is the medium however, Keep doing what you're doing and you'll be OK. The stuff will certainly last a long time which is a Lot better than most palm tikis. Just keep reading these posts and posting your photos and you'll see a Marked improvement as you go along.
Welcome to TC, Come on in and Stay awhile.

They are looking good! The first one is almost art-deco tiki. Interesting medium. What do you use to carve into those beasts.... jack hammer? lol. I would never have tought of using post hole tubes and that matterial. wow, that's thinking! You don't have to use the more traditional Palm only for tiki's. It's the design and not so much the material used. Pine, walnut, oak, maple etc. are available in NC and are just fine.

Welcome alexdog1!
My mom has done some tikis with hypertufa, Look for Musubi Mom under this thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=20594&forum=18&start=135

Those are the ones she did with molds, but she's also carved some, we even did some in the during our March San Diego Chop Chop:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=27510&forum=17&start=225

One thing I see with your tikis that Tama might be noticing is that your stuff is kinda flat right now, either carved deep, or not at all. Start experimenting with some in between depths - make the teeth a little deeper than the lips, but not as deep as the inside of the mouth. :) The toes on the bottom guy looks really good.

But then again, it does give them an art deco, clean look. :)

Welcome Great looking first few tiki, nice clean lines great
design. I really like the look of the cement or harder looking
tiki they will last forever i think? I think most of the palm
tikis are because of the higher carving population live in
these areas. Any local wood will work well if you are interested
in trying a wood tiki.

Thanks to everyone for all of your input. I've got some new ideas for some more projects. I have carved some small tikis out of basswood. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

On 2008-06-05 10:07, alexdog1 wrote:
I can handle the blunt criticism but I have a question. Do my sources suck because the tikis aren't traditional or authentic enough ? I was aiming at something that I could put on my deck that wouldn't freak out the wife too much. She's not a real big fan of tikis.

No offence intended Alex, please excuse my sledgehammer tact. I wasnt dissing your skills at all, just the reference pieces you started with for inspiration. Being a newcomer its only fair to try to point you in a better direction early in the game. :wink:

I believe the examples you started with are basic versions of a US phenomenon known as 'Poly-Pop', which are basically a simplified & cheery version of Polynesian Tiki-poles/posts. I understand that nowdays they have become a 'genre' in themselves but they still manage to raise a few hackles around TC due to their lack of tradition/authenticity.

Sure, theyre argueably easier on the eye for wives/kids/guests/pets, but thats not what Tiki is about - do you have a 'Man-Room' where you could hide the realy scary/sexy/drunken ones..?

Its all an evolution anyway - if you keep carving you will inevitably try new things and find your own style/taste. Please take the time to check out what some of the other carvers are up to; not all will suit the medium of hyper-tufa but Im sure a look around would lead to some good ideas.

Cheers

Alex, What do you use to carve that stuff? You had a very nice learning curve progression from your very first tiki and we can see great things still to come. Looking forward to the next one. Happy Carving!

[ Edited by: Tikilizard 2008-06-10 07:47 ]

Cool medium. You stated the ingredients to do it but what about mix ratio. I am interested in this. Can you please expand on this topic. Never heard of that stuff before.

I buy the moss and vermiculite in 8 qt bags. My mixture is 8qts of moss, 8qts vermiculite, 8qts portland cement and 8qts of water. If you want a more cement like color, you just need to cut back on the moss. More water can be added to get the mixture the way you want it. You could also add concrete coloring if you want a specific color.

Some new stuff.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=28917&forum=18&start=last&

Wow! See...you came to the right place. Lots of good advice around here. I Like what Benzart said, just do what you're gonna do, and you'll be alright. You'll find a natural progression.
As far as wood...Man! You're probably surrounded by it! You can find so much character in the grains of various woods, instead of the same ol' same ol' palms. (no offense palm people!) I started out with basswood, which is great for carving, but just a straight forward kinda grain. Now I look for stuff like red cedar, my fave, which carves just as easy, but with fantastic natural art-beauty built right in!
Keep doing the ones your doing now, they look great, especially the tiki torch holders, love 'em, but keep on trying some new stuff.
And above all...buy the "book of tiki"!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/382286417X/tikiroomcom/104-2641688-2647147

Keep us posted!

Thanks and I have ordered The Book Of Tiki .

Cool!...now order "tiki Modern"!!!

I like them! specially the third one, they are getting more and more interesting! keep going! Congrats!

Thanks Alexdog. I went out bought the ingredients and made my first one. for the record 8 qt of Vermuculite, Moss, concrete and water gave me about a two foot high by 10" diameter tikie.

Carving the tiki is fairly easy. You have to time it right. When i initially started carving, it was like working with stiff dirt. It was a good time to remove large quantities of hypertufa. A couple days later it was hard enough to smooth the details .

I'm working on a new one as we speak.

It looks great. I've found that I've had to complete the carving in one day so that it didn't get too hard. I've tried putting the cardboard tube back over it to keep moisture in overnight. You can play with the mixture some to give you a different look. Putting in more moss will give you a browner look and is also easier to carve. The good thing is that you can experiment and not worry about losing a big investment. Keep up the good work.

Cool keep them coming.

Here another one used 12 qts of everything to make a 26" by 8" tiki. threw some chickwire for support.... unfortunately, some was sticking through after the carving