bigt carvings

This was my first tiki, started last year in August and finished in December 2006. I did the sanding and staining over the 2007 New Year holidays. I used a set of old Speedball carving chisels I found at a resale shop; mostly just the small gouge. I believe the wood is Ash, probably Arizona Ash, and was riddled with insect damage (beetles, bees, etc.) and a little bit of rot here and there.

This tiki was meant to be a larger replica of the tiki featured in the Gilligan's Island episode, "Waiting for Watubi". Looks sorta like a gumby head at this point before it was squared off...

8/6/06

8/8/06

8/15. Stripped off some more of the bark...

8/22 - the beginnings of arms and legs.

8/26:

Jan 07, finished.

He's now decorating my daughter's room. :)

All of the holes are insect damage to the log before it was carved. The one exception is the round one on the stomach, which I'm pretty sure is from a woodpecker - probably one of the big pileated woodpeckers. Finished with a coat of Restore-A-Finish brand wax. Eyes painted with a Gold paint pen.

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2015-12-01 04:33 ]

That's a very nice first piece - looks like the source tiki may have been a Milan Guanko? It's a credit to your work that the style is so recognisable. He has a great vintage looking patina and the various holes and cavities contribute to the old-school vibe. Bring on #2!

very cool.......i really like the old school look also.......it looks as if its been hangin around the island for awhile....great detail on the head piece....being a beginner also its cool to see other poeples first works.....great style......keep on chippin away....theres tikis in them there logs....go let em out....

Paipo: yep, it probably is a Guanko design. I've seen the photo here of a Milan Guanko that looks like this. I don't know the originals of the Gilligan's Island tiki though. It looks different than the one found here in TC. Does anyone know the origins of the GI tiki?

closettiki: I've seen your thread - great work!

Thanks both for the kind words.

Yes, once I started I realized that if I didn't over finish it, all my screw ups might help give it an old look and feel (and help hide some of my screw ups that couldn't be fixed). So that's what I did, just left if pretty rough - no final sanding on the headdress part at all and just enough sanding on the rest to still leave a sorta rustic appearance.

Started tiki #2 last month. This one is a smaller version of the Gilligan's Island/Milan Guanko tiki. This one is pecan and 21" tall.

These pics, taken about a week after I started, came out pretty hazy. Must have been really humid that night! lol But, hey, it's Houston.

Here's the pics from last weekend:

I'm doing something a little different this time - adding sort of a stone wall pattern that I didn't do the first time. Can't really tell exactly what it looks like in the original on the photos I have.

Thanks for looking! All comments welcome. :)

Updates from the past weekend. Some of the details are hard to see. Just about finished with this one. :)

I love that base - very cool idea, simple but original. It'll look great burnt and sanded (or something similar) for contrast. The tiki is looking very smooth once again too. Nice work T!

You are really Getting the Detail down nice and clean. Nice definition. Keep up the Excellent work.

Paipo: thanks - can't take credit for the idea tho, as the original seems to have something similar on the base. This is just my interpretation of it.

Benz: thanks for the words of encouragement!! :)

The latest updates - tried to finish it last weekend but I think I rushed it. The stain didn't come out like I wanted, so now I have to figure out what to do from here... re-sand and re-stain??

The stain came out really blotchy. Although this piece of wood had lots of swirls, knots, and thin ribbons of bark in it. Don't know if I should have sanded more or less...

I think I didn't mix the stain well enough and when I got to the headdress, it originally came out very red, so then stained over it with mahogony stain. I think the rest of the body needs to be darker too. The original dark highlights didn't come out as dark as I wanted them either. :(

BigT looking good that wood looks like marble before the stain.
I really like the gold color going on On 1# Keep the chips flying.

seeksurf: thanks for the comps! Sorry to say the gold color is going to get covered up...lol. After talking with my dau, the wants me to paint/stain it black and carve a bowl in the top and she's going to put it on her kitchen counter. So that looks like the direction this one's going to take.

Hey Big T! That's a good idea to carve a bowl on top of the head. It will be a functional piece of art now, and not just a pretty face.

I have sanded off undesirable stain and refinished some of my pieces in the past. It's unpleasant, but if ya gotta, ya just gotta!

Ceramics stores carry that type of band clamp I used. Get a few, they are very handy!

Hey all! Took me a while, but finally finished #2. Here's the results. Hope everyone likes it. Boy, I noticed the paint really exposes every little blimish doesn't it? :)

Hey man, very good looking piece.
Bravo,

Benjamin.

That last one has the Wendy/Gecko mug look all the way. But a first for wood. Great job.

Funny thing is, mugs try to look like carved wood and now carved tikis are going for the mug look. :shecky:

Nice BigT. I particularly like the
cuts on the head-dress. The bowl would be great for a party treats.

Benella, teakey, seeksurf: thanks for the kind words.

Got some honey-do's on my list before Christmas, but hope to start on #3 soon!

Nice job dealing with the knots/blemishes that dont stain or suck up too much stain.
What is that above his hands ??? Is that a belly button or SOMETHING else ??? ... LOL. Keep up the great work !! BUFFBAD

On 2007-12-18 03:35, BUFFBAD wrote:
Nice job dealing with the knots/blemishes that dont stain or suck up too much stain.
What is that above his hands ??? Is that a belly button or SOMETHING else ??? ... LOL. Keep up the great work !! BUFFBAD

Buffbad, that's the outline of his stomach. It doesn't seem to show up as well now that's it's painted. Thanks for the compliment!

Hey BigT, I like a lot. Don't know if you get the Tiki Magazine, but on page 9 there is a tiki that looks similar to yours, although a female version. Keep up the good work.

Some progress pics of #3. This tiki might look suspiciously similar to one of the Target tikis... :wink:

I'm further along than this, but need to take some current pics.

Yo Big T!

An old tiki from the Red Lion/Crowne Plaza/ Hanalei hotel in San Diego:

The Brady Idol was a brown version of this Coco Joes tiki:

Carve on!
Buzzy Out!

On 2008-02-21 14:31, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
Yo Big T!

An old tiki from the Red Lion/Crowne Plaza/ Hanalei hotel in San Diego:

The Brady Idol was a brown version of this Coco Joes tiki:

Carve on!
Buzzy Out!

Wow, I love those! Thanks for the pics. I might have to try a copy of that first one. :)

Nice Job BigT I haven't seen the target tiki.
Sure looks green in your area. I guess Texas is a big state.

On 2008-02-21 14:42, seeksurf wrote:
Nice Job BigT I haven't seen the target tiki.
Sure looks green in your area. I guess Texas is a big state.

Thanks seek. That's pretty much the extent of our winter (Houston area). So far this winter we had one night of at/below freezing long enough to kill one of my few remaining stalks of sugar cane. Hard to grow that stuff in the woods...

Weekend updates:

Nice chops! What is the wood?

On 2008-02-26 15:15, seeksurf wrote:
Nice chops! What is the wood?

Thanks. It's some variety of ash. They plant these kinda trash ash trees down here for quick shade, but they become diseased and don't live long. It's full of beetle tunnels. The round holes are from wood boring bees.

Excellent, Crisp detail showing a lot of attention to top grade finish. This is an Excellent tiki from TheBigT.

Some updates... been a while so I thought I'd brush the cobwebs off this thread. I finished #3 sometime back in March according to the dates on the pics. Here's the results.

Oh, I almost forgot... I left some of the original surface on each of the arms to look like a battle scar. The orginal surface was thoroughly worm scoured, so on each arm I carved around one of the worm tracks leaving a litte bit of the inner bark around it.

Right arm...

Left arm...

Well that's it. I managed to finish #4 a couple of weeks ago so more updates coming soon.

Hey Big T...I like this tiki a lot. To me it has a real 50s-60s feel,
toothy without being cartoony, if that makes any sense. At any rate...
nice effort.

Hey T.
I really think the finish on your black Tiki is very interesting.
It got quite a luxurious look.
What kind of finishing product did you use? / Or how did you do it?
And what kind of tree type are you working with?

– el Stingray

[ Edited by: el Stingray 2008-08-10 11:41 ]

Conga: thanks for the comps! Yep, I hope it isn't too cartoony. That's definitely not the look I was going for. Glad you like it.

el stingray: the black one is Pecan. It's native to Texas and pretty common in the area where I live. I painted it because that's the look that my daughter wanted. It was a coat of brown primer and two coats of black spray paint. Then I used rubbing compound on the egdes to wear away the black paint a little to give it an "old" appearance. Thanks for the comments!

Whoah! He's got stitches in his arm! Shark attack?
Nice, I like the signature on the back, very elaborate!

Surfin: thanks man. Not nearly as elaborate as your stuff, but maybe someday... :)

Finally got the pics of #4 uploaded. So, I suck at stopping to take pics along the way... so basically I didn't take any until it was ready for finishing (as far as I can find anyway). :(

This is a birthday present for my nephew. So it's got his name, Mason, carved in the back.

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2008-08-12 08:41 ]

The finished version of #4. It's sort of a mini-me version of #3.

Halfway stained... kinda strange. Even my pooch is wondering, 'what the heck'?

And a mini family reunion. :D

Oh yeah! I remember that tiki with the gold eyes. They all look great.
My favorite is the new tall one on the right. Keep on carving and update more often.

Savage: Thanks, man. Will do. Although it's much easier to reply to other threads than it is to go in and update mine. :D

Big T, Looking good. I Love the nice smooth style you are developing, Very distinctive and Pleasant to look at. we will always be able to pick the BigT out of the bunch! How Cool is that?

I dig these too. Keep up the good work bud!

Cool Stuff BigT, That Pecan wood is really nice but HARD, was it difficult to carve?
Excellent finish and I Love how you left the worm tracks. NEat idea

Nice bigT you have some great tikis there very cool.

Very cool vintage poly-pop vibe going on with these cats--I like!

hodadhank, benz, howland, seeksurf: Thanks for all the comps!

Benz: That pecan wasn't hard to carve. I think it was already staring to dry rot, so was softened up. Now this new one, is definitely hard.

Here's the latest I'm working on. It's sweetgum. Super hard wood.

Today's updates:

Going kinda sloooow. But at least the back is roughed out now.

BigT, Your tiki's are looking great! Put a little more depth in those cuts and you'll be way a head of the game. If that is only #5 you have some natural talent. Happy carving.