Grapa-Ruha's Carving a meal for the Marq pg.10

Hey guys, mahalo's for all your nice comments. I did not get around to doing or posting any new work or comments or anything because this kept me busy the last couple of days...
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=30563&forum=15&2
I will be enjoying family life for a couple of days and will get back to you in a while.

Again Mahalo's for all the nice comments.
Benz, thanks for your compliments and comments. Biting off more than i can chew has taught me a lot of valuable lessons. Being a stubborn sod can be used to ones own advantage and it seems to be whats needed to become a carver of any skill. :wink:

Tyler, Thanks for being so lyrical on the moko. Now put the chainsaw and the hook knife next to each other and think about what damage each one could do should things go wrong. Cutting your self on the hook knife hurts like #@$% but can usually be solved with some super glue and/or a band aid. The chainsaw could turn u in an armless skater in seconds. And if u do a search and read Benzart's advice on use and safety about the hook knife you will be fine.

Hodad, Thank you. You are one of my heroes with what you carve.

Well since our newborn son is real easy going. Just like his dad, all you have to do is make sure he is not hungry and everything is fine. I thought i would post my first commissioned carve. It went in the mail last Thursday and will be used as a shifter knob on a motorcycle.


Thanks for watching

[ Edited by: Grapa-RuHa 2008-12-02 11:52 ]

Wow - love your stuff! great progress from your first guys to your Moai, I love how the detail on him turned out! Great paintings too!

On 2008-11-07 02:35, Benzart wrote:
A BIG TIP when using the hook blade, BefORE you make the cut, LOOK at the projected path of the blade should it continue past where you intended the cut to stop. ANYTHING within that pathway WILL get CUT if it slips past that spot. Lesson? Make sure NO Digits are in that projected pathway and there will be NO Blood.

That's the best lesson I learned from Benzart - and it kept me cut free for 2 years. I got sloppy recently and gave myself a little cut when my blade slipped. Be careful, but it is a great tool!

Nice lines on this guy. Keep them comming.

Mahalo's Mieko and Seeksurf for your nice comments.
As most starting carvers I too am searching for logs to get more practice in carving. And like i said to some others here I thought it was best to tell anyone I know I am looking for logs of any kind to carve.
Well it seems to work as one of my good friends, one of the few people i know that has a taste for Tiki and actually has built his own Tiki bar, dropped of these.

And another friend send me a mail about to logs lying around at his work for a while. And he will ask his boss if i can have them. So I'll stick to my advice. Tell anyone you meet you need logs.
Until commercials like this start turning up for real :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHtKarae2Q

Aloha friends,
With the whether being cold, wet and miserable. All carving has to be done inside. So i got me some cheap ass burs and tried carving a tang from a stone from the roof of my shed. Lets see if I need to buy some new roof grid to fill empty spots in a while. Carving stone is fun. :)
Hope you enjoy this first piece of try out. And thanks for watching

RuHa, Nice Shifter Knob for the Cycle!, Love how you finished it off with the shading too. Your first stone is Excellent. Minimal carving to get the exact feeling across and Perfect shape chosen for that face. If I were you I'd go ahead and order another couple tons of that stuff for your roof, I think you'll need it. Welcome to the stoner world. :P
(Thanks for the well wishes too.)

Thanks Benzart, your comments made my day today. The shifter was my first carve in decent hardwood. great carving fun. And now i have to tell my mom I became a stoner, or i'll just wait till she sees me stealing stones from peoples driveways and roofs :P
Here's the pics of nr. 2 (another Tang) and 3(Maori inspired Moko)

And some non Tiki painting called "going nowhere fast, never felt this good!".
Enjoy, and thanks for watching.

[ Edited by: Grapa-RuHa 2008-12-18 14:47 ]

Aloha, here's a pic i got from my shifter mounted on the motorcycle. It makes me really proud and happy to hear from people they like the stuff i carve for them. Got a new commission on a set of Tiki valve caps yesterday.

And some pics off a new stone piece i just finished and plan to use as a headpiece on my next Tiki

Thanx for watching

Nice skull piece there and tini, can't wait to see in on a tiki. :D

YES, I can't Believe how you have just Jumped into the Rock world and doing it Nicely too I must say. That skull is Very nice.

that rock skull is awesome!!! what tools are you using? any work bench pics? heh, keep up the good work and photo updates.

Thank you for all your nice comments, they always help me do some more work.
Tikipaka, Thanks here's a pic of the Tang with the skull in place. Hope the wait wasn't to long :)

Benz, Thank you for the kind words, I am quite amazed myself at how my stones turn out. I'm really having fun doing them, so I give them a lot of attention and take my time doing them.
Who knows, i might get good at this stone thing but it will be another 1000 pieces give or take.
Oh well someone just passed me a piece of bone :)

S!q, thank you and welcome on board. If you check the beginning date of my threat (23 October 2008) and i tell you thats about when i started carving. You will probably understand i don't have that much tools.
For carving logs i use a set of 4 chisels bought for 40 bucks at a hardware store.
For carving small pieces of wood i use the tools you see on page 2 of my threat. I use the middle one the most. And Benzart wrote some good stuff on hook knifes and such.
For my stone work (well i'm on nr.5 right now) I use a dremmel and some diamond burs.
The rest i use is sanding paper, sander and some files.
I don't have a work bench so i put my logs on a stool or something that keeps them in place. Small wood is held in my left hand. And when i'm doing a stone i sit at the kitchen sink.
Hope this helps you on your way, don't be a stranger and feel free to ask any question you have

Very nice work an this last one Grapa.
Can you show more pix of his body that looks kind of very nice too ?

Benjamin.

P.S: Congratulations about the baby ! I should have written that thing a long time ago.

Aloha,love your Tang and your skull work is very kool.I really like your skull designs, their very primitive looking,awesome dude!

Nice thread, Grapa!

It was cool to see how quickly you developed from a novice to a craftsman.

That Moai head is really beautiful!

Great Work on the stones I like!
Love the shifter on the bike very cool.

Aloha friends,
Best wishes for this year, I know I'm late with this but there's some business trouble in my life I have to sort. So I hope you all understand my time here will be limited the next few weeks/months.

Any way, on to some lighter subject matter.
Thanks for the compliments Benella, that last guy is still in progress sort of so more pics will follow in the near future i guess.
Thanks Mudbone I have been painting and drawing skulls for a long time.
Thanks Kountzyro, working hard is the only way to become a craftsman, Im not there jet.
Thanks Seeksurf, I am so proud of the shifter.

Now here's something completely different. A friend of mine mailed me that he had bought two Tiki molds of the web. One to produce concrete Tiki and one to produce Tiki candles. Me being a chocaholic suggested he'd make them in chocolat as a joke. But low and behold, yesterday he called me to see if i was home because he wanted to drop something of.

These are both about 7" high and 3" wide and made solid. I love them
My only dilemma is, do I enjoy their taste or should I enjoy their esthetic's
Help

Wow, I don't know which way I'd go either, Cannibals Unite, Take a Bite, C'mon, just one.
Excellent tikis!

Aloha fellow TCers.
I hope I didn't give anyone the munchies with my last post :)
Benz, it never stops at just one bite, so I got some cookies to distract my stomach.

When i finished the skull Tang I thought of Lakesurfer's "Fire of Fatu Hiva", and how nice that would work on this cute face. So I contacted Lake and he had no problem with me using his idea. So here are the update pics of the Skull Tang holding a big tea light. He will stay in our living room for the winter and will go out on the deck next summer.

And as promised a few posts ago, I carved some bone. I tried a Hei-Matau.

I like bone as it's easy to shape. This was a bone from the soup as a try out piece. Next time I will use some properly cleaned bone as I learned from googeling you should never cook a bone to clean it. I will post some of what I learned about cleaning bone in the bone thread soon
Thanx for watching.

[ Edited by: Grapa-RuHa 2009-01-09 12:51 ]

Such good stuff! The bone came out great! Good detail, design, nice job. Me want CHOCOLATE! Mass produce them, send them to TC'ers and we'll ALL be cannibals!!! YEAHHHHHHHH

Hey Grapa, happy new year.

The skull Tangaroa/tea candle holder is amazing work my friend.
What kind of wood was that ?

Benjamin.

More Very nice stuff, the bone piece came out great especially for your first one.
Check out Pet Smart ant those stores for already cleaned dog bone. $1.99 for a 4" chunk of beef leg bone, look for the heaviest there and the thickest. You will see many varied shapes and thicknesses.

Now here's something completely different. A friend of mine mailed me that he had bought two Tiki molds of the web. One to produce concrete Tiki and one to produce Tiki candles. Me being a chocaholic suggested he'd make them in chocolat as a joke. But low and behold, yesterday he called me to see if i was home because he wanted to drop something of.

These are both about 7" high and 3" wide and made solid. I love them
My only dilemma is, do I enjoy their taste or should I enjoy their esthetic's
Help

..looks like we'll be seeing "easter island " easter baskets this year.....complete with easter grass and chocolate easter island heads to eat......bout time we all had our own holiday around here!!!

Mahalo for all the kind words and compliments.
Surfin, thanks and I think I need to contact W.Wonka to get enough chocolate tiki to serve all the cannibals on TC. Hey Benella Happy newyear to you and your family to, I don't know what sort of wood that was, my best guess would be some kind of oak.
Benz, thanks for the kind words and good advice. There's no Petsmart here in Holland, but I will sure check some pet stores.
Tipsy, the Easterbunny told me he thought these were a bit scary to hide for unsuspecting kids :)

oh the skull tang it's looking so cool!! love the light add too!! Very nice!

Aloha my carving friends,
I haven't had much time to carve due to lots of other work. Luckily i got a commision for some valve caps to try out my new hook knife.
Hope you enjoy and thanks for watching.

Looks like some Hooking good fun here, does the owner expect these to stay screwed onto his tires? I'll bet they disappear the first week!
Nice work.

wow, great stuff grapa. the computer crashes for a couple of days and you miss tons of stuff. love the skull and the tang. your bone work is wonderful too. keep them coming.

bd

Thanks Benz, the hooknife is a great tool to use. Though i'm glad i re-read all your safety instructions before use :) They now live on a Chopper bicycle owned by a girl who works at a local motorcycle shop. I've "lost", multiple sets of valve caps, I think it's a good reason to create a new set.

Thanks for the compliments B-D, I hope you didn't loose to much in the crash.
I got some more bone that I'm cleaning and there are all kinds of logs lying around the house. So there should be more to come in the future, a rise of temperature and longer daylight would be nice. At least the birds say spring is on it's way.

Cool caps! I like the "Arrrrrrrrr" expression on 'em!

I'm glad you read up on the hook knife Before you used it and really happy it helped. The hook can give you such great detail but can Also give you much heartache and blood .

Aloha, time to carve has been sparse lately. But I managed to carve a new guy holding a skull. I drilled out the center so I can turn him into a lamp later on. Guess he will be the reading light for "the book of Tiki".
Enjoy

Like your new carve,one mean looking dude. Glad that's not my skull.

grapa,

man he's really cool looking. anything with skulls is on my fave list. he looks kinda tiny judging by the stuff in the background. great work.

bd

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

WOW Grapa man, dude, Bro',

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

This piece is a masterpiece, dear master carver !

Can you show the tools you used to drill him ?
How big is he?
What kind of wood is that ?

Lots of questions but it's an awesome piece.

Benjamin.

Mahalo for all of your compliments.

Mudbone, I'm happy thats not your skull to. But this guy only takes the skulls of people whitout any creative skills. so don't worry

Big D. Thanks, I was listening to skulls by the Misfits while working on this guy. I am a big fan of anything with skulls or skelletons on it.

Benella, I will make some pics showing the drill stuff. I have no idea about the kind of wood.
And he is 31 cm tall thats about 12 inch for the non metric carvers.
Greetz,
Grapa

I really like the scowl on this guy. I find myself making the same face; only I am not as pretty.

Nice piece, Grapa-RuHa. Looking forward to seeing how it looks as a lamp!

Bowana

Thanx Grand Poobah, make the same face upside down. If yer not handsome you might as well smile and be pretty :)
Tomorrow I will start my hunt for a shade or something I can turn in to a shade for this guy. Thank you Bowana for the kind words, I'm wondering myself what he will turn out like.

Benella, here's some pics of the drills I used for the lamp conversion.
The wide one is a speed drill Used to drill from the bottom to about 3cm from the top.
The other is a normal 8mm wood drill used to drill from the top.
I then gave him an A-hole to put the cord true.
The speed drill is made longer by an extension piece
Hope this helps

[ Edited by: Grapa-RuHa 2009-03-29 12:11 ]

Very nice carves, Grapa-RuHa!

This guy will look great as a lamp!

The auger bit looks familiar!

I did a bit of tiki lamp building a few years ago and that was my favorite bit.

A drill press is your best bet to make sure things are straight.

Good luck!!

Yes nice work. This is a kick ass looking tiki.

Thanks very much for the pictures of the drills, this helps a lot. I think I know wich kind of "driller" you used but did you use the "hammer" drill mode in french it is percution mode or simply the turning mode ?

Waiting for new update :wink:

Benjamin

Thanks, Lake and Seeks.
Since he did not fit under my drill press, I drilled this guy by hand. Pretty hard to keep everything straight and lined up but it worked out fine in the end.

Benella, I used the normal turning settings on my drill, works great. I only use the hammer setting for drilling concrete.

One pic was made without a flash and with some background clutter removed. It gives a better idea of what the lamp with its light on looks like.

Excellent Stuff Grapa-Ru, that lamp looks perfectly finished sitting there so pretty/ugly, however tiki lamps are supposed to look. Really nice piece.

Looking good,the only thing better would be a pair of lamps.

E X C E L L E N T

Excellent stuff, dude and thanks for the reply.
The pix without the flash is really better, at least to me !
I had an idea with a lamp too but differently done, something like a tiki with the lamp on his hand... something really sneaky that I hope to be able to carve and realyze one day !

Bravo,

Benjamin.

Your carve is really cool, very good execution, mounting lamp is very well done... I just reserved for the lampshade that seems to me a little sad, not the height of the sculpture...