bigt carvings

On 2008-10-26 20:22, Tikilizard wrote:
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.

Tikilizard: Thanks a bunch! Will do! I think I'll rought it all out and then go back and try to make it a bit deeper.

On 2008-10-26 20:22, Tikilizard wrote:
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.

Tikilizard: Thanks a bunch! Will do! I think I'll rought it all out and then go back and try to make it a bit deeper.

What up bigT, looking good bring that sucker out!

Seek: Thanks for checking in. I've been trying! :lol:

The progress seems to be going slow. Took some pics during the last few weeks but didn't look like much changed so didn't bother uploading.

Here's the latest from last weekend.

Also spent the week before Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico. Almost didn't come back!

Nice Nice Nice Slow going is ok.

Cool looking designs, Love the detail you are putting in this one, Both sides are very neat. Just because it's hard, don't be shy about getting down Deep with the features, As Always Deeper is Better!
Lookin Good!

Seek: Thanks! Slow is ok I guess, but the progress seems to be crawling.... :lol: Wish I was faster at this like you guys!

Benz: Thanks for the encouragement. Yep, trying to cut deeper and deeper as I go. Man, it's tough! I still plan to cut deeper because I release the nose and lips need to stick out more. I guess I'm still learning just how far down to cut during the roughing out stage.

Welp I guess it's time for my monthly update....

Here's the latest progress shots (well close, it's a little further along). I had hoped to finish in 2008. Now I hope to be finished in 2009! :)

wow t,
looks like you fished an old weather-beaten pier post out of clear lake. the weathering is gorgeous and i can't wait to see how it turns out. keep chipping and posting. love all the little details.

bd

Looking good! I like the different styles in him.
The ears are cool and that wood look old and rustic.

Nice update.
I can see you feel comfortable with your tools, because the lines seem neat and grooving well.

Can't wait for the next update.

Benjamin.

bd: thanks. I almost wonder whether I should have skipped this log. I'm kind of afraid it's going to split right in half. We'll see.

benella: Thanks for the kind words! I may be comfortable with my tools but my back is killing me. Haha!

seeks: You know it's funny you should pick up on the ears. I totally didn't intend them to be ears at first. That's why they're so far in back. Only after I had cut way into the log did I realize - duh, these should be ears! :lol: Thanks for the compliment!

I can see you going deeper and deeper with every feature that needs to pop out a bit more. That is one Hard piece of wood and you Definitely have it under control. He's looking Excellent.

Thanks Ben! Even this isn't quite as deep as need for the circles around the eyes, but I think I'll stop there and try to go deeper on the next one.

big t this guy looks cool!
dont worry about the cracks,once you stain him
it will look like a vintage tiki

buzzard: Thanks for the comps! There's a giant crack in each side of this thing that I was worried about. A couple of weeks ago I heard this wood splitting sound after making a cut. I thought the whole thing was gonna fall apart into kindling! :lol:

Hey everyone! Finally got this one almost done. Stain is on, just needs to be finished. Like a dummy, I didn't take any pics just before I put the stain on Saturday night. I was hurrying to get it stained so I could finish it on Sunday and of course it still wasn't dry Sunday!

The photos are taken inside so they're kinda crappy.

very cool!

t, like i said before, really cool. love all the cracks. he's very peaceful or drunk, either way very cool.

bd

EXCELLENT !

Nice! Love the color looks like maple or walnut?

Nice looking piece of wood that really complements your carved geometry. I like the interplay between the wavy wood grain and your simple and stark line work on the face. And I really like the scalloping designs on the back.

Cheers!

Awesome

This tiki doesn't look like a decorative item, it looks like a real, functional temple image. It reminds me a bit of some of the melanesian door jambs in the men's houses. The cracks and natural shading of the stained wood give it a wonderful sense of being "the real thing".

Aloha!

Marcus

Thanks so much for the kinds words everyone, gino, queenK, benella, drasticW.

seeks: Great guess. Damn you're good! It's Sweetgum, stained with 3 parts black walnut, 2 parts golden oak, and 1 part red mahogany.

kountzyro: thanks so much for the comps. All that stuff u mentioned was mostly luck! :lol:

Marcus: much appreciated. The inspiration for this comes from the pic below, which is a New Guinea, middle Sepik River, shield. And a huge tip of the hat to bigbro and Tiki Modern.

This shield made a trip from the Museum of Primitive Art in New York to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston for a one month exhibition in 1959. The photo is from that exhibition.

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2011-03-06 17:39 ]

Under penalty of rehearsal, I said nice, very nice, the crack and the expression gives charm.The all around carving makes very complete...
In other post was said full of right things, you can be proud of your work Big Big T!!!

Well, I guess it's time to sweep off the dust and cobwebs on this thread once again! Here's a new one I started last month. This is about a 5 1/2' piece of loblolly pine. It's from one of the neighbor's trees knocked down in Hurricane Ike. I have a couple like this from my own trees waiting in line.

This pic at the bottom is the neighbor's house where the log came from, though not one of the trees pictured.

Excellent Stuff T, I Really am Digging the Crisp detail you are getting on your tikis, Very Precise. The stain came out very nice on that last one though you should Never hurry through the staining precess since you could jeopardize Many long hours of work in just a few minnits. The Stain DESERVES to have time taken with it Also. I see many carvers Hurrying through the stain and finish when those are the phases which require a decent amount of time to make a piece look Spectacular. The difference in time spent on the finish determines if your final piece will be "OK","Good","Great","Fantastic", and "Wow thats INCREDIBLE" in peeps reviews, Always keep this on your mind.
Keep Practicing you are Definitely getting better.

Nice begin, happy to see your work without dust and cobwebs! :roll:

Laojia: Once again, thanks for the kind words! :)

Benz: Thanks for the support! Point taken on the finishing work - will try to add a dose of patience on this one. Thanks for the much welcomed advice! :wink:

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2009-05-21 14:15 ]

Hey everyone. Here's the latest on the current carving. Pretty much done with this one except finish sanding, adding teeth and cutting notches on the headdress.

Just got a new Dremel Multi Mate to use for detail sanding. So far I like it! I'll try to post a pic if I can remember. :)

big t!

nice! very nice! is that a big ole hunk of east texas pine courtesy of ike? can't wait to see the finished product. keep the chips flying.

bd

its entertaining to see the early carvings, mine included, then the 3d process clicks and WOW look what you did this time... great evolution.

Super Awesome

Agree with PalmCity, Excellent Progress on this guy. I can't wait to see how he finishes out, Step it up a notch! :P :D

:o

This guy looks really perfect.

the tongue's amazingly one of a kind design.

Benjamin.

Outstanding! Great Job! Nice work.

Nice piece of wood with a great start!

Benella, Seeksurf, Drastic, TikiL, Benz, thanks all for the comps! Much appreciated and very humbling coming from such talented folks. :)

big daddy: yep, that's left over's from Ike. I think I'll name him Ike and carve his name at the bottom.

palmCity: I know what u mean! I think it's getting easier... But why does it still take me so loooong??! :lol:

benz: appreciate all the at-a-boy's! I'm trying to stay patient with this thing as I've been working on it off and on since april. whew... I still see some flaws, but i'm eager to get going on the next on already. :wink:

Looks great Big T. Can't wait to see him all finished up and detailed.
Gonna be a killer!

Congrat BigT! You take your time and you've made full of progress for the last one!

He's turning excelent!!!

J.

Hey Big T . I was in Galveston on Fathers Day Weekend and I went over to Crystal Beach to see how it was coming along , Not so great. There was an abundance of palm everywhere still . I am thinking about heading back down there in August to stock up. Tikiloco was there still on the side of the road carving away too , that was good to see....

Conga, Laojia, thanks so much for looking in! :)

Drastic: haven't been anywhere along the coast since the hurricane. Yep, I keep hearing there's so much wood laying around down there. And now with galveston cutting all the dead trees.... It would be really cool to load up a trailer full of trees but that stuff only last so long around here before it's full of bugs or dry rot... :(

Here's the new Dremel Multi Mate I picked up. So far, so good!

The detail sanding head. Working pretty good. The sandpaper for this is kinda steep. Hopefully it lasts long time. :lol:

The wood saw attachment. It's pretty cool too but still getting used to it. Not sure how handy it's gonna be for carving....

Your new Dremel looks great, I was wondering about that attachment for carving too, please let us know how it works. Looks great so far.

That sucker is alot bigger looking than my D.

On 2009-07-13 19:45, TheBigT wrote:
The detail sanding head. Working pretty good. The sandpaper for this is kinda steep. Hopefully it lasts long time. :lol:

I've had a couple pieces where I used about $25 worth of sandpaper on them. If I use all mouse sander pieces, I usually shell out about $8-15 worth on a more finely finished piece. Sucks to pay out all those material costs! Overhead's a killer...

Buzzy Out!

On 2009-07-16 22:21, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:

On 2009-07-13 19:45, TheBigT wrote:
The detail sanding head. Working pretty good. The sandpaper for this is kinda steep. Hopefully it lasts long time. :lol:

I've had a couple pieces where I used about $25 worth of sandpaper on them. If I use all mouse sander pieces, I usually shell out about $8-15 worth on a more finely finished piece. Sucks to pay out all those material costs! Overhead's a killer...

Buzzy Out!

Buzzy: I agree 100 percentile!

So... I put aside the last carving for a while to start another one. This one's a little smaller, about 42" I think. Anyone have a clue what type of wood this is?? I thought it was oak when I put it aside a year and half ago. It's been sitting under my car port since then. Was all that weird grain pattern caused by water/humidity?? It's very white and soft to carve. Some dry rot in places.

t
kinda looks like a pine log i have on my front porch. i picked it up on the side of the road and it was already dried out. haven't had a chance to cut into it to see if i have that cool moldy grain like you have.

as for dead wood in galveston, the company that was cutting down the trees was planning on giving it away but the city and attorneys stepped in and claimed too much liability with the public, trees and chainsaw and they put a stop to the giveaway. sucks. if you hear different let me know.

bd