Polynesiac Carving a Tiki for GEICO on SUNDANCE!! Pg 7

Certainly Richard Ellis! It is written on the basis... :roll:

Great carves!

Mahalo all my friends for stopping by my little corner!

Kirbs - you da man in my book. You got me inspired to start carvin' and postin' again. Thanks, bro!

Jeff - I'm lookin' forward to it! thanks!

Lake - Thank you! your work that you've been producing is OUTSTANDING! Thanks for stopping by! I've been doing some soul searching lately and it's very important for me to get back to doing the things I love...and have a blast doing!!!!!

Conga - I like how color can compliment a piece. There is a fine line though, as we all know! I take my color inspiration from the master (mr. Leroy S) and the amazing creations by the peoples of PNG. Thanks!

Kate, JT and Laojia - yes....you're all right in a sense, but the first is to the amazing carves of Mr. Richard Ellis. I decided to carve him first because I have many fond memories around his carvings at sams/kona/DTBC. Thanks for the guesses!!!! (I thought I had cropped is name out....I guess I uploaded the wrong the picture!) thanks for peeking in!

Heath - Mahalo!!!

Thanks for peekin' in!

Great new slew of Work jim!
baby Tang and the 4-foot marq really
give me the smileys!
Especially with all the painted details!
bravo!
See you Saturday,you nut!

Holly crap you have been going to town NICE!
My favorite has to be the big KU.

Surf and LLT - thank you both very much for your posts. Sorry about the delayed response...

The Aquarium where I work has been asking me to donate a carving for their annual fundraiser "the Grand Grunion Gala" for a few years. I was never able to pull something together in a timely enough fashion, until this year. INstead of carving a south pacific piece, I decided to really challenge myself and head North for inspiration. Because it's an auction piece for the aquarium, the overt ocean theme made sense, so I looked to the Haida and their superb renditions of the orca.
I found a really nice carving from black slate to model my carving from.

I know it's not tiki, but I thought I'd share it anyway. It's obvious that all pacific art is related in some fashion. Even the carvers in the North Pacific know that. Here are some pictures. I hope you enjoy them:

the carving all finished waiting for stain and paint:

All freshly painted, but it still needs to look "old"

Detail closeup:

Finished carving, all weathered and aged with a coconut fiber rope boarder:

The back of the carving with a little info about the carving and the subject matter:

Thanks for looking!

Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"

[ Edited by: polynesiac 2009-05-15 07:12 ]

Yer killin' me! Very cool design, tasty slappin' o' the paint,
great aging. Nice to see you showing some werk around here.

I think U should be postin' stuff every few days, Bro... U kill it everytime you get your creative on..... Great Stuff.
fB

I love how it is weathered and aged! looks great!

Amy

Right ON! Im loving it. I feel alittle funny about posting my
NW art also. Great Job.

Jim!

Beautiful work!

Love the finishing moves!

Nothing wrong with expanding your horizons of woodcarving... this piece shows the range of your talent!

Very very nice.

Poly, Nicce Stuff, you gonna do more?

Thanks my friends for the nice comments on the non-tiki haida carving. I do apologize about the tardiness of my replies.

conga, seeks - thanks guys! when I thought about posting this, I hoped the 2 of you would stop by! The entire pacific rim has some amazing artistic styles. I'd like to try my hand at all of them one day. Thank you very much for your kind responses.

Freddie - thanks bro! how's the little tang doin?

Queen K - thank you for the post. After I painted it up, it just looked too bright, fresh and new! I think the aging makes it look more authentic and original. I'm glad you feel the same way!

Lake, Matt - thanks for stopping by. I too think it's good to dabble here and there. I believe it helps you grow not only as an artist, but as an individual as well.

Ben - great to hear from you! I hope to carve some more. I think I'll wait on the totems for a bit, but there are lots of great designs of orcas, salmon and whales I'd like to try my hand at. The North Coast art really reminds me of Maori designs. Not, of course, with the subject matter, but in the attention to detail and the symbolic meanings of the figures.

The auction folks still haven't told me how much it went for, but they did say that it was one of the few auction items that had multiple bids! That makes me feel good!

Thanks everyone for stopping by and taking a peek into my carving world!

I'm late to the party here but I do want to say I am loving this piece!! Rock On Jim!

Nice carve Poly!

I did a couple of American Indian pieces a long time ago and I found that it didn't seem all that much different than what we usually do.

Let's see more!

Dude, Sweet!!!

Howdy!
It’s been a while since my last post and thought I would throw up a few images of some of the tikis I’ve done since 2009!

We’ll start way back at my donation for Mariepalooza, I carved this one from a 4x4 redwood scrap:

Backside:

The tiki was based on the tiki from the awesome flier Doug Horne put together for the event. Anybody know who got it?

Next we’ll head over to a mask that I donated to another fund raiser:

The mask you may have seen before, I carved it a while ago basing it on the face of the tiki that graces the grounds of the Hanalei hotel in San Diego. I thought it needed a frame and I think it looks much better.

Next up, we have two Hawaiian based tikis. I’m not sure if I ever shared this one, but I carved it a while ago for my neighbor. He wanted to keep it without stain, so it would turn that cool light grey color as it weathered outdoors.

The second Hawaiian style tiki I’ve shared before, but not in it’s finished state:

I’m honored that this one was added to the collection of two well-known tikicentralites.

This is a sign I made for the Gilligans Island art show a ways back:

I’m (very) slowly moving into the direction of carving more signs, rather than the big palm tikis. I’m not sure what happened to this piece.

I still make lights on occasion, and this is the most recent style that I’ve been working on:

I call this one my “Beachcomber” lamps.

I had the pleasure and honor of carving and casting the official event pendant for the incredible Rincon Room’s Adventure in Paradise party:

This was a really fun and challenging pendant for me to do. It was the first time that I casted pendants with negative space (the opening between the arms). I think it came out looking pretty swanky. Each one is hand painted and has twine around the base. I think I only made 50 of these.

These next couple of shots are of the most recent things I’ve completed. The first is a tangaroa style table lamp.

He’s carved from a 4x4 redwood scrap with a redwood scrap base. As he is the fisherman’s god, I carved fish on the side of the base (can’t see that in the pictures), and put some fishing netting in his hands (with little cork floats!) as though he was about to enter the water to catch dinner. I also thought it would be neat to add a “glass” fishing float to the net and make it light up! Here’s a closup of the lighted fishing float:

The lighted fishing float is on a separate circuit from the main lamp and has a battery powered LED in it that can be turned on and off from a switch in the back.

The last photo is a work in progress photo of my new carving space:

My wife and I bought our first house about a year ago and we are finally just settling in. Boxes are finally gone and the garage is getting a proper tiki makeover, as is our guest bedroom and yard (which is currently all concrete that will be removed very soon!). It’s slow going, but it will be done eventually.

Mahalo for peeking in and be on the lookout for this years tiki holiday ornaments right after thanksgiving!

Wow great update! Everything is looking awesome. And congrats on the new house...post some pics of the TIKI makeover when complete!

Crazy good stuff!!

Nice Mr. Jim, Nice!

Have always enjoyed your carving style - great stuff!

& I am LOVING that lamp with the little light up fish float!!! All kinds of AWESOME!

All top notch work Jim.

You've got one of my favorite carving styles, and I've always admired your work.
A taste of classic "Kona Style" carving and a real eye for finishing, which gives your work a wonderful aged look.

Great variety in your pieces, and great sign work! I have always enjoyed making signs also, they are a nice break from carving idols, and don't take up as much room when you're working on them!

The Tangaroa lamp is really something special. Not only a well carved idol, but the addition of the light up float is awesome. A well thought out "theme" piece that is so much more then just a tiki.

Congrats on the house, and have fun with all the remodel work! Looking forward to your future work!

Nice work. They all look good but that lamp kicks ass.

Very much like the castings Polynesiac-that seems like it would be a fun process. I have to agree with the rest the fisherman lamp is a 10.

Simply Brilliant Works....All of them!

Thanks for sharing and Welcome back!

Mahalo

McTiki

wow man!

very cool!

that little tiki bar deal you've got going is killer.

Beautiful stuff! I especially love those lamps!

Good to see you back!

Aloha and Mahalo for stopping by!

It's been a long while since I shared and I'm happy to talk about any of my carvings or designs. I try to pop onto TC as often as I can, but I don't leave as many comments as I should. I will try and start doing that again soon. I do miss the camaraderie and swapping of ideas of fellow carvers/creators!

I'm excited with how the tang lamp turned out. It was a long process to figure out the little globe and the wiring for it, but in the end it was worth the effort and a great and fun learning experience. I feel like every time I make something I need to challenge myself somehow and it makes the process of creating a little longer, but usually always worth it!

Nixxon - thank you very much! We're stoked to finally own a place and do what we want with it. I've been lurking the home bar and vintage tiki lounge threads coming up with ideas. We'll see what happens, but I'll definitely post the end results as they come!

Thanks Keylo!

JT - whythankyouverymuch!

Creo67 - thanks for the comments and for supporting my work!

Lake - wow, that's quite a nice comment coming from such an excellent artist as yourself and not only well respected in the tiki community, but also around my house! I totally want to buy every carving you make! Thank you very much and remember, next time you're in so cal, we're going beachcombing!

Seagoat - Thanks buddy!

cy - thank you very much. the AIP carving was an interesting and fun one to cast. I didn't think it was going to work, but turned out really neat in the end

Mc - Thanks, friend! Good to hear from you and it's nice to be back, hopefully doing more tiki work than house maintenance on the weekend (like plumbing!)

pjc5150 - thank you! I'm super excited about the garage work space. At my old rental I did all my work either outside or in the laundry room. It's nice to have a place to store all my tools and materials and have some space for an inspiration area too! (that's coming behind the bamboo fence!) Stay tuned!

Zero - thank you! I'm digging the carved table lamps right now!

aloha - Mahalo! Thank you for peeking and for the warm welcome!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner!

Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2012-04-26 13:04 ]

Great collection Polynesiac...really enjoy the "rincon" pendants..good to see you back at it.

Really Sweet Stuff Poly-Dude, that lamp is really Cool. Glad to see you haven't lost your touch.

Woooo, glad to see veterans coming back for more!!!!!
Yeah that lamp is really sweeeeet...the LED bulb makes it total eye candy!

Nice work, braddah!!! Been too long since ya made a showing. Keep it going with the showings, cuz it sho' is good!

great stuff here!

Cool rope effect on the bases, nice lamps too.
G

Aloha friends and thank you so much for the kind words about my carvings and for the bibbidy, bibbidy bump!!

Now that I'm here, I'll through up a few tikis I've been working on:

First up are the first two carvings in my RESPECT series, paying homage to the amazing carvers of the 50's and 60's, where I get much of my design inspiration from. Both are lamps and carved from recycled redwood

Ellis (Homage to Richard Ellis - carver of MANY tikis around so cal, including Don the Beachcombers and Trade Winds)

Buma (Homage to Andres Bumatay - carved for Sven's Contemporary Idol show at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs)

The next lamp is a Hawaiian style and called "Ao" - which is hawaiian for "light"

The last lamp I've been working on was also carved for Sven's Contemporary Idol show at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs and is based on the traditional slit drums from Ambrym. It's called, appropriately, "Ambrym"

Still working on the garage workshop, and now I've started on the back yard too. At the rate I'm going, I should be done in a few years!

Thanks again everyone!

Looking good! I like the Ao

OMG! McTiki needs a new lamp!

Those are stellar Poly!

Lovin the Buma lamp!

Nice to have you back sir!

Mahalo

McTiki

wow! really like that last lamp.

Love this "Respect" series, Excellent works.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the compliments, they keep me going! Lamps are in fact for sale, if anyone is interested. I just haven't gotten around to putting them on my Etsy store yet.

Ben - thanks, my friend, the respect series is long overdue and there is quite a list of carvers I need to "thank". Lots of great artists out there, both past and present that are inspirational!

I've been spending a bit of time decorating my garage workspace "Inspiration Point". If you are interested in seeing some progress pics, I've posted a few teaser shots over in "Home Tiki Bars"

Here's the link to my Inspiration Point post.

Thanks for looking and more in a bit!

Thought I would share a PNG carving I did recently. This is my first foray into the art of shield carving and I based mine (actually pretty much copied the design) from Meyer's oceanic art book. This is based on the Solomon shield carved from wood. Mine is routed/carved from a recycled shelf that was in our collections room down at the aquarium. I painted it with water based acrylic and paint pens, and stained with a nice water based stain. I forget what color. Walnut, probably.

Here it is:

Thanks for looking!

Poly that is just beautiful. What others are in the works? Your art always looks authentic and with exotic twists thrown in. Very nice!

Mahalo

McTiki

Nice foray! I'll someday do the same! Great to see a veteran still here and posting!

Nice indeed,you did a great on both the carving and the colors. Polynesiac
is back!

Thanks for stopping by, friends! It's good to be carving a little here and there between other projects and that little thing that gets in the way of fun building stuff called work.

Thanks for the kind words, mctiki! More lamps in the "respect" series...I think Leroy will be next.

Surfin I'm looking forward to seeing what cool carvings you'll produce when you do a PNG shield!

Conga - you are Mr. PNG in my book, so I appreciate your comments. you and Lake have been producing so many beautiful PNG carvings, I just had to try my hand at a few. Glad you like this one!

I enjoyed using the router to carve and have a few posts to design for my backyard. Hopefully I'll get to them in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for looking!

Nice one! I see you're from the 'if it's wood carve it' school as well. I've got something made from an old bookshelf knocking around too, will post it sometime...