Crazy AL Tiki !?! New stuff of old stuff? pg.19

On 2009-04-20 22:18, crazy al wrote:
bit more work... on "the Kellector: Mug-a-mania"
The 'Flordilea' and these Shamrocks on each shoulder are a tribute to Kelly's Husband who has helped just a bit... or put up with the 'mania'.

the abalone pedicure goes with the 'HooHa' for lack of a better word.

It was Don-o-mania Saturday Night at Tiki Yakie's Don the Beachcomber's Revival. There's about $700 or so in the eye-sockets and chest...DTB originals!! glad most the crowd had no clue....


wish i had better shots... was to much fun to take pitchers

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-04-20 22:24 ]

** AWESOME Tiki Crazy Al! Rob Reilly was pretty stoked once he saw the tiki in the real life. Rob is not very familiar with tiki at all but I could tell that night he was feeling like a proud daddy :) He met lots of people that night and was able to put faces with the names, not a easy task as most of us go by at least 2 names.
I cant take my eyes off of her Al, shes one hell of a gal that #155 and she still got some work to go. With #155 being so family oriented I'm in ah of the fact that this Tiki will be around for generations to come. But for now, this year, I look forward to getting my add-on room done and bringing her home. It's kind of like paper dolls or tiki dress up it's going to be fun to continually rotate mugs with-in her "dress to impress" for what ever the occasion might be. So many choices!
Thank You Al, This is with out a doubt one of my life's greatest pleasures.

Can you bring him to another Coon Tiki?

Servus Al, nice to see your new work. Hope you are doing well! It´s time for a bahia cannonball session. :)
Today, I met Joe at Munich for a Rum Runner and we had a nice rememberance on our last Hukilau pool party. :)
Greetings from Bavaria, Haikai

AL,I started of as Watango but I threw in the productions in Homage
to you. You truly are a river to your people:tiki:Watango

[ Edited by: Watango productions 2009-04-25 03:10 ]

You keep showing us why You are The BEST!

some new ones for the back yard.....

CrazyAL Tiki #157 "Two to Four Face" was a request to see this tiki from the back as well as front since it's location in the backyard would be center, seen from the deck as well as out the back door. I know there were some Shag mugs produced recently with this interlocking Marquasian faces. I actually have in a box for the last 11 years a drawing of an interlocking Tongan face design on a piece of Yucca i never sculpted. I sent the client a Hawaiian design that was just less interesting then the Marquasian which lent itself to being seen from four sides.







Another 'quickie' CrazyAL Tiki #157 "Akua Kai PV"
This client found the Hawaiian Tiki online Akua Kai the Ocean God.
after carving i found this image
Since he owns a boat and spear fishes often, he thought this tiki would be better then the 'Tiki-ish' ones he liked on my site.


Palm talk: this is a queen palm 'old growth' that had to be cut do to trunk rot.
Queen i believe is in the coconut family and the outer two inches can be polished to look like coconut wood. Even unpolished it patinas quite well.

However the inside can be to soft to carve. 'Old growth' dense trees are the better carving... check out how oxidied the 'raw' wood got while I let is sit for a week or two before sanding and finish up... this tree was cut long ago, but the wood was as wet as a ever.


however, full sun will bleach anything suck as the top turned white... these cracks are typical for queen, but this old growth prevented them from going very deep... we've had our moist SoCal June, so maybe the cracking will not get to crazy.

The week of the initial carve, Akua Kai Palos Verdes did it's job... an excited client sent these photos taken just off the cliff from his residence in the background!


Go! Little Akua Kai PV!!

always skeptical of "Hawaiian Tiki Names" i found this out... Akua Kia is Hawaiin for God-Sea... and is attributed to the figure i worked off found on most Tiki-super-stores online...
however there is not much info for Akua Kai but there is for KANALOA

KANALOA was a god of the ocean, and certain types of healing, crafts and other cultural practices.
KANALOA represented a state of total confidence, or what in modern terms could be called "inner authority." In Hawaiian culture, hair is a symbol of thought. On this KANALOA figure the hair is piled high on top and extends all the way to the ground. This symbolizes the integration of imagination and memory, or the integration of body, mind and spirit.
http://www.sergeking.com/HAM/kanaloa.html

Kanaloa was responsible for the southern Pacific Ocean and as such was god of seamen and lord of fishermen.
http://www.paulwaters.com/gods.htm

In the mythology of old Hawaii, Kanaloa was the god of the ocean, a healer god, and the close companion of Kane, the god of creation. They would journey together, share the sacred drink of 'awa, and use their staves to strike the ground and cause springs of fresh water to burst forth. Rare statues of Kanaloa feature him with round eyes,
http://www.huna.org/html/ekanaloa.html

Kanaloa, like Kahoali‘i, is also associated with the underworld, as in the chant in which Hawaii is spoken of as "fished up from the very depths of Kanaloa."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/hm/hm07.htm

refered to as this image... thanks to the missionaries... who knows!

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-06-24 08:57 ]

two to four
say no more,brah!

Excellent tiki with all four compass points!
and "Akua Kai PV" !
a nice stocky lono for a change!

high caliber as always,Al!

Is that Queen Palm still in the ground? Both are excellent.

Wow! And also, Wow! Incredible work. And the Four Face is just out of this world. Very inspiring Al, thanks!

Excellent Al! 2 side tiki love it'

all your work is so amazing...!
I looove "the Kellector: Mug-a-mania", very very cool concept, design, execution, pedicure... everything about him is spectacular!...

On 2009-06-23 23:41, crazy al wrote:

always skeptical of "Hawaiian Tiki Names" i found this out... Akua Kia is Hawaiin for God-Sea... and is attributed to the figure i worked off found on most Tiki-super-stores online...
however there is not much info for Akua Kai but there is for KANALOA

KANALOA was a god of the ocean, and certain types of healing, crafts and other cultural practices.

KANALOA And TANGAROA are two spelling for the same deity. Although the images of the two tiki may look different, many of the legends are the same throughout polynesia. The Hawaiian language doesn't use the letters T G and R. Replacing them with the K and the L you get Kanaloa.

Nice carves, I like the four way Marq better than the devolved super-store Kanaloa, both are killer. Thanks for posting the pics.

thanks for the info... like a word puzzle that was pretty easy to see, but i was never good at the word games... hated that 'wheel of fortune'

The Bishop Hawaiian sculpture book does not assign names to the images.... probably knowing the true knowledge was lost long ago.

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-06-25 10:04 ]

just got my tiki mag! pretty exciting to see and read about my 2 tikis. i'm working on my tiki room now. i'll cut a 7" section of a palm log i have that's the same diameter as the tikis. it'll go between the tikis and i'll wrap it in tapa or something. then vantiki's trepanning accident skull mug goes in teethgrabbers mouth. the totem will go from the floor to the ceiling.

that's bosko the puppy checking it out.

Hey al,As you know your my hero..that was a great article..mahalo mahalo mahalo..I wish i could say more but im at a loss for words, Your the greatest...all time..
Bullet that sounds like a great idea..Im glad mines on top where it belongs..hahaha j/k

Thanks Al for posting the creative impressions that your talented hands create. It has inspired me and many others to push past the standard and really try to achieve something greater.....

You style and creative use of shadows has truly sparked a creative fire with me... Thank you and please post more as you create...

Hey Great carving, and good article. I forgot that I carved you the skull stack necklace. Another weird evolution/ recreation of the skull stack in the very same issue of Tiki Mag is from the featured Tiki Room at Alan and Michael's.

Alan had seen my stacked skull necklace that was inspired by your piece originally. And he wanted stacked skulls on either side of the mirror in his Tiki bar. Thanks for all the inspiration! It was 10 years ago that I saw my first Crazy Al necklace while visiting family in HB... I can still remember the detail in that necklace. I had no money at the time (I was 18) and I think because I couldn't buy it, I went on to carve my own when I got home. I just kept picturing this "CRAZY" Al person whittling under some palm tree on some remote island, and singing to himself.... I wasn't that far off!

dayum Al, i have having night sweats worrying about getting to TO-9 and finding ur surfer-tiki hook sold-out! hopefully i will sell something in time to git the last one!

congrats on ANOTHER amazing carve.

THANKS ALL!! Kirb? you keep making stuff! and it gets better! Tony!! i wanted to write about Alan's post to, but TM brought the hammer down on my long winded writing... Wish they could have put in the progression of Ken's Cannibals as the skull obsession multiplied.

AND KING-T THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!!

got to post on Kelly's piece and more 'back yard' tikis!! been carving!

after Oasis.........

been getting the carving on this summer...staring with #157 'Akua Kai PV'

what do you get if you have a potted plant holder that is an old growth queen palm stump ??

CrazyAL Tiki #159 'Kaneokekai'



My fisherman client had another stump to grace the pool area. After explaining to him that Marquasian tikis are ancestor based, he told me this "My Dad was given the name of Kaneokekai by a native Hawaiian elder in the sixties. It means "man of the sea"....He went on to name all of his boats Kaneokekai and it's what we plan to name this tiki ." So Tiki#159 became a tribute tiki.


Queen palm sure is pur'dy... this tree was real dense even though the dark resin cords were not pack together very tightly. It made for dramatic effects!

Here is a lesson in carving. I spent about 3 hours just drawing out the Marquasis design because i wanted to get a very symmetrical carving in a great piece of wood....

Tiki #160 is called the "2 Hour Tiki" !!

strangely enough, this guy turned out very symmetrical..?

back story:
a client had a tree dropped at their place of work... Hey AL? do you think you could carve this?? it's kinda big and in the bed of my truck... I thought maybe, I'd have to take a look...come to find out after sometime and the logs 50 mile trip to Bamboo Ben's parking lot pool party... that the thing weighed 1100 lbs!! my worst fear! since I own no heavy equipment!! well, we could slide it into my truck I bet, since the 'showing end' seemed carvable... 500 lbs into my truck I can tell the 'hidden end' was uncarvable... 1100 of water not wood??... now what?... I took the log, but I knew I did not want to think of unloading it (having already damaged my truck before with logs)... and my suspension was maxed! Danny Diablo said go slow, just don't hit a bump... right... I thought there is only one way to know if there is any carvable wood in this log and I did have to get some weight out of my truck!...

a 7ft log was now a 4ft log but still not of a good density...hmmm??...

one way to find out if I could carve it, and remove more weight!

so much for a swim w/ TCers... thank God that Ben had a chainsaw on hand!!




the walls to the bed of my truck kind of gave me a good guide-line and created the symmetry..
THREE BEARDED FELLOWS...

lesson two: Location Location Location
same basic carve in soft wood, but it took 6 hrs instead of 2!!

perched on a steep embankment

10-12 feet in the air... hmmm? flip flops on an extension ladder with a chainsaw! speed is an issue...

the wood was to wet and hairy to draw on so a drew with the chainsaw, which I do normally with budget restraints. I also knew the wood of this immature Canary Islands palm would be if'fy at best, so i was not going for a master-piece.


the bark/wood was so wet that I could ring out the shavings like a dish towel.
but a good carving was had as wet wood holds together! and there would be no direct sunlight on the North-face, so cracking should not be massive... let us hope!!

by the way, note to carvers... This summer's 'stump' carving cemented an idea that I've formed that palms have a 'Sunny side' to them... palms regularly have one side that carves much nicer then the other side because of the density of the wood. I knew it was a water problem, but I wondered if this was do to the log laying down horizontal and gravity taking effect after it was cut... OR? was one side of the tree 'baked' by the sun while growing... Well? every stump this summer had it's sunny side denser then its other side! Ha!
This stump was a great example as the 'shady side' almost dripped water.

You've got to love the backyard homes of these tikis! the client did the landscaping him self... nice!!

lesson 3: this carve was near SanDiego, i carved 6 hrs but was away from my home/studio for 12! talk about Billable time issue...

Lesson 4!! I forgot to 'WD-40' Ben's chain-saw blade after carving such wet wood... ooops.... it got kind-da rusty and don't move so good now....

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-08-31 07:42 ]

Some awesome stuff happening here Al! Great work all around.

Al, Love to see you post your work here as you're Still the BEST in My book. Every piece you carve is another treasured bit of Art for the Tiki World to see and admire. Love your Stuff Man!

nice article in the Tiki Mag!! I see you started carving the tiki about the same age I did... that was great to learn!! there is hope for me yet!!!

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-08-31 07:21 ]

Wow Al, I LUVS ME SOME Kaneokekai! Inspirational!!!

Your cuts are so crisp and deep. Always a pleasure when you share your work!

Always love your carvings Al, but number 159 is really really really purdy.
Is it remotely possible that even YOU are getting better?

AL although I love your carvings between your bare feet and your flip flops I am concerned for your toe safety! Good thing you know how to work a chainsaw :wink:

Nice pics - great tips. Thanks!

On 2009-08-31 10:49, congatiki wrote:
Always love your carvings Al, but number 159 is really really really purdy.
Is it remotely possible that even YOU are getting better?

Thanks!! Those are very kind words, but really, it's just taken ten years to find a person here and there that will pay for the crispy niceness... other wise I'm screwing off doing everything but carving... so not a lot gets made.... 159 was a sold chunk and i put a little extra elbow grease into it on top of what the client asked for, thanks for noticing!

You a sick mo-fo! The carves are looking incredible.

Al! I swear I just saw one of your tikis in a scene from the DVD MILK. Harvey Milk's being interviewed with Josh brolin and Milk's ex-boyfriend is watching it on TV . They pan slowly across his apartment to reveal a sqwinty eyed tapa lipped tiki that is either yours or a copy of your style. Can you confirm???

C'Al, simply the best!

Rocking the summer of '09, Al!

Nice chops!

Good to see ya at Oasis this year, keep up the stoke!

#159 'Kaneokekai'
solid squat
a bunch of mana squooozed into that lil stump!
Too cool!

Chainsaw carving on a ladder with flip-flops!?!?!?!?
you ARE crazy,Al!

Bump!!!

Well, I always say Happy Birthday! a day late so it doesn't get lost with all the other accolades...
So, HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY!! to The Third APE Tiki and the First Palm Wood Tiki carved for APE on 9-18-99!!!!

http://tikimania.com/docs/bt_ape3.html
The FIRST palm wood tiki was carved ten years ago yesterday!! and to commemorate I whacked out MINI_APE!

another replica for the CrazyAL Gallery Line of mugs!! An APE Shot! first of many I hope....



LIMITED TO 50!! then I brake the mold!
to get this guy looking right, but functional! I gave him a bit more on the top end

then I started whacking at it!! with a 'blade' that was about the same size-proportion as the axe that almost 'competently' sculpted the original! ten years to the day.

my hope was to finish the face in the same amount of time the original set lasted at 'Planet Tiki'! Otto's first major official tiki-event!! about 30 some minutes!! then because they were running late.. frick'in Otto pulled the plug on APE in the middle of a song... or at least as we started a song... we wanted to finish our planed set! and I, my tiki. as it was I basically finished!

and was able to put about 9-12 detail 'chisel' marks before being booted....!

The back of the mini-sculpt took twice, if not four times, as long to sculpt a pretty decent representation of the actual palm tree bark texture...

The full story of these first two guys will be in the winter issue of tiki magazine... till then, I'm going APE taking a shot! at APE-3!!

[ Edited by: crazy al 2009-11-11 08:22 ]

Great representation of that tiki.. Its strange to see you take a Tiki that realy doesnt have alot of detail and sculpt a mini version that looks exactly the same, but actually has a ton of detail...awesome work as always, dude..By the way this guy looks a little small for a mug,is it a shot glass or a pendant?

It says "Ape Shot", Kirbs.

On 2009-09-19 12:56, crazy al wrote:
Well, I always say Happy Birthday! a day late so it doesn't get lost with all the other accolades...
So, HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY!! to The Third APE Tiki and the First Palm Wood Tiki carved for APE on 9-18-99!!!!

http://tikimania.com/docs/bt_ape3.html
The FIRST palm wood tiki was carved ten years ago yesterday!! and to commemorate I whacked out MINI_APE!

another replica for the CrazyAL Gallery Line of mugs!! An APE Shot! first of many I hope....



LIMITED TO 50!! then I brake the mold!
to get this guy looking right, but functional! I gave him a bit more on the top end

then I started whacking at it!! with a 'blade' that was about the same size-proportion as the axe that almost 'competently' sculpted the original! ten years to the day.

my hope was to finish the face in the same amount of time the original set lasted at 'Planet Tiki'! Otto's first major official tiki-event!! about 30 some minutes!! then because they were running late.. frick'in Otto pulled the plug on APE in the middle of a song... or at least as we started a song... we wanted to finish our planed set! and I, my tiki. as it was I basically finished!

and was able to put about 9-12 detail 'chisel' marks before being booted....!

The back of the mini-sculpt took twice, if not four times, as long to sculpt a pretty decent representation of the actual palm tree bark texture...

The full story of these first two guys will be in the winter issue of tiki magazine... till then, I'm going APE taking a shot! at APE-3!!

Ha, I thought he was sayin here is a shot(pic),my bad!!

i wasn't too sure on the big one, i was thinking 'this from crazy al?' but the little one is really pretty awesome even tho its the same thing, crazy.

You just have to remember,Crazy Al carved the original while onstage dancing around like a nut,carving to the beat of the music with an ax or chisel and in only 30 minutes, realy amazing to see in person..When is Apes next show??

APE's next show??? Hmmm.. we're regrouping the troop so stay tuned for future gigs.... that's all i can say right now.

Thanks for the description Kirb! i'd add that this was my first palm on-stage carving... i learned a huge deal with this first one... i have to get back to writing about it... but i'll tell you this... PALM BARK absorbs sound like a sponge, i guess since it it a sponge more or less... not good if your supposed to be drumming along to a loud amplified band.... in front of 800 some people!

Well... they don't call you Crazy Al for nothing! The artistic ability to mimic the original, down to the very imperfections and details of the palm bark is fantastic. The artistic control to not render Ape Shot to a level of what it could've/should've been is staggering. A great homage for a 10th anniversary!

Pupule Tiki!

[ Edited by: TikiMango 2009-09-19 14:58 ]

WOW.

Just tuning in to this thread.

Holy crap.....I'm speechless.

Thank you Crazy AL.

I am truly inspired.

Amazing stuff man.

Happy BirthDay Ape, Al, Carving or whoever the b-day was really 4.
Cool stuff but what took you so long,,30 minutes? could've done it in 20 at last! :o
Where did I hear you had a Bone carving in the works?.....? :)

there once was a grove of eight trees

who's shade made a nice cool breeze.
But the stand of logs, made it tempting to carve these dawgs
and a deleting could be the need...

So out came the cutter to please

to enjoy the last of the shade and the breeze.
With a rip and slash as he went, little time was all spent
for the blank canvas one now sees.

Face book gallery of Tikis #162-65:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=24272&id=1485764506
if you ever want to make friends... just carve tikis on the street! folks love it... gets you in the paper too!

http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_13781691?source=rv
they also put up a gallery on-line...
http://presstelegram.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=888066&CategoryID=28570&ListSubAlbums=0

Al you are the coolest tiki carver I don't know.

[ Edited by: drasticwagon 2009-11-27 18:46 ]

Dontcha love that free press. Cool stuff "lazy Al Strikes again"!
Well Don C'Al, I Know how you love performing in front of the Audience and they Really got their moneys worth this time. Those are some Awesome tikis.