Conga....Wisconsin stuff!

Thanks for stopping-in Clarita, Jerome and Benzo. You guys are giving me
a nice nudge to get this smiley fella all finished up. I started him before
hearing about the "bird" art swap. I still have a month and a half to
build a bird that can be more affordably shipped :)

Gonna try something a little different with this guy (REALLY?) and use a bit
of white-wash on the eyes, a bit of burning, stain, and, even a little paint on
the bird. Should be fun for all ages.....stay tuned....pictures at 11.

Its almost 11:00 Yard looks like a jungle there. Fits well with this carve.

More goodies from the Northwoods!

Nice carve Conga!

Loving the Summer here this year... a real one for a change!

Hope things are cooking up North for you... gonna be a hot 2 weeks coming up!

Better then snow!

Hey...thanks Seeks and LakeSurfer. Beautiful weather up here in
Wisconsin...making some headway with the png-bird piece


Still have to do a bit of sanding betwixt the legs...and
then it's "fun with paint."

Conga drums up another winner here...all I can say regarding this latest carving is HOLY SHIT!!

Lovin' it, man - Lovin' it! Can't wait to see it painted. G

Looking good. I see you are just teasing us again.

Mahalo TikiG and Seeksurf, and everyone. No more teasing here,
just a little shadow test

Close-up of invasive bird

And finished, or almost finished, with a couple coats of tung oil

Thanks for visiting up here at Conga's joint.

Beautiful, exotic, and well... beautiful!! Congatiki strikes again red hot :)

sweet!

Nice finish Conga!

Love the colors!

Keep on carving and enjoying this great summer weather!

Such a wonderful style you have, this guy is totally lovable, my day is so much better now, thanks :)

Sweet!!!

Taht is a really cool idea incorperateing birds!

Right On conga! looking very exotic!

Much thanks to kind friends TikiG, Johnny, LakeS, Clarita,
Hodad, TikiGodz and Seeks. This was a fun one, based on a big-white-
eyed PNG mask that I stumbled upon in research.

And Clarita, I love you, your comments alone would keep me carving away:-)
Anytime I can make you smile is a good day.

Another one-of-a-kind Conga classic! Great work!

Thanks Surfintiki, appreciate your kind words.

Been pretty quiet up here in northern Wisconsin, other than banging on
drums..."dirty hippie" style as Lucas Vigor would say. The un-mentionable
happened...I ran out of wood.

That is only a temporary set-back however, and Conga will be back to slinging
chisels very soon.

Peace out everyone!

Hello everyone from the northwoods. Finally got my hands on some
nice wood. Got a chunk of cherry from a friend and after a couple
weeks of squinting I decided to turn it into something. This is
tiki inspired and i call it "Longears."



The other recent project is my first real "relief carving." This one
is Blasters inspired...."American Music."

Gonna get a fresh supply of wood soon for fall carvings....I am
hoping to get something BIG.
Peace to all...especially GMan.

Holy Cow Conga, This last piece is Awesome, where did you learn to do that??

Thx Conga. Much unrest here.

thanks Ben.....I learned it from YOU of course. Just basic implementation of
hook knife skills applied to a flat surface. Gotta looooong way to go before I
can call myself a relief carver. But I HAVE carved some tikis....so that's a relief!

GMan...thanks for stopping by.....don't loose too much weight or you will fade away
into the night!

Nice wood conga. Did you find that the moai was a tough carve?

:D I'm doing it again.

Great start on the relief carving Conga! Looks like you really managed to get a lot of depth in there. I like the long ear too. Really cool. Here's hoping you find some new logs soon!

i love the grain

Hey thanks everyone.
Jungle Trader---a lot tougher to dig into than my old standby basswood,
but still not too bad.
Amate---keep smiling my friend---makes it all worthwhile on this end.
BigT---thanks for the props on the relief carv---I have a long way to go but it's
a start. Really fun to achieve some depth in an inch of wood.
and Grand Poobah---just finished a medium stain on "longears"---really
makes the grain pop. Hoping--if all goes well---to post a couple of finished
pics tonight.

Here we are...



Originally planned much more detail for this guy, but I heard
a soft voice telling me to "stop".
I have a few ideas to incorporate the carving into a larger
piece of wall art. We'll see :)

Love the guitar player, now finish the band? The Moai Head is Beautiful and that grain is Awesome, especially after the finish. Excellent stuff from that up north place.

Right on Conga!

I always love the variety and creativity of work coming from your neck of the woods!

Can you feel it? The seasons are starting to change. What a great summer though, and here's to hoping the 'Ol Man stays away a little longer this fall!

Keep up the good work my fellow Dairylander!

The bigger pic really shows off the finish a lot better. It's like glass! Is that a wax finish?

Hello friends....

Glad you like the "guitar" carving Ben....full band huh? Well it's only a
four-piece so that might be a possibility. Going to start another relief
carving tonight, something much more "tiki" related. Hope to have something
to show by the end of the week.

Thanks Lakesurfer! You are definitely the "lead man" in the Wisconsin
tiki world, and your compliments are always appreciated. By the way, I saw
the "Foundation Bar" article on the Journal-Sentinel website, your outrigger
of Marqs was the first thing I noticed. Been pretty steamy up here the last
few weeks so I'm welcoming fall, beautiful time of the year up here.

BigT....good eye....I did use a furniture wax on the small Moai. Gives it a
classy sheen without using a poly coat. Should be able to get more of the
cherry wood....hoping I can land a nice big chunk.

On 2010-08-23 14:19, congatiki wrote:
BigT....good eye....I did use a furniture wax on the small Moai. Gives it a
classy sheen without using a poly coat. Should be able to get more of the
cherry wood....hoping I can land a nice big chunk.

oh ok, cool. you mastered the wax finish for sure. I have some of the Howard's Feed-n-Wax I've been thinking about using on one of mine.

It's just me or "Longears" have some Petri genes? :) nice, me like!

Thanks Clarita....they say owners eventually look like their dogs....I
think tiki's too!

Will have something new soon....

Wow Conga! A lot of great and inspired stuff in this thread. I really like the variety.

yo conga...like the carve and your little dog too....he looks like alice cooper ......ha ha ha ha

great work man

Thanks a lot Finky...and Creative Chimp (Alice Cooper, huh? I always thought she looked like
Frank Zappa.)
Well....the big news up here is FOOTBALL but I have had a little time to whittle out a mask
while I wait for BIG WOOD.
a few progress pics for your perusal



Not sure where this is going, but it's always fun to be chizzlin'.
Have a great sunday...and.....GO COLTS!

Yo, Conga, I Loved how this guy turned out and I'm Happy you didn't overload him with details and the finish is Supurb.

Alos I'm liking your new guy and having fun trying to figure out how many eyes he has? :o :P

Interesting looking new guy, i'll wait to see where it goes too :)

:tiki:

Thanks Benz, Clarita and Amate, and anyone else who may have popped in over here.
Well, still alive up here, but also still hunting for big wood.

I did finish up this little wall-hangy thing

It's made from one-half of an 18 inch chunk of basswood that was splitting,
the little feller on the right is a progress pic of the other chunk...

I'm also attempting another relief carving, but I chucked it aside for a few weeks

I love fall in Wisconsin, but I don't have much time for evening carving anymore,
gets dark too early. So I'm starting to mess-up the Conga Lounge

And that's about it for now, thanks for checking in. What have you
all been up to?

I like the two tone stain. When I first saw the unfinished photos, he looked chrome. Is the dark stain English Chestnut?

Wow, I'm so jelous! Lookin' NICE!

On 2010-09-30 05:22, congatiki wrote:
So I'm starting to mess-up the Conga Lounge

Looks immaculate to me!

Nice work Conga.
Buzzy Out!

Thanks Amate, Finkdaddy and Buzzy.
Amate, the stain is Cabbot dark walnut. I've used it on several pieces over the years,
generally seems to give me what I expect. The top finish is always 3-4 coats of tongue oil.

Nice to see you around here a little more Finkdaddy, we all missed your highly creative
little projects :)

Buzzy, you should re-name yourself "Bay Park Bizzy" cuz you are the busiest carver around.
I'm honored that you found the time to take a peek.

I don't know that this little feller is going to be a recognizable "tiki." I'm already
afraid to push my thinking on him, I might have a problem on my hands.

At any rate, Conga's Little Pissed Off Fella

On 2010-10-04 17:00, congatiki wrote:
At any rate, Conga's Little Pissed Off Fella

I think he's angry that summer is over... :lol:

Or because he really wanted to go to the toilet... :roll:

Nah!!! So cool carve as usual Conga... Lot of character on this.

J.

Hi BigT and Laojia, good guesses. I think he's just so excited about the Badgers
game against Ohio State that he could almost pee.

For those outside of mid-America, just another football game we get excited about.