TikiMango's Carvings- P31, Bone Hawaiian Tapa Hook

Bad-ass!

More chunky than many of your pendants and full of energy and pretty dramatic. I like this one a lot. G

VERY cool! Good choice on the mahogany, it has a beautiful color, plus it's different!

WoW!

Great Mango work!!! :o

J.

Awesome work!

Killer stuff, dude!

Agreed, wonderful new ones, the wood inlay looks perfect!

Too good !!!

Everything looks great. Im hooked after lookin at your work.

Going to buy a bone in the morning :P

Keep up the good work~

A big MAHALO to everyone for the super nice comments: TikiG, 4WDtiki, surfintiki, laojia, McTiki, GROG, Clarita, amate, Jazzy Josh! It's always great when you peeps stop by.

I attended a "killer" Halloween party last night, paying for it this morning. (~~) Perhaps a hangover is the perfect thing to get one focused on carving? Hmm, probably not. :) This one started off very different than how it fished up. I wasn't planning to do the paua "wings" they just sort of happened on their own.

It was a nice challenge to get the patterns on the shell to match.

That red in the paua is just my red t-shirt reflecting in it.

I inset both pieces from the sides, it's not one piece going through the whole thing... or is it?

Sort of looks like a space ship to me from this angle.

Exceptional piece Ray!!!! You need a Halloween party per weeks... :roll:

J.

The new pendant is pretty damn cool, Ray. It reminds me of some sort of insignia - an emblem for a secret society perhaps? :wink: The paua shell symmetry and matching patterns really kick the pendant into high orbit.

I'm happy to see you've returned to your chosen art again after the hiatus from your workbench. Nice job.

On 2010-10-24 13:59, TikiMango wrote:
Sort of looks like a space ship to me from this angle.

:lol: My first thought was that it looked alien :lol:

Beautiful design and flawless execution Mango

Very interesting and pretty piece, that inlay seems very complicated, I'm glad that those wings happened on their own they look great!

Ray, that is so cool looking, what a design! It right away gave me the idea to do a White Shark tooth in that style. ...errr, maybe a spaceship!
I think it'd be hard for me to do the serrations on the Pau though. What's your source for your shell? Yours looks pretty thick compared to the stuff I get off ebay.
Sweeet! :drink:

Excellent stuff Mango Masher, now C'mon down and I'll give you a few hook blades, you'll have to get yer own handle though So,, c'mon Downnnn

I've been away for over a month! My how time flies. I wish I had a huge update, but I don't. To laojia, TikiG, MadDogMike, Clarita, surfintiki, and Benzart.... thank you all for the comments. Surfintiki, to answer your question, I know a couple of people that live in New Zealand, and was lucky enough to have been the recipient of a paua shell. It was so nerve wracking to cut that beautiful shell apart.

This was a horrible experiment with a tea stain. Benzart tells me he stays away from this sort of thing due to how fickle the bone can be. You hardly ever get an even stain in bone, and I've learned that you don't ever get the same results either.

This was a commission, no cord needed, but they wanted a hole for a jump ring.

I was really trying for a reddish stain, but for some reason on this piece of bone the color just wouldn't come through for me. On a lighter note, I am now the owner of a lazy susan for clay. I've been goofing off in polymer clay just to get used to tools and stuff. Not ready to post anything related to that. I need a lot of research in that medium. As always, mahalo!

Very cool hook Ray! As always...

nice work ray.......cool design too......always nice to see an update from you. glad your back

I see nothing wrong with the piece. It looks perfect the way it is. Well done brah! BTW, how'd you seperate the 2 tones? I've heard of using elmers glue on what you don't want stained then wash it off after staining but have never tried it. I wonder if smoking/smoke staining the piece would've acheived the look you were going for. Does anybody know how to smoke stain bone here on TC?

I've try tape and nothing to cover the non-stained area. The stain seems to seep under the tape. I was thinking nail polish, as Elmer's might come off during the staining process.

Looks Nice Mango, Nice try on the stain and like Coconutzo says its acceptable.
It's an Excellent looking Hook too!

Thank you all for the great comments.

This next piece was inspired by my middle school art teacher, Anne Funk. For a final grade she tied a drape into a knot and had me draw it. Simple graphite pencil and paper, it was a good challenge. The exercise has stuck with me for all these years, and it taught me a lot. I was hoping that I could apply the same lessons to bone.

So here's that piece...

it sort of folds over on itself like one of the twists I have done before...

I even played around on the backside...

and it looked pretty good in the right light.

What this little challenge taught me is that I need many more burrs in my arsenal, and sanding something like this can be a real pain!
:D

Thanks for looking!

How cool would it be if that teacher saw this!?!

Yes, I agree, you should send it to your teacher. This is really Excellent Mango, very inspired. I Love that last little flip around the back,, very sensual and free.

More!

4WDtiki and Benzart, thanks for the comments. I tried tracking my teacher down, but no luck. The school wouldn't give me her info, but I left mine.

Played my first soccer match in over 25yrs (county league, 18 & up) yesterday, my legs are reminding me I'm not 16 anymore! We lost 8-0, but we were wearing them down... another 60mins and I swear we would've scored a goal. I'm hoping next week ends in a 7-0 score, baby steps on improvement. So being as sore as I am today, I was trapped in the "studio" for a commission piece.

The customer wanted a hook similar to another I had previously done, but wanted a tapa pattern on it.

I think the tapa pattern lends itself well to engraving like this. I was tempted to try a stain, but I'll save that experiment for another day. Now I just need to figure out how to clean the polishing compound out of the nooks and crannies. My nylon brush wheel isn't doing the job, might have to switch over to needles or something.

Thanks for looking!

That's a real sweet piece, Mang! It's bold, and kinda bellbottomy, and the tapa works great on it!

Very nice work, Mango!!

The knot is one of your best so far that I've seen - pretty amazing

Love that Slipping Not, Man I think I might try one meself!

Very nice Hook Ray! Glad you back with your bone skills... More please!

J.

Wow! That pattern, it's perfect looking! I'd like to see the bit you use.

Thanks all for the comments! I was a little worried about that tapa pattern, but it turned out alright.

SurfinTiki, the bit I used can be seen in this photo:

It would be a combination of the medium and super tiny inverted cones on the left. I need new burrs... they are much more rustier now. :wink:

Cool! I've only been using the diamond bur types, like what you have at the top of the photo.
Need some time to research those and GET THEM!!

fantastic!

Crazy Al, thanks for dropping by. Yup, that was a weird one!