Lake Tiki - 8/23/2013 - Red Cedar

Thanks Benz!

Off to Tiki Wonderland at Tonga Hut!

Mele Kalikimaka!

Great work as always Dave! :wink:

J.

Thanks my friend!

hope you had an awesome summer day today in so cal. this is what x mas is all about!!!

BenBoo, I did for sure! Jen and I rented bikes today (Monday) in Newport Beach and rode up to the pier in HB. Can't beat riding beach cruisers in December! Awesome weather all weekend! Got to dip the feet in the Pacific Sunday and Monday too.

Thanks for ordering up the great weather, I'll be coming home with a sunburn!

Winding down the year, and looking forward to next year! I will be celebrating 10 years of tiki carving! I have some big things planned!

A couple weeks ago, the wife and I were out in LA for the Tonga Hut "Tiki Wonderland" show.

Sven contacted me asking if we'd like to come up to Oceanic Arts since I had never been. It was my first time meeting Bob and Leroy also.

Bob and Leroy are two men that have been an inspiration to me since I first discovered "tiki." It was a real honor to meet them in person and see the empire that they have built over their careers. I really enjoyed talking with them about the craft of wood carving and paging through books of all the beautiful work they have done through the decades. Their work is so much deeper then just tikis, it spans restaurant, theme park and nautical decor.

They know their subject matter inside and out and have gone to great lengths and research before the work is even started. I've got heaps of respect for them.

Wandering the aisles of the OA warehouse is a lesson in tiki history, and the walls and carvings all speak a story to me.

Mahalo Bob and Leroy for your inspiration and continued contributions to the tiki world! And thank you Sven for your hospitality! Lunch at Bahooka was fun, I want to come back again when I have more time to check it all out. It was a tiki filled day I'll always remember!

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2010-12-24 00:29 ]

Hey lakes;great to see you hav'n rad time in cali, I also had the opurtunity to visit OA back in 2003 and spend abit of time
with Bob and Leroy witch was awesome;the place was fantastic and their hospatality was second to none.Hope you got time to sqeeze in
some waves.Cheers Watango

Aloha Watango!

It was a good time for sure, but no water time logged again. I get so busy squeezing stuff into a weekend that I never get any waves. I have to plan a "surf only" trip soon, my gills are drying out.

I hope to get back to OA again, lots to take in!

Jeal-ous.

I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful support and encouragement this past year. It has been a real honor to share my art with you here, at events and in your homes.

In 2011 I will celebrate 10 years of creating "Tiki."
Watch for some very special things to come!

All the best to you in the new year, and Aloha Nui Loa my friends!

Dave

10 years!! WOW ! Way to go Dude!!

Thanks Kirby!

Yep, in January of 2001, this landlocked surfer decided he needed a tiki idol.

I set out with a mallet and bench chisel and carved out one of the worst tikis anyone has seen. :wink:

But it was mine and I made it... and the seed was planted.

I carved many more that year and shared them with fellow surfers in August of that year.

In 2002, I discovered Tiki Central... and the rest is recorded within this forum.

and a great ten years it has been! Thanks for sharing the journey with us.
JP

Congrats Dave,

Thanks for sharing your wonderful art here. Wishing you continued success and enjoyment from your tiki work.

Paul

Johnny, thanks kindly! Happy to share!

Paul, thanks for your best wishes and compliments!

I've been doing a lot of sketching for this year's work. Lot's of good stuff coming together that will eventually start appearing here down the road.

But to start off the year, I wanted to try something a little different... carved door frames.

Laying out the design

Carving

Completed right side stained. Hand painting on some detail work to come.

On to the left side...

First flatwork tiki of 2011 in progress... Welcome to the Lake Tiki 10th Anniversary Collection.

Great idea Lakes, super way to kick off the new year. Very inspiring.
Gotta get off my but and get some wood to do some carving of my own...this thread
is the little kick in the butt that I need.
Congrats on 10 years of serving the tiki community.

ditto! Congrats on a decade!

Conga, thanks my Northern friend!

We had it pretty easy down here until today, and now we're getting snow consistently.
I've now entered serious hibernation mode, and will be cranking out lots of work in the next 2 months.

Looking forward to your new chops!

Grand Poobah, thanks for the congrats!

Wrapped up my first flatwork tiki for the year today.
A brand new style of Ku for me.
26" H x 11" W.

Part of this year's 10th Anniversary Collection will be some large size wall hanging tikis, this one coming in towards the smaller end.
Started in on a very large Lono tonight... more to come!

Dave, do you know that you are kinda hard to contact? There is no signature or website with your posts. Inquiring minds want to know...

Great carves as usual Lake!!!

Aloha Sven!

I wish I had the extra cash to get a website going. I do have to get something figured out though eventually.

Tahitiki, thanks much for stopping by, appreciate the compliment!

It's good. It's real good, and old timey looking. I like it a lot. I need more space in the house for more things like this. The ceiling is empty, though...

Thanks Woody! No worries, enjoy what you have and you can look at the rest of it here! :)

Cranking along this week!

I finished up carving on Big Lono in the wee hours of Thursday. Time to get him colored up all nice.

Here's some pictures of him unfinished...

Big Lono 35" H x 11" W

Close up of the detail work in the headress

BIG PNG Mask in the works this weekend! Updates soon!

This wood is way cool man! love the little knots

carving mad man....... hey summer is back over here yesterday and today... quit all that work and hop the next jet out of Dodge!!

Nice work on that Lono. That detail is really gonna pop even more when you stain it all up.
If you can't do your own website, try out etsy. I hear it's pretty easy to do. Your great
work does need to be more readily available to the masses.

Tahitiki, it was a funky piece of wood for sure. Kept hitting the little knots with the chisels. I think they are all hidden after finishing though. If I get another piece I want to finish it lighter to see how they look.

Al, gotta keep moving here to stay warm! I did see that the 60's and 70's are back in your part of the country... Sounds tempting, but the wife and I are headed to the Rockies for some snowboarding in February. Maybe Palm Springs for me in May?

Falin, thanks for the props and the advice! I've got some friends that do etsy and they seem to like it. Another option for me for sure!

Bigger is better this year... going to start in soon on this Female Abelam Figure mask!

Dave these are looking awesome. Seems like you are banging 1 out every day...how long do they take you generally?

Thanks for the kind compliment Liz!

I'm pretty much not doing anything day to day but eating, sleeping and carving! And some work here and there when I get freelance design stuff.

Dead of winter here, which means snow, cold, grey skies, and more cold.
So I'm cranking away 12 or so hours a day on carvings. Warmer months mean more distractions, and I slow down a bit, but typically over the last 10 years I really crank in the months December - April.

Lot's of ideas in my head, and they all want out!

"Lot's of ideas in my head, and they all want out!"

I can relate to that right there...

Nice nice stuff Dave!

Thank you kind sir!

Let those ideas out!

Wrapped up carving on the PNG mask today... painting come this weekend!

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2011-01-14 15:32 ]

That is some nice work! I also like your workmate, it looks like it was made in polynesia (instead of china). I have a few questions I hope you don't mind answering. Do you use a router to rough out any of your flat pieces or do you hand carve all of that? I don't know if I am crossing a line by asking so please don't answer if I am. Also you mentioned that you are squirreled away working more in the winter than in the summer. I would imagine that you are working in a garage or a shop off the house. It gets cold in PA too. We have snow on the ground since Christmas and it gets barely above 30. I work in the garage but it often gets too damn cold. My question is what do use for heating? I get worried that all of the dust could cause a problem with a heater or worse a fire. Things slow down with activites around my house so I have more time to work out in the garage but I hate the cold. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Grand Poobah, I carved this all by hand.

80% was done with FlexCut chisels. The other part was straight chisels and stubby gouges.

My workshop is in the basement of the house. That thing above my head is a dust filter.

It does a really good job, but when I'm carving with chisels, its just wood chips falling on the floor.

My tiki bar is right next to my workshop... and the basement stays pretty warm... around 68 with the heat down.

I finished up the painting today on the PNG Female Abelam Figure mask.

36.5" H x 16" W

Time to wrap it up and send it to its new home in Arizona!

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2012-05-06 10:38 ]

Real purdy Dave....wonderful creation.

beautiful, lake! one of your best! and that's sayin something. :wink:

Lake surfer wrote "I carved this all by hand.

80% was done with FlexCut chisels. The other part was straight chisels and stubby gouges."

That's all the more impressive. Nice work on the stains.

Be proud of that one Dave! Nicely done!

Great work Dave! Great work and quickly done!

J.

Conga, thanks much! How are things up North?
A very cold and snowy January here in the Beer City. Can't wait for Spring.

BigT, thanks for the kind compliment! I had a lot of fun making this piece, and I enjoyed painting too.

Grand Poobah, thanks again!

McTiki, quite proud of it! Its a big piece. Going to a good home though!

Jérôme, many thanks for stopping by! Appreciate the compliment!

Lot's of projects going on here...

"The Guardians"
19" H x 9" W.
The colors are actually the same on both pieces, the lighting is to the left, so that one looks lighter.
There is also some lighter grain in the wood. The tiki on the right is the true color in natural light.

Lono Panels

Each is 27" H x 5.5" W and hand painted.

Starting in on a whole stack on brand new PNG masks... more to come!

Lake Tiki - Celebrating 10 Years of Tiki - [email protected]

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2011-01-26 14:06 ]

WOW! Dave those are fantastic!

Chris