surf soul tiki

got some poly to rub on there...

and finished up that rough piece from earlier & sanded it.

staying focused and starting another one.

one of the first ten tikis I did was called the "spearfisher", and it was a gift for a buddy who is an avid spear-head. But it has been incomplete, because I never had a fish on the end of the spear. But today I busted out this little quickie, so now he will be complete. Just have to drill a hole for the spear!

And here's what I accompished today. Cut & sanded the 1st one, and rough cut the 2nd last night. Finished the second and did the 3rd, plus sanded the hell out of them (I took 'em to 220) and did the hand-rubbed poly deal as recommended and am super-stoked with how they turned out. I feel like these are some of the neatest pieces I've done. I absolutely love the cedar.

I think this is what Tom had in mind.
http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/interior-clear-protective-finishes/wipe-on-poly.html

brush on poly is good but rub on gives you
more of a furniture look.
I like the multi color of your new carves.

WOW. Those really are some great lookin pieces. LOVE that wood...certainly an awesome new look to your work. keep carvin and keep postin!!

well, the art show was ok. I gave away a stack of business cards & had a few beers with some friends who showed up, and sold a couple (cheap ) so I didn't leave empty handed.

So I have some other stuff to do, but I'm going to have a lot of time to spend with the cedar this week. I really need to build up my inventory. I'd like to have 30 or 40 pieces at the house at all times, if not more. Hell, I'd like to have 3 o 4 in the truck at all times just for when I'm out & about.

So basically I need more tikis! I need to get to work!

I had 30 Tikis in my back 40 until last friday. Things are moving! Love the cedar works. Keep em coming.

McTiki

I love the cedar too! I am also interested in seeing how the wipe on poly U works out. I have a few questions about the cedar. How are you holding up against it? How is it for carving? I would love to carve a tiki in cedar and I also love the smell of the wood, but it causes havoc with my sinuses.

yeah, it actually carves really well. If you have some, tear into immediately. Put a grinder on it and it will make some of the finest dust ever, so wear a breather or tie a t-shirt around your face.

Didn't want to make tikis today, so I made this instead:

A little mask I started today.

That's some fast and accurate effort for the mask and the board!

Awesome stuff.

McTiki

Thanks Andy.

After I set that mask aside, I decided that the fish I made to complete the spearfisher kinda sucked....so I picked up this piece:

and turned it into this:

DUUUDE you are killing it with the cedar!! Those look awesome. Diggin the swimming look to the fish...very creative.

so, I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to make a shark.

Still working on it, but you can definitely look at it & tell it's a shark, so I'm stoked.

Looks more like a sperm whale to me :wink:

You are doing great things my friend...keep it up.

well, hopefully when I finish him tomorrow he'll look more like a shark!

lol...im just bustin your balls man. it looks awesome. How long is it? look s pretty big. And I bet it smells fantastic!

nah, I know. It's all good.

It's about 3 1/2 ft.

And yeah, the cedar definitely smells nice. It really is nice to work with and have around. On one hand I want to make some money off of it, but on the other hand, the finished product is so beautiful I just want to make stuff for family & friends.

I like it! Like the fish too. Great idea.

the shark is done!

Sanded it to 400 & rubbed some poly on it. I'm very stoked.

That looks great.
Is it heavy ?
Sanding between polly coats will make it super smooth to the touch.

Thanks Will.

And I'll try the sand & re-poly .

It's about 3 1/2 ft, and that cedar was cut 7 months ago and drying since, so it's not really that heavy.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-08-01 13:00 ]

A little something I drew out last night & finished this afternoon.

It's flat (like, 2 inches) and I want to mount it on some kind of flat contrasting background surface, and build a rough bamboo frame around the perimeter. Want to do some other similar ones with some different tiki stuff. I don't have a lot of art on the walls, so I might as well make some.

What I did today:

the start of the bamboo bike....

Basically I cut up a $5 garage sale bike & got some construction grade bamboo (enough for 2 frames) for $20.

I need to go back & get some thinner sections for the seat & chain stays, get new tubes & some better tires,and some JB Weld to glue it all together. And that seat is horrible...it's gotta go too.

Whoa, I figured you were just going to cover the steel frame with bamboo. You got my attention now!

nah...only using the metal parts that are necessary. That bamboo is thick & already heat treated. I just need to go to Lowe's & get a drill bit to bore them out enough to sleeve the little frame "nubs" that I left on the crank hub, head tub, etc. (about 2 to 3 inches all around). I figure I'll use some metal hose clamps to keep the sleeved areas reenforced until I can get some carbon fiber or some other binding to wrap the joints. I just want to make it functional & then go from there as far as shaving more metal off of it (like ditching the hose clamps, and then looking at other parts of the bike that I could convert to bamboo as well - seat post? forks? etc.). Once I have it perfected I may cut up a nicer bike to do something a little more "aesthetically pleasing". This one's a prototype so I'm not all that worried about how pretty it is. I just want to see it work.

Here's everything I'm NOT using....

awe damn! this is gona be good...staying tuned.

On 2011-07-31 16:20, pjc5150 wrote:

Now that is cool. Love it!!!!

^ thanks bro. I'm pretty stoked on the shark!

Here's a mask I made yesterday. Still need to sand it & rub some poly on it.

So I haven't really been drinking a lot lately (a change I made several months ago), but yesterday I went to a buddy's house who makes home-brewed beer, drank a bunch of it, and went out to work on tikis buzzed and with no gloves. Needless to say, I felt pretty dumb this morning when I woke up looking like I'd spent the evening thumb-wrestling with a barbed-wire fence. Off to Lowes for some new gloves. Gawd...

A little mask I've been working on today.

Finished these two.

Now back out to the wood pile for a new piece!

What I'm working on today.

Cedar masks have been my recent obsession...

I just found your thread and DAMN!!!.....Bad ass work over the past two years.

[ Edited by: BigDaddy772 2011-08-11 15:43 ]

That's a really nice compliment. Thank you brother.

Here's the mask I just finished...

It's 11:20pm, and I'm sitting here drawing out tomorrow's stuff & watching UFO FILES (ANCIENT ALIENS just ended). Today I got a really nice DeWalt grinder, some dremel bits, all kinds of sandpaper, some new gloves, and a new can of rub-on-poly (this time I got the right kind - thanks Will). I am seriously going after it tomorrow. Now all I need to do is go get my chisels sharpened up & I'll be golden.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-08-11 20:42 ]

Those masks are looking fantastic and the wood adds so much flavor...really liking the cedar. Are you using the whole array of tools on those? Meaning chisels, grinder, etc...

yeah, pretty much using all of them, but it reeeally likes the angle grinder.

I got sidetracked from the tikis today. My roommate asked me to give his fiance's bike some love today.

54 Hiawatha Strato-Liner with "the treatment" (fat franks, apes, & a new seat, and stripped all the clunky fenders and brackets off). About to go drop it on her at the bar. She'll be stoked.

tiki fail...

That's that last time I try to put a chisel to any hardwoods. Every time this happens. I'm OK at chiseling palm, but I can't seem to go 5 minutes on hardwood without something cracking and breaking off. I don't know how some of you guys do it. Maybe I'm just too heavy handed. I'm much better with power tools. Back in the old days I probably wouldn't have been the village tiki carver...I would have been a fisherman or something, because there were no angle grinders & chainsaws back then. I've always told people "I'm not really an artist, I'm just really resourceful when I want to figure out how to do something"...

And now I'm feeling burned out.

DUUUUUDE that sucks! Looks like it may still be salvageable though. Your crankin out some real pieces with that cedar...

The shark's a keeper! :wink: Really nice job pjc!

So, I took a week off to shake off the burnout. Here's a little cedar lono I did yesterday to donate to the "Faces of Courage" silent auction (it's to benefit a little camp for kids with cancer & blood disorders).

Also, some of the masks I've made recently.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-09-12 19:47 ]

I love that wood! Looking great. And I like the way you snuck in the Big Toe :)

Hey guys, been kinda "blocked" for awhile & trying to get re-motivated. But I did make this little tiki for the owner of a little local-owned pizza restaurant called "The Deck" here in Tampa. I get their pizzas delivered to the house occasionally and a few weeks ago when I called up over there to order a pizza, the dude who answered the phone, after he entered my address into the system asks "is this the tiki guy?....the owner wants to talk to you..." So basically the dude gets on the phone & says "hey man, I'm the owner and I'm bringing your pizza".

So he came out & looked at my stuff, and basically commissioned a piece for his house. Says he may be buying one for the business as well. He likes tikis. He wanted one to put a piece of glass on to make a table, and he wanted it to kinda look like he was holding up the table. So his arms are extending up & I tried to give him a "strained" look. And he's missing a tooth.

And here's another cedar mask:

ooops...forgot the little faceless Buddha I did for my friend's mom's garden a few days ago

it's cedar.

Dude that's an awesome story! Did he hook you up with a free pizza? lol.

Really nice finish on that one, the mask is looking great as usual, and the buddha is very cool...you were due for a NON-TIKI piece anyway :) very creative.

Showed it to him today & he's stoked on it. Going to spar it since it's going outside on the back porch.

And last week I stopped in to tell him that I hadn't forgotten him & would have his tiki in a week, and he gave me a meatball sub for free! Hopefully I'll get a free pizza before it's over....

And I've been shopping around for new trucks for the last month & think I found the one I'm buying today. Fingers crossed!

Nice! The best meatball sub is a free meatball sub :)

Good luck with the truck!

thanks Nixxy...

Basically I made a deal last night to buy a black 2005 Toyota Tundra crew cab with a 4.7 V8. I am a VERY, VERY happy guy right now. Between my 9 1/2 foot surfboards, the tikis, fishing & camping stuff, etc... this whole SUV deal just doesn't work for me. I've really missed having a real truck.

The last few years I have been limited to local driving, as I just didn't trust my vehicle to make long trips without crapping out. Now I can go surfing whenever I want without having to rely on rides from other people. I want put a locking toolbox in it, and that way I can roll around with a basic set of tiki tools & a small chainsaw. I'm always seeing dead palms, and if I was always equipped to take 'em down & sort 'em out on the spot, I'd have a lot more future tikis laying around. This makes my life better all the way around...I just want to go around hugging people right now.

I take possession of her on Friday. So, I need to bust a few serious tikis out, because in the next few weekends I plan to get some packing blankets from U-haul, fill the bed with tikis, and hit every damned beach-themed place from Clearwater to Sarasota and try to get my name & some of my stuff out there.