Carvings by Atomic Mess

Dude! If you can do that with a utility knife......imagine a carving knife in your hands! Tom speaks truth! It will explode your capabilities!

Back to work !

Mahalo!

McTiki

I wholeheartedly endorse and support what Mctiki and alohastation said. I also REALLY dig this latest piece. Hope the martini was yummy and when you're sobered up, I'm looking forward to more progress on this piece! :)

Hi Guys,

I'll be buying that knife in the near future, thanks for the heads up. I spent some cash on a load of used gouges after christmas and they have definitely paid off! (after some sharpening)

progress on the post

Not sure what this wood is, I thought is was mahogany but it's really soft, I can push the gouge through it without a mallet, which on the one hand was cool but I worried about cracking these hooks...

anyone know what this might be? - looks like mahogany but is really soft to carve...

anyway got to go, I'm counting on a german team to beat an english team so my team will benefit next season

mahalo

That's a fine looking set of gouges! Good investment!!! It's completely official now, you've got the carving bug, and the tools and quality carvings to show for it! This new carving is really turning out nice!!! Very detailed and you're nailing it!!!

maybe you're carving some species of acacia that you have that grows local to where you are?

I think I just got something in my eye......that's called nailing it! I have great respect for chisel/knife work.

Mahalo! Keep em coming!

McTiki

Hi Guys, thanks for the props!

Poly- I'm in the smoke so not much found wood going on around here. This piece came from a mixed lot of blocks I bought on Ebay including mahogany, sapele and afromosia but they weren't labelled so I have no idea what this is. I'm guessing maybe afromosia as I've carved the other two and they were harder but can't say for sure.

McTiki- appreciate the input considering you've got more important stuff on your mind, I hope everything works out for you and yours.

here's some more pics...

after making a lot of progress on the front I decided it might be cool to do a roughly mirror image on the other side...

It occurred to me at this point that if I'd thought about this properly I could have had both sides merging at the edge like Alohastation's recent 4 way mug or Shag's 4 faced tiki mug...

but I didn't think ahead so...on with the eyes

cheers,

Dude!

You're killi n me. This is insane!

Mahalo!

McTiki

REALLY nice Atomic!

Ahhh...the ol' grab bag of wood! I have a box full of scraps from a master carpenter and I have NO IDEA what type of wood most of my pendants are carved from!! That's part of the fun, tho!

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2012-05-20 19:01 ]

Nice progress pictures and nice design. I really like your style of carving. More pictures please.

Thanks as always guys!

as requested Hiltiki, here's some more-

finishing up the eyes...

different on either side...

I thought I might experiment by painting one side...

so I brought the picture into photoshop and put some colour on it digitally...

gives me a chance to try stuff without messing up the wood.

Finishing off the headpiece...

I broke the lower left horn, you can see the crack where I glued it...

thanks for looking,

I am really diggin' this little piece.

Very cool and original!

AM.....breaking $hit is part of the learning process. Your learning good stuff on a decent piece. Its all good! Keep on it. The next one should be design more sturdy or you will need to take more time on the pucker cuts.

You are doing fine

Mahalo

McTiki

P.S. ...... I watched a paddle handle fly by my face at 70 mph today! It happens to all of us.

That is definatelty Mahogany. If you bought it from a supplier its probably imported. It can be very chippy - some of your appendanges are pretty risky with that wood. But its also very nice, you can get some really nice, sharp edges on the wood.

Really cool little carving Atomic! I love the design--looks like
you've done your homework. Now--any thoughts of making a BIG ONE?

Thanks PJ!

Thanks McTiki, I must be learning alot, the amount of $hit I've broken...keep your head down!

Aloha, I really like carving the Mahogany even though it can be unpredictable- seems to come in different hardnesses, as you say can be chippy and also sometimes throws some interlocked grain at you...

I found this website which might be useful to some of you guys-
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/bubinga/

Hey thanks Conga, I'd like to make a bigger one one day but while I'm in a one bed apartment I can't see the Wahine agreeing to large logs on the living room floor!

Right here's some pics of the finished piece (would have posted sooner but my *%^&! PC decided to corrupt these pics and I had to do them again)

Had to stitch this together in Photoshop...

The painted side-

and unpainted...

closeups-

I like the way the paint came out, but I think I like the colour of the wood more...

thanks for looking,

hell yeah bro!!!

well done!!

Outstanding

I found this website which might be useful to some of you guys-
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/bubinga/

Nice Job! and thanks for posting that website. Very cool..

Cheers :drink:

Very nice piece! And thanx for that link...cool.

I like this one. Good job Atomic Mess. Looks antiquated. Checked out your website. Good stuff.

cheers

[ Edited by: Atomic Mess 2012-05-11 06:11 ]

[ Edited by: Atomic Mess 2012-05-11 06:13 ]

This one.

time for a rest...

[ Edited by: Atomic Mess 2012-05-11 06:11 ]

[ Edited by: Atomic Mess 2012-05-11 06:13 ]

That dude is bitchin! Nice job, I dig your style.... Cheers! :drink:

Thanks again PJ, Hang10, Anchorfish, Surfintiki and Jungle Trader!

It's been awhile, work has been crazy and then I mashed my neck up and couldn't carve, sucks!

So I did some other stuff while I was waiting for my neck to get better.

I made some repeating backgrounds for use as PC wallpaper-

Right click on it and choose set as background (set it to tile/repeat) if you want to use it...

There's some more versions in different colours and another design on my facebook page so head on over and 'Like' the page to access them in the 'goodies' section if you like...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atomic-Mess/149091001886573?ref=tn_tnmn

I've also been doing some prints which I plan to post on TC at some point but you can check those out here if you can't wait ;]

http://www.atomicmess.com

I'll post some pics of the latest carve a bit later,

Mahalo,

Cool stuff AM, seeing the process for the lino cuts is inspiring.

Thanks Cy, The lino cutting process is similar to carving, you keep removing stuff until you're left with what you need. When I'm doing a carving or a print I sketch the designs a few times before doing the block and your comment made me think about it - when you draw you're adding ink or pencil to a paper until it looks how you want (if you're lucky), but when you carve it's the opposite, you remove material until you're happy.
Sometimes I wish I could draw in the same way...

Anyway, here's the new carve as promised-

sketching out the design

roughing out the shapes

Stay tuned...

cheers

Lookin good

Thanks Hang10.

here's some more progress-

you can see some cheap files I got in the above pics, they've turned out to be really useful, I'm thinking about getting some proper rifflers now...

that's all for now,
cheers

Lookin good! Quality tools are worth the extra expense - especially when you know what to do with them.

This one is going to be nice!

Mahalo

McTiki

wow....off to a great start on that one...

Definitely right Aloha, and the quality ones last longer anyway so they pay off in the end...

thanks Pj and McTiki, this guy is progressing slowly, partly cos I've been distracted by job interviews and band rehearsals but I got some work on the lower guy done this week-

rear view - I thnk I've taken too much from behind the knee (maybe you CAN carve too deep?)

started work on the eyes-

time to do some more chipping...

mahalo

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atomic-Mess/149091001886573?ref=tn_tnmn

On 2012-07-12 06:46, Atomic Mess wrote:
I thnk I've taken too much from behind the knee (maybe you CAN carve too deep?)

Looks perfect to me!

Thanks Amate, I think the knee is ok but I went too far and lost the 'Z' shape where it goes from thigh to knee and back to the heel. I would have liked it to be more pronounced on the bottom guy. Anyway it's finally finished, here's the pix...

You can see what I mean about the knee in this pic-

A couple more close ups-

The whole thing is around 52cm tall-

I think I've got 'post tiki depression' ;] need to start a new project soon...
thanks for looking!

That turned out sweet Mess!

I'm liking the personal touch to your designs.

yeah, start another one.

Mahalo

McTiki

Man, you sure got a lot going on there.
I sweat knees & things that no one will see but you too.
Awesome carve.
Hard to photo, Hu?

Thanks McTiki, I'm trying to develop my own style.

Thanks Will appreciate your feedback. It was difficult to take a decent picture of the whole thing, I wanted to show the side view as well. Maybe I'll try again if the sun ever comes out again...

I've got some Gope type boards knocking around as well but I can't work out the best way to photograph them, any ideas anyone?

Blimey mate really liking your developing style!

[ Edited by: cy 2012-07-18 07:57 ]

There's plenty of wood left to fix those knees. Carve deeper!

That is super cool bro.

And yeah, you're definitely developing an original style.

Nice work.

Love the curl on the hands ... good work!

Hey Guys, thanks for the advice/feedback!

Here's a little side project, the gf tells me this is known as 'upcycling'

I found this frame in a charity shop...

it had been stained but from the wide grain you can tell this is crappy pine-

Some sketching-

some carving - plenty of 'cuss marks' happening

I couldn't resist sanding of some of the gunk to check the progress-

I'll post more when it's ready...

thanks for looking,

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atomic-Mess/149091001886573?ref=hl

whatcha puttin' in there?

That is an awesome way to bring an otherwise boring frame to life.

Thank you for sharing!

Mahalo

McTiki

Thanks again guys, here's the end product-

It's an improvement on the original, if I do say so myself ;]

I didn't want to do too much on the frame in case it distracts from the picture...

this is one of the lino prints I've been working on for awhile, you can check them out on my website -link below- if you're interested. I've got a couple more of these projects in mind, stay tuned...

Mahalo,

http://www.atomicmess.com

Super nice!!! Been wanting to try jazzing up a frame just like this for a while. Maybe soon. Luv the print too!

Thanks Big T!

back to the chipping, there's a few firsts for me on this one-

1. I thought I'd try a Marquesan style carving for a channge
2. I'm going to to start with a round 'log' shape piece of wood rather than my usual block
3. First try of the knives recommended to me by Alohastation, you find them here if you're based in the UK-
   http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/warren-carving-kit---7-bladed-2374-p.asp

The wood is from a mixed pack I got from a wood turner who had to stop cos of bad health. There was a weird pattern (I don't know the technical term) engraved on the surface-

So I sawed a piece off and started cutting off the bumps and roughing out shapes-

I decided to leave some of the grooves in, maybe they can become part of the design, otherwise I'll take them out later...

it's beginning to remind me of Zoidberg at this point-

more to come, mahalo

[ Edited by: Atomic Mess 2012-08-08 09:27 ]

heard this on Twitter for anyone who's interested-

http://chicagoist.com/2012/08/07/want_to_buy_a_real_trader_joes_tiki.php

This is gonna rock....

You never cease to amaze...

Mahalo

McTiki