Secret Squirrel Tiki Carving

I've been busy carving the mouth out. The tiki has definitely taken on some character and personality. I just need to clean it up a little and add some vertical lines for individual teeth.

I was bored so I carved the teeth.

I've been busy removing a lot of wood to give this tiki a defined jaw. Next I'm going to work on finishing the base of the tiki.

I finished carving the body of the tiki today. I was a bit nervous about carving this part because I've never carved a traditional tiki base like this before. There's a lot of intersecting angles. I just took my time. I really like how it turned out. I'm going to go over it and do some minor clean up with small chisels and finish sanding it. Now it's time for some decorative carving on the forehead, the neck dress and on the lower base.

I got a little more carving done. I added some decorative carving to the base and the neck dress. I also carved the half moons on the eyes. I'm still trying to decide if I completely like the way the eyes turned out. Maybe I just need to get used to them. I'm used to looking at the eyes being unfinished.

it looks like Milton Berle to me
http://www.loveaquote.com/authors/milton-berle-quotes/

^ totally...

I guess that's good that you guys think it looks like Milton Berle. This tiki represents happiness, prosperity and good luck. I have several of these tikis in my collection. This tiki god is supposed to have a smile and a jolly look with a slighty sinister look. I think I've executed that look in this carving. I have a neat headdress design in mind for this tiki. It's not going to be easy. I did a test carving on some scrap wood and I think it's going to look really nice. Now I just need to draw on some layout lines and start carving.

that looks really beautiful

Thank you for the kind words. I thought I was ready to start carving the headdress. Unfortunetely the design that I had in mind that I tested on a flat piece of wood just didn't transfer well in pencil to the curved surface of the forehead. The flow was just off and there really wasn't enough room to pull off that carving properly. I might use that idea on another tiki carving another time. I do have a plan B and I'm pretty sure this one will work. Back to the drawing board.

I finished carving the headdress. Now this tiki is finished. The only thing left to do is clean up the carvings a little and do some minor finish sanding. Then it's time to put the finish on.

Nice clean carve SS!

looks good! :)

Thanks guys. I'm interested to see how this wood looks with the finish put on. The wood is already beautiful but the finish will probably make the grain pop and slightly darken the color. I'll post a picture when I get the finish applied.

Here's the tiki with the finish applied. I have to say that I'm very happy with the way this tiki turned out. It turned out even better then I imagined. This wood is beautiful with the finish put on. The wood has a warm elegant color. Almost a rich gold whisky color with orange. It's no wonder jewelry is sometimes made with this kind of wood. Pictures don't do the color or grain patterns justice.

wow thats some amazing work

Thank you very much. Carving hard woods by hand is definitely a lot of work. It probably takes three to four times longer to carve then working with soft wood.

I'm getting ready to start my next tiki carving. I just thought I would post a preview of what kind of wood I'll be carving. I'm going to be carving a piece of Quina. I like this piece of wood do to the white stripe running down the center of it. That's going to add some unique character to this tiki. This time I'm posting a side by side picture of the finished example tiki that I'm basing this tiki from. I recently got this tiki from Maui from the carver that I get most of my tikis from. This is Kane. According to the tiki carver Kane is not carved in tiki form very often. I've never seen a tiki like this and that's probably why. This representation of Kane has a very angular shape and a tall headdress. I'm going to try and replicate the design the best I can. I'm only going to change a few things slightly. I'm going to design a little different headdress. I hope I can pull this one off. This tiki is a little different then the other tiki designs I've been carving. I just need to draw a few more guidelines in pencil and I'll start carving.

I started doing some carving on this blank yesterday. I have to say that I bit off more then I can carve with this one. I'm up to the challenge of carving hard woods but this one is to hard. It has an interlocking grain that never stops. It's like trying to carve hard frozen ice cream with a spoon. It's a very strange wood. It's not overly oily but the wood chips even stick to the chisel at times. The other hard woods I've been carving would at least carve with a sharp straight chisel with the grain or at a diagonal without a mallet. You can't do that with Quena. I do almost all my carving with mallet work but some hand chiseling is done. I think I'm going to have a change of plans and carve a different wood with a new tiki design. About the only thing this wood has going for it is that it smells good.

I have found with trying different woods definitely have different purposes. Just because its good with power tools doesn't always translate into good with hand tools. If you are looking for challenges with hand tools, try pushing your creativity with a nice piece of Bass wood.

Hello everyone, I'm back again. I've been busy with other hobbies. I haven't forgot about tiki carving. I got a piece of black walnut ready to carve during the winter. It's just been sitting on my bench looking at me waiting to be carved. This piece of wood started out as a 6"x6"x12" block of wood. I ended up cutting a lot of wood off of it and rounded the front. That was a lot of work.

Due to the size and shape of this piece of wood I decided that this was going to be a tiki head. Here's what it looks like after I chiseled the forehead channel.

I got the eyes placed and chiseled out. They're going to be rounded over and smoothed if everything works out right.

I spent some time yesterday chiseling in the upper lip channel and working on the nose.

I'm finished carving the tiki. The only thing left to do is carve the headdress and some finish sanding and apply the tung oil finish.

[ Edited by: Secret Squirrel 2014-09-23 16:05 ]

Great job SS. I think that's very unique how you finishing each section of the carving as you go.

I decided not to carve a headdress on this tiki. This piece of wood has some really interesting grain patterns throughout the whole carving. That's probably due to this piece of wood being cut near the pit of the tree. It also had some checking issues but I was able to remove most of the biggest splits that where on the back. I designed my layout and cuts accordingly. This was a problematic discounted turning vase blank that could not of been turned. I carved it into a tiki as a challenge despite its problems.

Here's what it looks like with the first coat of tung oil applied.

Nice work!!!

Thank you. Carving by hand is definitely a lot of work. I learned some things while carving this tiki. I'll use those things to get faster while doing future carvings.

You have been giving yourself some interesting challenges with you first few pieces. Using hard woods has its rewards - like the beautiful grain and finishes - however it may limit you if you're doing it all by hand. I started out using hard woods as well, but one of the things that helped me develop my knife skills was switching to basswood or butternut after using hard wood. It gives you more freedom to work on form and technique, and allows you to make mistakes without feeling bad about screwing up a nice piece of wood. The soft stuff will also help develop your speed as you get more confident in your cuts. Keep 'em coming!!

I took your advice on carving some softer wood. I picked up some basswood. Not to carve tikis with. I used the basswood to do sample carvings of decorative headdress designs.

Here's my newest tiki carving that I just finished carving a few days ago. I've been slowly working on this tiki for a while. It's 18"Hx6"W carved from black walnut with a tung oil finish. This is the largest tiki that I've carved so far. I learned some new things while carving this tiki. I also got a chance to use some new chisels. I like how this tiki turned out.

i like how it turned out too. nice finish, i always liked walnut.

Thank you. I really like carving black walnut.

Nice! Symmetrical and smooth, beautiful grain

Here's another tiki that I finished carving a couple of days ago. It's carved from curly maple. This piece of wood has some nice sap wood, spalting and division lines. The curl doesn't show up as well in photos compared or real life.

Awesome mask. I love your finishes SS. Well done!

Thank you very much. I appreciate your compliment. It's nice to know that after all the hard work someone likes the finished piece. I put a lot of time and effort in to my work.

[ Edited by: Secret Squirrel 2015-03-27 07:33 ]

Outstanding and original! I dig the detail on his headdress...

It's apparent that you do put a lot of work into your carvings. Nice carve but also beautiful wood and nicely finished. Good work!

Excellent stuff SecretSquirrel!

Thank you for your kind words. I've been busy carving. I recently finished a commissioned tiki carving. I'll try to post some pictures. For some reason I'm having difficulties posting pictures.

[ Edited by: Secret Squirrel 2015-06-27 20:36 ]

Here it is.

How did I miss this?
VERY NICE!

Thank you. This was a commissioned carving that I sold a few weeks ago. The customer wanted that specific face. Which represents happiness, good luck, and protection. The rest of the carving was left up to me to design. The hibiscus flower is beautiful in nature and is very common in the Hawaiian culture. The hibiscus in the headdress is about the same size as a real hibiscus flower. It's a little difficult to tell size in pictures but this tiki is 18"Hx6"W.

I finished this commissioned tiki carving a couple of days ago.

[ Edited by: Secret Squirrel 2015-12-19 17:51 ]

Sweet! Beautiful work.