More Benzart TIKIs

Here are some more of my earlier carvings.










This is one of several I did for the Harbor Hut Tiki Bar on the Intracoastal in Boynton Beach Florida.

This was my first Real looking Tiki and it was a wood similar to Cocobola, Very Hard but beautiful



This last one was Almost my last one forever. It was from a 50 ft Stadium Light Pole that was Treated with Arsenic among other chemicals. I found this out after getting Very Ill from carving it, then tracking down the source. Too bad too, it was Beautiful wood.

Well this is enough for now.
Here is a link to my Shutterfly pix: http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b341da5084b3&notag=1
I have a few more Tiki pictures left to scan, then I'm going to finish scanning my Other carvings of Pelicans, Dolphins, Indians and various other stuff.Thanks for your Patience.
Benzart

rollin rollin rollin, keep those pictures rollin!

Auwwwwie! Haaaaawaiian! sweet pics brah.

Man...I just took a hard look ate these new pics..Those are all awesome. The Harbor hut one and the "first real-looking" ones are my faves. Great stuff.

Beautiful work my bruddah. That first one has a nice ass.

Wow! How did you ever trace the arsenic and chemical treatments in time? You are lucky! Glad you did!
Beautiful work.

The Poles came from the Pompano Beach Ball park lighting. When I got sick, I asked them where the Poles came from and they looked back in their records, Contacted the company and gave me spec's on the Poles treatment chemicals.
Thanks for the compliment.

aloha Benzart, diggin the pics keep em coming. You are definately another artist sendin out inspiration across the ether.

Chongolio

Amazing work Benzart, I love it. Can't wait to go to O'Donnells tommorow to see if your Tikis are there. That cocobolo Tiki, was it as hard? Man I have a little piece of that stuff, it's like steel, beautiful grain though. My favorite is that last Tiki, very unique.

Bump it bump itup bump it bump good bumpit up good

Lol. I love that you just bumped all of your topics up. That's hilarious.

I like the first one with the mullet & the smooth behind! :)

What were the dimensions of the log for that HUGE Lono? I suspect there's a great story behind that one. (hint, hint)

Wow Benzart!! Too cool. I wanna grow up to be just half as good as you. Keep em coming.

I guess it Was kind of Rude of be to bump all this stuff up wasn't it. Sorry 'bout that. I had a good reason at the time but I don't remember what it was. It was only 10 pm so I can't blame any drugs or rum

Ok, I'm freaking out over starting my first "big" tiki (two feet or so)--and completely screwing it up already. I just got a reality check for the concept of big. What did you carve the giant guy for? Is there a story? And where were you? Is that your workshop? Oh man, I can't worry about making a tiki bar until we get a bigger workspace! Ono better start working more hours, I'm thinking bigger house, workshop, more tools, big yard...

bump all you want Ben! How the hell ya been?

[ Edited by: thechikitiki on 2005-02-21 00:26 ]

I showed my wife the 1st pic of the really large one. She said, "Nice, but it's really small." Then I scrolled down to the next pic, and she said "Holy..."

Can you give us more details on that one, like height, weight, when, where, and what for?

Hey Raffertiki, That one was carved from a Cypress log and was all heartwood. It was 13 feet high and 3 1/2 feet wide. Joe Dan Osceole , a friend who used to be the Chief of the Florida Seminole tribe, brought me the log one day and asked me if I wanted to carve a tiki from it. I didn't have to think about it too long to say Yes. I worked on it for about 6 months while working on smaller things at the same time. I brought a Lot of customers into the shop. It is Lono, one of the Hawaiian gods and the most difficult headdress to do. It is in Ft lauderdale, at Joe Dans home and this coming hukilau, I may get a group together to visit him and see that and other carvings he has.

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2005-02-22 19:29 ]

On 2005-02-21 11:25, Benzart wrote:
It is Lono, one of the Hawiian gods and the most difficult headdress to do.

Ben, is it the most difficult because it has four vertical vanes (for lack of a better word)? Would four such vanes spaced 90 degrees apart be indicative of a Lono carving?

I am still amazed when I see those massive carvings you did back in the day.

Kono, Yes the headdressis one of the things that signifies this as a Lono Carving, The vanes are separated and look like rowa of Bananas or breasts or even just plain triangles. I think the bestlook comes from seeing boobs stacked in a straight line in pairs stasked 3, 5 or 7 high . Kono, I am Still Amazed when I see those carvings still because I don't have much memory of carving them. I Know I was there and I got sawdust all over me but I didn't do them. Someone helped medo these???

I been gettinbetter thechikitiki, how yuo been.yeah, call me some time.

Love your website Ben...can't keep away
from the gallery...and I also can't make
up my mind about what I want when my name
pops up on the list....I could put another
mortgage on the house for one of those
big guys....better not say that in case
the wife catches me!