****We Need MORE TIKI Carvings****

Whoa, did I kill this thread?? Well if I did let me poke it with a stick.

So, I’ve been doing the little bottle stopper thing at my desk at work, which is cool, but at home I started playing a little bigger. I had a mallet, some wood chisels and a little saw and started doing this. (about a week apart from left to right, I don’t get a chance to beat on it like I would like to)

Which is taking For Ever! Needless to say, my Squire blade is in the mail

Oh and it's Ash BTW. Stupid emerald ash borers!

Oh and it's Ash BTW. Stupid emerald ash borers!

Yeah you can get wood borers in any (most?) trees. I had a piece of pecan full of metalic beetles. They were golden.

It's looking pretty good. How about a larger pic??

Here's a Tiki carving!

On 2011-08-26 15:02, TheBigT wrote:
How about a larger pic??

Thanks very much! I actually thought is was larger until I posted it. I took it with my cell phone which isn't very good. I have to get my camera charged.....I have to find my camera and get it charged. I'm getting my bottle stoppers finished slowly and I'll need it to take pics of those as well.

Soon.

I got my carving knives in the mail yesterday which I'm fighting the urge to play with until after I get the lawn mowed which isn't easy.....and now I'm here.

On 2011-08-26 15:24, kirby wrote:
Here's a Tiki carving!

Those are Awesome!

Wait, it's one. Still Awesome.

[ Edited by: TravnerRavenweird 2011-08-27 14:57 ]

So, it's been a year and I finally finished my first large piece this last weekend. 37 inches tall made of Ash from my backyard tree.

Sorry in advance for the smallish pictures. I'll do better next time I promise.

Left to Right: Here it is the after some wood burner use in the facial features and tattoos and some rudimentary torching. (too windy that day)
A coat of stain and after the placement of the Abalone eyes. (old button I had in my leather working stuff)

So I need to read up on finishes for the future, but I chose a satin poly spar for three reasons; I wanted the grain to pop more than it was, I'm not sure if it will go outside to live, and I saw one in the Minneapolis Institute of Art that had more of a sheen than not so I went with it. But I have to say, as a rule I'm not really in to the shiny Tikis.

So here it is.

Thanks for looking

Excellent Tiki Travner!
KIRBY, you ARE finally learning to Carve! Excellent stuff!

now i feel a bit ASHAMED of my simple offerings..


..hmm...actually..nope, STILL happy with em..and they are AVAILABLE
should anyone want a menu-inspired tike..preferably in AZ

Those look terrific to me. Nice colors.

Ah HA!
Well since I'm not being prolific enough to feel like I warrant my own thread yet, I'll just keep posting on this one.
So it's been a while, had some "life" stuff, moved the family from Minneapolis Mn, to Everett Wa, like one does. Anyway I Finally started a new carve. Found a piece of driftwood at the beach, thought it was a nice solid piece of something, but it has turned out to be a chewy pain. I'm still trying to make a silk purse out of this sow's ear, so here's my progress:

I'm trying to do the "carve deep" thing, but I'm having a trouble with my wood holding together. I'm dreading sanding this thing, anyway, here's the face so far.

Thanks for looking!

Driftwood is always full of surprises. Looks great from where I'm sitting and...you get extra credit for going all the way through between the legs!

Excellent progress... shaping up to be one cool tiki!

Thanks gang!
Yeah, that's when I found out how truly full of water this guy was was when I went through the legs. It was a mushy, pulpy mess in the center of this little log.

Usually the maker is the worst critic! It looks great to me...do you mention what type of wood it is?

No idea what kind of wood it is. I thought it might be pine, but it seems really stringy. Heck it could be Rhododendron for all I know.
The first picture in the progress pictures is almost exactly how I found it except for the ends I cut off.
Thanks! I hope to have more progress pictures to post soon. I have all the Sharpie sanded off and am trying to get some tattoos carved on the limbs.

New to carving, but was inspired from my recent trip to the Big Island.
Here's a couple pieces I've done:

And this is the current carving:

Nice! And It looks like we're almost neighbors...at least compared to a lot of people on here.

You must live close to Cy...:)

Thanx! I am close, from the Shoreline area.
Added black on the latest tiki, next is to find a stain color I like.

Done!

Very nice! I'm hoping to get mine in some state of finished this weekend.

your designs are solid...

just carve deeper bro... you'll like what happens. I promise... :wink:

Thanx guys, and pjc5150 thanx for the tip, this is my 3rd Tiki, so any advice is greatly appreciated. This Tiki was first created in a painting by a good friend and great artist Brad "Tiki Shark" Parker and I wanted to match it as close as possible so I didn't go too deep on carving this guy. Here is a picture of the painting Kon-Tiki Dream:

Red Tiki.

Nice!
Are you using a Dremel on those?
Ok, here are the pictures finally.
First some progress shots. I think I would have chosen a different stain color if I had it to do over again, or not used stain at all.

With the stain it got really dark and I lost some of my contrasts and cool stuff in the wood. But here it is finished.

The pictures actually don't make it look as dark for some reason. But there you go.

So while the iron was hot I ran down to the beach and picked up a new log

It's big. Same driftwood. About 5 and a half feet long and 8 inches in diameter. I'm a little nervous about some of the surface cracks in it, but I'll do something with it.

While we were at the beach my assistant log hunter decided she wanted to carve too, so my youngest found one to carve as well.

And then the intensive design work began with the neighbor girl

So here we go. Watch your fingers!

I know which project I'll be working on first.
Thanks for looking!

Great to start'em out young, Careful though, carving like that on the legs will end up with a chisel embedded in that leg for sure!

Great to start'em out young, Careful though, carving like that on the legs will end up with a chisel embedded in that leg for sure!

On 2013-09-21 08:53, Benzart wrote:
Great to start'em out young, Careful though, carving like that on the legs will end up with a chisel embedded in that leg for sure!

Yes well, we held it only long enough for the one photo op then I couldn't stand it any longer and went to helping. It hasn't progressed much since school is in full swing though.

My big log is progressing just as slowly.

Double post

[ Edited by: TravnerRavenweird 2013-09-24 09:11 ]

here are a few of my latest WIP
lil Mo
Warrior with a bone in his nose and a stylish mohawk.
2" tall X .5" wide
Bass wood, hand carved, painted with fingernail polish.
EMBRACE HIS FURY!

"Wave"
A beach scene wrapped horizontally around a hollow cylinder.
2.25" wide X 1.25" round
Inner diameter .25"
Bass wood. Hand carved and painted with fingernail polish and then stained. It's a new idea for a "toggle" pendant that loosely floats over the lashing and can roll freely. An appropriate lashing is being formulated! (Likely going to have beads)

"Fez"
Monkey in a fez.
1.75" tall X .75" wide
Red oak, hand carved, painted with (yes) fingernail polish.
The tassle is a "weave" I found on the road--- somebody must've been in a fight!
Need to make an appropriate lashing-- goes through the ears.

ben im back

ben im back

Way to bring on the tikis Peeps, Marcus welcome back, I haven't been here for awhile myself!

On 2012-11-05 13:33, bb moondog wrote:

got a new MOAI on the way..



..hmm...these are AVAILABLE
should anyone want a menu-inspired tike..preferably in AZ

Aloha to my carving brothers an sisters. I've been concentrating on learning the tiki mug process since I've been on TC. Although I have yet to comment in this section I have been following every post. I started carving a few years ago and still do it when I get time. I just finished the Marguesan tiki a few days ago. I also transformed my backyard into my own utopian island. I'll post images in the backyard tiki bar section.

This is a shot of some of the tikis that I've carved on the deck and canopy that I also built in...Arizona. The backyard use to be desert landscaped. I didn't need to be reminded of how freakin hot it gets here so I decided to do something about that.

This is me with my first attempt at carving a full body tiki. It's about 5 feet.

This is is my rendition of that ol Rollin Stones poster with the waggin tongue, lol. Whassssuuuup! I like to notice and incorporate the bark in my tikis when ever possible.

This is my retro 60's look. It's about 3 feet tall and my favorite. I've started transforming the backyard in the background.

This is a group shot of some of the first tikis that I carved. My rendention of the Frankoma War God on the far right.

This is the 5ft Marquesan tiki that I finished a few days ago while I was waiting for some tiki mugs to be fired.

Mahalo for checkin it out, Pierre

[ Edited by: Tiki Republic 2014-03-02 13:24 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Republic 2014-03-02 13:47 ]

On 2014-02-23 17:45, bb moondog wrote:

On 2012-11-05 13:33, bb moondog wrote:

got a new MOAI on the way..



..hmm...these are AVAILABLE
should anyone want a menu-inspired tike..preferably in AZ

and these are getting CLOSER--if only it werent 110degrees ALREADY here

Nice to see this page still generating new tikis, Keep'Em Coming guys!

To be honest I haven't really been sure where to post pics of my carvings.. In this thread? Start a new one? Somewhere else? Always feeling unsure about forums...
Fastbackadam even posting this reply I'm unsure because it says at the bottom it will be emailed to subscribers....

For what it's worth, my first post was on this thread. You can always start your own later.

Wow! so many great carves. Where to start???? Ravenweird , I really love your carve. It is very traditional (something I would like to get back to) it just oozes that tiki feel to me. bb and mjaba I really like how you add colors to your designs. I will try to add "stain colors" but have been too afraid to do what you guys do. You both really pull it off as your work looks great. Tiki republic....your backyard looks fantastic...the teeth on those guys and the variety is something...

ben I read somewhere you weren't feeling well...I hope you are better

On 2014-07-20 05:01, Grand Poobah wrote:
Wow! so many great carves. Where to start???? Ravenweird , I really love your carve. It is very traditional (something I would like to get back to)

Hi! Thanks very much!
And actually it's something I'd like to get back to as well, my most recent piece has stalled and now just stares at me whenever I go to the basement to do laundry...sigh

Awsome thread! So many different carvers in one place showing the passion for carving! It would be nice to keep this thread alive and going,

[ Edited by: nicework 2014-12-09 02:11 ]

I think we need more Benzart Tikis.

On 2014-12-12 05:14, Will carve wrote:
I think we need more Benzart Tikis.

Bingo!

OK, I Know it's been awhile since I've posted here, sorry for that. Here are my latest carves, Thanks for looking!

Enjoy!

WOW,
Ask & we shall receive.
I'm not sure which is better,
your boat or the picture.
Thanks.

Love all of these Benzart! Especially the first one with the fez. So awesome...

Sweet Benz! It's christmas all over again!