bigt carvings

Nice job on the t-ball bat.

All your new stuff is killer! The new bat is super rad. LOVE Greg's piece. So clean...

Thanks guys for the kind comments on the last post.

Last month I started working on a log that's been sitting around my house for several years now. Back in 2012, when our neighborhood literally became a lake, this big pine log floated out of my garage and landed on the side of the driveway near the house.

I took a chainsaw to it in 2013, but it sat outside for another year before i rolled it into the garage where it's been in my way every since.

I have it whittled down now so it's finally starting to look like something...

As Aloha Station would say,
"that's a good start"

Homerun on the bat
New guy lookin kool, huge too...

Fantastic!

Started this new 5 1/2 footer on Saturday out of an old piece of oak.

Interesting prop??

Nice start.

On 2015-11-24 06:43, AlohaStation wrote:
Interesting prop??

that old thing? just old an log i cut some notches in. makes a handy sawhorse. :D

I have a similar one in my garage. He's just hangin around waiting for inspiration to strike.

Can't wait to see it Sunday.

2nd coat of stain...

Glad to see you back on that guy that was lying in your garage. I know you are disillusioned with it but I still think you should finish up that large Moai you have started under the shed.

On 2015-11-28 16:23, amate wrote:
Glad to see you back on that guy that was lying in your garage. I know you are disillusioned with it but I still think you should finish up that large Moai you have started under the shed.

Yep, I started chopping on him again last month. I will eventually drag that Maoi out from under the car port. That big oak tiki I just finished is one of those logs that was under the carport the last time you were over.

I also took you up on your finishing advice. I decided to refinish the little guy below for the Lei Low art sale. (I say little but it is 3 feet.) Anyway, he came out great and he's now part of the Lei Low collection! I don't think the photos quite show the dramatic difference in color.

I consider him to be in very fine company. No offense to Tiki Diablo, but I've only called out the Texas crew in this photo. :wink:

My table at the sale:

Jay (Aloha Tx Tiki) setting up his stuff. (luv that sign jay!)

making some progress. Aloha, this is the "prop" you commented on. Trying to get him done this year.

Super Big T

All right!!! Its a good start!

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2015-12-15 13:25 ]

Awesome I cant wait to start doing some traditional carvings . Just need to build up some inventory , carvings i am not familiar with take me alot of time!

On 2015-12-14 14:22, TheBigT wrote:
making some progress. Aloha, this is the "prop" you commented on. Trying to get him done this year.

Cool pics from Lei Low...
Man this guy is killer!! Loved hangin out Big T. It was great seeing you!

[ Edited by: AlohaTexasTikiCo 2015-12-16 17:06 ]

great seeing u jay - had a blast!

spent christmas eve putting the finish on another tiki bat. this is almost an exact duplicate of the previous t-ball bat i carved.

these dudes are christmas presents, hence their identical nature...

had an awesome opportunity to chillax christmas day and carve this mask

Those bats are super nice. Love the design work on the bottom. The mask has some cool color to it. Great work!

Refinished this maoi and gave it away for christmas. 1st pic is after sanding the old finish.

made another mask yesteray.

Hey T, what kind of wood are you doing the masks with? Love the texture/color can't wait to see them stained up.

On 2015-12-30 16:59, Tuga's Tikis wrote:
Hey T, what kind of wood are you doing the masks with? Love the texture/color can't wait to see them stained up.

hey tuga, those are oak. i think some of those brown spots are branches that got absorbed into the trunk of the tree. thanks for the comment, you're doing some awesome work up there!

a little rough still, but did another mask today. last carve of the year!

happy new year all!

That guy has some wild colors.
Have you put poly to it yet?
Looks like it will turn yellow or gold.

On 2016-01-01 04:17, Will carve wrote:
That guy has some wild colors.
Have you put poly to it yet?
Looks like it will turn yellow or gold.

Hey will, nope haven't put any finish on it yet. I did three masks from the same branch of oak so far. I was thinking of a light color finish as well. I usually don't do poly. Maybe a clear shellac?

your "blackened" baseball bats are tremendous....all good stuff!

Lovin the new masks!

Being away from here so long is surprising when I see the progress all you guys make. You are doing Awesome stuff, thise bats are Beautiful.

Conga, ATT, Benz, many thanks!

Here's a new one i'm almost done with for the fall art swap. Probably just needs a coat of lacquer to call it done.

Nice Big T!

Very Cool

I like that.
Nice detail.
Very creative.

Thanks guys.

Will, it was fun. And now I wish I was keeping it! However, I'm sure I will be getting something pretty swell in return.

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2016-02-23 08:06 ]

I'll take it
:)

finished this moai and delivered to the new owner over the weekend

T- good job

That's some fine work there sir!!

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh yeah!

On 2016-03-08 16:35, TheBigT wrote:
finished this moai and delivered to the new owner over the weekend

Nice grain poppin on the chest and chin area. Love it man!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas holiday and New Year! Time to start chopping on the new year!

I guess it's about time to bring my thread up to speed and catch up with all the stuff from the rest of 2016. Altho I didn't do much carving the remainder of the year, this post might be a long one...

Things were going great guns in April. With the Lei Low Art Sale around the corner, I jumped into high gear getting ready. I had some Moais left over from the last sale and decided to "refresh" those for the next one.

Lopped off the top of this one to give it an angled head.

Re-carved this one a bit and gave him some embellishments and a darker finish.

Carved three new masks out of oak:

Then put the finish on all of them.

I found this Congo-styled African mask at a goodwill and wanted to try giving him a makeover:

Looking pretty good, I think.

Then it broke while cutting out the mouth! :x

Wanted to do some black highlights (is that an oxymoron??), but ran out of time.

My booth at the sale, Sunday, April 17th. Had a great time, sold some stuff, imbibed some tasty cocktails.

And then that night, with the glow from the incredible cocktails still fading away, it rained. And rained, and rained. When it stopped raining on Monday, my house looked like this. The water line on the garage is the high point where the water was.

We spent the next six months remodeling the house. So, from mid April to early October, I did almost no carving except for one small practice piece. Some of you might remember this same thing happened back in 2012. We decided that two floods was enough fun for us and put the place up for sale the week after we finished remodeling! :D :D

Gonna pick up October thru the end of the year in the next post....

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2017-01-03 11:27 ]

My 2016 retrospective continued... :D

When the beginning of October came around, the house was 95% remodeled. The Howie's Tiki mug release party and the week-long Bamboo on the Bayou Tiki bash were both coming up in October. It was finally time to blow the dust off the workshop!

Howie's Tiki had commissioned a tiki baseball bat earlier in the year. I started this practice piece in April (pre-flood).

Also, started working on the full-sized bat.

Got this much done before the flood:

Suddenly, with the mug party only a week away, emergency carving time!!

Putting on the finish:

Delivering the bat.

Party time!!

Mark, the owner, installed it on a rotating platform right next to the bar. :D Thank you Howie's Tiki!!

Next: time to get ready for Bamboo on the Bayou.

Got busy with some new moais:

Just barely got the clear coat on these the evening of the show...

I cut the end off the practice bat started back in April, and turned it into a muddler. I don't have a picture of the whole piece, but it's extra long at about 11" to get to the bottom of taller mugs and glasses.

It seemed like I still didn't have enough stuff. So at the last minute, I cut a small board in half and busted out the dremel to make these two plaques.

My table and drink. Party on again!!

I stayed on the Moai train in November, starting this 5 - 6 footer.

The log was in really bad shape though. It was more and more rotted toward the base, so I abandoned it to start a new one.

Started the next one out of oak.

Also started a couple of masks. These are made out of a pecan log that I cut down the middle.

Well, that was it. Then we moved Thanksgiving week. Ironic?

December was, well, December. Christmas presents, unpacking, family time, hanging with good friends. So long 2016, don't let 2017 hit you in the ass on the way out!!

Dude- those masks are killer

The house under water pic put a lump in my throat
So sad
Sorry

Glad to hear u are moving to higher ground

All the new stuff looks good

Love da bat

Cheers to u

Jon

Wow, way to rebound! Really nice carvings. Best of luck in your new dry home.

Thanks for the update. New year - new carves!!!