bigt carvings

Great work Big T. Inspiring carvings.

Mike: Thanks, and you're right on with that idea!
H10: thanks dude!!!

Amate & Conga: Daaaaang, a fly by from a couple of famous dudes! Seems like old times with you fellas coming in to take a look. I can probably speak for all of us when I say we miss you guys!! Allen, I hope you recognize him. :wink:

Should be done with the new one over the weekend. Pics soon.

Did you mean famous or infamous? Around town they just refer to me as "The Fool on the Hill". :D

Did you mean famous or infamous? Around town they just refer to me as "The Fool on the Hill". :D

Special thanks: Kudos to Will for some extra help in a couple of places where I was stuck. Thanks man!

Finished this guy up a few weeks ago. Just now getting around to taking some better photos. First the crappy photo. The loincloth is made from a piece of burlap with the Lei Low logo stenciled on.

This is my attempt at beauty shots a' la Amate...

I put some fetish nails in the ears just like the oh-riginal:

What's under the loincloth you might wonder....

the FAMILY JEWELS!

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2019-02-06 07:52 ]

Awesome
Came out great Bruddah

My head feel like nails in it the next morning
after too many barrels of rum at the Mai-Kai.

On 2019-02-06 07:09, Will carve wrote:
My head feel like nails in it the next morning
after too many barrels of rum at the Mai-Kai.

Oh man, I realize I was negligent in my post last night.... Kudos and THANKS to you Will for the tips, pointers, and encouragement. This one's got some extra sparkle thanks to you, Will!

Hang10: Thanks!!!! You're new stuff is lookin killah!

Thanks for the comps buddy.
Carve deeper.

So right before i handed over "Little Mo", I started making a copy of him, but never got farther than this.

Cut into an old crepe myrtle branch:

Then last week I dug into my pile of old pine logs and started working on these two pieces.

Dude
4 at once
Killahhhhh

Good idea on making a Lil Mo 2
He’s awesome

Like the other 3 also

Keep it up and cheers

Jon

Thanks Jon. Yeah looks like I'll be doing a whole bunch of staining soon. :)

:)
That means they are almost done

On 2019-03-25 11:02, hang10tiki wrote:
:)
That means they are almost done

Yep getting closer! Here's some incremental changes.

started another new carve over the weekend.

That new carve looks awesome!

Sweet

Cool, clean carves Big T!

HC, H10, Cy - thanks! I'm gonna have a whole lot of staining to do soon!

Partial summer update! I recently finished this 6' carving for a bar here in Texas (to be named later, I hope). The request was for a duplicate of what is believed to be a Milan Guanko carving. So I did this based on some pictures I was given. I've never seen a guanko (or any other) tiki with the hand placements like this one so it actually took me a while to figure out what was going on from the photos I was given. Never got a good photo of the back but I think it's probably pretty close to the original. Then put my own design on the base.

The original:

Prestaining:

First coat of finish:

Several coats later...

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2019-08-14 09:38 ]

Beautiful finish!

Out of the stadium fans.
Good job.

Wow
Nailed it
Good job

What finish do you use?

Thanks all! Got some other stuff i've been working on, just havent had time to post.

Jim: minwax stain (i think it was provincial), some shellac (amber and clear), with a lacquer finish.

Great shape and finish Big T!

eek! From August to December just like that... What happened?! :lol:

Well shoot, you guys have been busy! I keep wondering who the last person will be to post on TC or in the carving forum. Seems like the same four or five of us keep truckin along and checking in every once in a while. Good to see you guys still here!

I left the August post unfinished. That's when I signed up for Texas Tiki Week 2019 and hit the ground running. Before I knew it, the year was over.

So mid-August, started to make some mini-mudlers for the show (but never finished).

Then started staining several carvings that were sitting from earlier in the year, but never finished. The square Ku was from last year.

This little Moai is made from a large Magnolia limb when we had some of our trees trimmed.

Started a series of small tikis made from various Oak limbs.

Look,
when you show up you have to knock
with your elbows because you bring
so much stuff.
Nice.

Kool
Love da Magnolia Moai

Cheers

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2019-12-27 05:50 ]

Will, hang10: Thanks! Nice to see u fellas. Still working on the rest of the update...

Oh yeah... forgot about this four foot Ku from March. Finished him in May. He went to the same home as the six foot Milan Guanko.

Back to carving and finishing in August...

The first Magnolia Moai head.

Closeup of one of the oak pieces:

The three oak tikis finished up like this.

The tall, skinny Ku made from a pine branch. Too tall to stand on its own, so I made a Witco style base for it.

[ Edited by: TheBigT 2019-12-27 07:47 ]

Always cool to see new work here on TC Big T, so much inspiration has come to me from this forum! Oak pieces are primo!

On 2019-12-27 16:12, cy wrote:
Always cool to see new work here on TC Big T, so much inspiration has come to me from this forum! Oak pieces are primo!

Thanks CY! I know, I probably wouldn't have started at all if it weren't for this forum. :)

The September stuff...

Carved a 2nd Moai head. This one was made out of the same Magnolia branch as the first one.

Carved a 2nd square Ku and a new Boai.

Carved a 3 footer out of pine.

Another piece of oak. This one was mostly for practice because the log was busted, but came out better than I figured it would.

OK, on with the updates!

My booth at Texas Tiki Week 2019 (Austin TX, last weekend of September)

Before you ask, that beautiful person behind the table is not me! That's one of my kids. :lol:

Anybody remember this fella from 2011?

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=34155&forum=7&vpost=592317
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=34155&forum=7&vpost=650552

Well, I met up with the Creator, Allen (Amate), in October and this guy has a new home!

Was also lucky enough to bring another Amate original home. Christmas in October for me! And I must report that AMATE is alive and well!

Thank for the update BigT, that's a beautiful piece you got from Amate. I wish Amate would come back to TC, his work is outstanding. I am lucky to have one of his smaller carvings also.

Beautiful work BigT, good to see you posting here.

Update time !!!!!

I have no deep insight, but my understanding is that Roy hasn't been carving much of late. I hope he shows up here to prove me wrong.

Ok

Worth a try

Did somebody say UPDATE?!

Yo MDMike, Hang10, Jayme!! Wow, people are here! LOL

Yep, not really able to sling the old chisels any more. I didn't do much of anything that could be called carving for like 5 years! Just the occasional necklace or small pieces styrofoam for fun.

From 2023...

March

April

Then my wife gave me little hand size, battery-powered chainsaw for father's day. And this happened...

When I was still carving, back in 2019. A friend and I had started carving the base of a palm that had died. We stopped 3/4 of the way and it sat like that in his garage for five years. When he heard I was carving again he dragged it back out and we finished it up in July.

Also worked on my own stuff in July and August.

Some foam in September.

A small mask in October.

Continued the moai in November. And and a couple of other things.

Two masks in December.

Then spent the holidays applying LOTS of finish...

As it turns out, that little chainsaw just didn't cut it. (see what i did there?) bahaha!

So all that stuff was actually carved with a whole bunch of different power tools, and little bit of trimming and so forth with a box knife. Just got an Abortech power chisel for Christmas. So who knows what's in store for 24? We'll see...

Thanks fellas for stopping by! And Happy New Year!

[ Edited by TheBigT on 2024-02-08 19:08:38 ]

He’s Baaaaaaaack

Aloha and good stuff sir

Aloha. I look at all those big tikis and hope your hands and back are still healthy. That's a lot of fine work.