Wonderful world of wplugger

Since he won't start his own thread I feel compelled to show off for him.

This has been donated to my Mountain Bike project at Quiet Waters Park. The log came from the trail so its only fitting that it will return to welcome all the riders. Over 15' tall - 4' will be buried.

Exellent stuff Will, C'mon and add some more photos now that your thread is cranked up!
Super tiki.

Freakin Sweet!!

No Hair-Club-For-Men for that guy....he is awesome!!!

Awesome! I've been meaning to do this for Will myself - here's some pictures from my visit to Will's place.
Look at this Ball guy!

Lots of tikis:

Close up of Lono

Look at that headdress!

More Tikis!!

Root ball half log - he's big!

Will you kick ass!

Excellent carvings! Nice to see the south FL. tiki carvers representing.

[ Edited by: Savage Daddy 2008-08-07 18:16 ]

Nice work plugger!!
Instead of burying the tiki (it will rot and eventually fall even with concrete) you might instead consider burying a 4" by 4" treated post about 2 ft. down, drill a hole thru the post and into the tiki, install one or two 10" hex head lag screws to secure it. Just a thought.

Wow, Thanks every body.
I get so much from TC, I should give back more.
They planted about 300 sable palms in the park.
About 10 % died . We will see how many I get to carve.
J.T. I would do that if I were to keep it for myself.
the one thing it has going for it is it's going on a hill.
I'm bringing the next one to Toms house to see how he does em.
I picked up 10 flat molds from the Mai-Kai a week ago.
They include the spear head mold . The spears line the
Chinese ovens over the windows. Most are broken if not
missing completely.
Thanks again
Plugger

[ Edited by: wplugger 2008-08-08 06:06 ]

Will has been carving for years but has shown very little of his work. I hope that changes!!

JT - Wood rot is something that you have to live with in Florida. There are too many factors that work against wood left in the open air. The big guy will be planted on top of a small hill that is mostly gravel and sand. There will be more moisture damage from the air than the ground! We also have termites, wood peckers and carpenter ants - the expected life of this carving will only be at most 10 years. This was all factored when we came up with the idea. Its my turn to carve the next one.

In case you didn't know, Will is the guy that has been casting all of the tikis at the Mai Kai. Its a cool story.

Will, those are really great-looking tikis. Keep up the good work!

All are magnificent! Make sure no one chain-grinds the tiki at Quiet Waters mt bikin'n!!!

aiight, I have heard oldtimers swear by using pea gravel on their fence posts instead of concrete cuz the water seeps thru. But as you said AlohaStation there are other factors to consider. Aloha to my Florida brethren. Carve onward!!

Nice, you need to share these more often. Thanks Alohastation for bringing these forth.

Awesome tiki carvings. Thanks for sharing your work on TC and getting such a great tiki out in public. Let us know when the QWP tiki gets put in. I live about 20 minutes away and I will have to go check it out. Are you going to seal the wood? Outdoors in South Florida the oil based sealers last longer. Just a thought. Happy Carving.

Oh....Almost forgot, you can also use roofing tar on the bottom if you bury the base. But that will only work if you seal the rest of it so it won't rot from the inside out. The tar will prevent it from draining if not sealed.

If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything.

[ Edited by: Tikilizard 2008-08-11 21:23 ]

Hmmm... Will, where have I seen this mouth before? It looks SO familiar! :D

Will is a supremely talented carver. His 'big hair' tiki that I got at the carving jam some months ago will be prominently displayed behind the bar in my home verrrry soon.

Will, sent you a PM.

Evidence that you should never have a government employee do anything without supervision.

Will kindly donated this large tiki to a local park. While planting the tiki it was cracked and left to its own devices. The wind finished the job and broke it in half. I went out Saturday to see if I could fix the crack and when I got there I saw this. I have a plan to repair the break but it will not be as elevated as it was. This just sucks!!!!

What a bummer!
Good luck with the repair job, please post pictures after.

Dam Dam Dam!

The broken tiki has been repaired and will be placed this weekend.

On another note - somebody has been busy! Hurry up and paint those things will ya!

Heard a rumor that there was painting going on this weekend??

Yup, Had a paint party this wknd.
18 people showed up to paint.
Had 30 pieces for the Mai-Kai to
be painted.They knocked them all out.

Thanks for the help.
I'll let everyone know when the
next party comes up.

Mahalos to Will for hosting the gang and turning us loose on the concrete Tiki's.

More here

And, major updates and some much needed renovations are in the works at the Mai-Kai. Pictures soon.

The park gets another try.
I didn't spend so much time on this one.
Hope they get this one up OK.

That hair is perfect!

Had a great visit with Benzart monday.
We worked on an older tiki with breaking up legs.
Aloha Station & I brought all our latest stuff for
show & tell & got to see all Bens stuff & play with
his toys.
Thanks for the wood chunks for the road & the leg help.
Will

Also the table lamps
for Rob.
He is doing the lamp part.

Thanks will and Tom for the visit the other day, I Really enjoyed having you guys up here, Thanks for the Paddle too, I Appreciate it !
Hope that tiki repair finishes out OK and holds up for another 50 years.
Awesome stuff you are doing with those old molds, except that it seems you and everyone else are having WAY Too Much FUN! That's Supposed to be WORK I Thought.
Next time you come up I'd love to see one of these up close if you could bring one?

Thanks Again for coming up.

Will, they will be lamps one of these days, I promise. Have to find someone with a big enough drill press. I've tapped out all the neighbors. Might have to hit up a high school shop teacher...

Ben... is that you? What happened to the beard??

Hey! What are you guys doing to my favorite Mai Kai Spirit Hook?? I just got some of my mini ones done and need to give Hazel a call. :)

It was fun going up there for the day. Rode up in Will's 53 Sedan Delivery loaded with all kinds of tiki stuff. The spirit hook had cracked at the legs and its time was limited (probably from when we wrestled it out of the rubber mold). You can see the beginning of the story here http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=26630&forum=1&start=0 We drilled out the legs and placed a dowel in them. Nice and sturdy now!

thanks for the invite to the painting party! :lol:
how fun that looks!
Major ohana at will's!
you make all of us and the MaiKai smile!

Awesome work Mr. Plugger !!! I can't wait to see it at Quiet Waters Park. Alohastation was right to start the thread. Let me know if u need any help with it. I wish I had a truck to mooch some of those sabal palms that died at the park. I miss all the shade that all those Australian Pines provided. BUFFBAD

P.S. Aloha, you were right about the palm in BUFF bags a BIG ONE post. The palm is a queen or royal palm and very fibrous but i am up to the challenge.

Hiding Somewhere?

He's been busy on some home projects. After 6 months I finally managed to fix the broken tiki at Quiet Waters Park mountain bike trail. Chopped the bottom off of it used some epoxy and lag bolts on the cracked legs - he was ready to be placed. Since the legs broke, I planted a 4x4 post and lag screwed him to the pole. The base is just slightly off the ground and the tiki should last for years. He has been placed on a high speed berm at the mid section of the trail. If you are riding there is no way to miss him. If you are driving you can see him from both the Turnpike and Hillsboro (northbound turnpike and either way on Hillsboro). The only way to see him up close is on a bike or by hiking out to him. Thanks again Will - and we're ready for the next one!!

Way to go Tom. Nice job
You saved him.
You D man

Also
Rob finished the shade part of the lamps
& they look real good.

This lamp doesn't looks real good... this lamp looks more perfect than perfect !
The nicely smoothed wood let his grain freely talk.

I love it.

Benjamin.

The lamps are really cool, the room is amazing... great kob.

Here's a picture of the WPlugger PNG mask that I "won" in the 2009 Art Swap. Hung and spotlighted, looking magnificent! Thanks Will!

post an update - slacker!!

Still waiting!!!

Really Cool and excellent carvings Will!!! You should post more of em!!! Aloha, Mooney

OK,
So at no time will my fingers ever leave my hands.

Mike, so glad you liked your swap piece. Enjoy.
Between the mug & pendant, every one at the carv jam
was WOWed. the pendant is my fave.
Heres to lookin at you

My portland cement army for the Mai-Kai.
The finally to this thread
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=26630&forum=1&start=0

Heres my latest
For your amusement.
First a Mai-Kai barrel of rum , My fave.
Next 2 tangaroa like guys [back to back] featuring shell eyes.
Then a really short tiki guy.
Holding a big mask. [because no body could have a head that big.] Duh.

Last up
The other side of the hairball

That should get us up to speed for now.

Wow, great stuff. Tons of character in these pieces. Could you explain your process for staining the Mai Kai cement statues? The finish on those is awesome. :)

On 2009-10-06 04:50, wplugger wrote:
OK,
So at no time will my fingers ever leave my hands.

Mike, so glad you liked your swap piece. Enjoy.
Between the mug & pendant, every one at the carv jam
was WOWed. the pendant is my fave.
Heres to lookin at you

My portland cement army for the Mai-Kai.
The finally to this thread
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=26630&forum=1&start=0

Heres my latest
For your amusement.
First a Mai-Kai barrel of rum , My fave.
Next 2 tangaroa like guys [back to back] featuring shell eyes.
Then a really short tiki guy.
Holding a big mask. [because no body could have a head that big.] Duh.

Last up
The other side of the hairball

That should get us up to speed for now.

Bumped for new page...

On 2009-10-06 07:53, TheBigT wrote:
Wow, great stuff. Tons of character in these pieces. Could you explain your process for staining the Mai Kai cement statues? The finish on those is awesome. :)

Ooo - Ooo - I know - I know... He used the K.I.S.S. Method!

The rootballs are off the hook! I had some logs from the same batch of trees and I hated working with them. But somehow Will makes it look simple. What is not shown is the plywood backings. The top part of the log (visually the bottom of the carving) became stringy and rotten in the inside, leaving a hard shell around the outside to carve. Most of the log is hollow - so these guys weigh very little!! The addition of the shell eyes is an excellent touch!

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2009-10-06 09:53 ]

Big T,
The Kiss method is correct.
It's EZ. Go with dark brown & hit it with black glaze, wipe it off & your good to go. You can get the glaze at Home depo. It makes the paint less sticky but it stays in the crevices.I even did a couple in white glaze.

On 2009-10-07 10:03, wplugger wrote:
Big T,
The Kiss method is correct.
It's EZ. Go with dark brown & hit it with black glaze, wipe it off & your good to go. You can get the glaze at Home depo. It makes the paint less sticky but it stays in the crevices.I even did a couple in white glaze.

Awesome. Thanks! They look great. So they are paints, not stains?