Foam Tiki Totem Pole

Last night I finished making my first Tiki Totem Pole out of spray foam. I thought that I would share it with people who like all things Tiki.

If you want to make you own Tiki Totem Pole here are the directions:
Project Cost $25
Items Needed:

• 12” Diameter Concrete form
• 4 Cans Great Stuff Spray Foam
• Cardboard
• Brown Plastic Primer
• 2 Shades Of Brown Paint
• Paint Brush
• Hack Saw
• Steak Knife

Step 1
Lay concrete form on its side and brace for so it cannot roll.

Step 2
Cover the form running streams of the foam long ways across. You will need to do this in steps so you cover 1/4th of the form at a time. If you put too much on the sides it will droop. Wait for the foam to be simi-hard before turning the form and applying more foam.

Step 3
Using cardboard cutout the Tiki face and attach them to the tacky spray foam. It will stick to the foam.

Step 4
Cover the cardboard cutouts with spray foam building up the features for a 3D effect.

Step 5
After the form is completely dry (24 hrs) use a hack saw and steak knife to cut out the features for a 'wood carved' look. Cut all the rounded edges to make them flat or angular. Remove all the high points of the foam all around the form giving it a 'bark' look

Step 6
Spray paint the Tiki brown. Then use other shades of brown and black to add definition.

[ Edited by: reinkense 2011-05-12 09:22 ]

[ Edited by: reinkense 2011-05-12 11:33 ]

Welcome to TC Reinkense.

Your tiki reminds me of a Fern Wood Tiki. You could also paint it with a dark color and rub it off to accentuate the texture.

That's a great idea, I can't wait to try it. I also want to drill some holes partially through the foam and insert some LED's in the eyes and mouth.

That's great! Thanks for the details and the photos. That's a great way to make a lightweight tiki that would be good for stage decorations.

That looks great. I might give this a try, you make it look easy. I'm very DIY challenged - what would you say if the difficulty rating on a scale of 1-10?

Here are a few pics of the foam Tikis I made using the spray foam and carving out the shapes along with a lot of sanding, you can coat the foam with a house exterior paint to seal the foam and then spray or brush on other paints that would normally melt the foam, I covered mine with fiberglass I do a lot of carving using differnt foams take a look.

those look really cool! Nice job! Seems as if the foam is pretty user friendly

WoRD
[ Edited by: NIxxon 2011-05-15 15:47 ]

[ Edited by: NIxxon 2011-05-15 15:50 ]

On 2011-05-13 08:43, metikigal wrote:
That looks great. I might give this a try, you make it look easy. I'm very DIY challenged - what would you say if the difficulty rating on a scale of 1-10?

I would say it is a 4 on the difficulty scale. Because you cut out the expression before applying the spray foam it is easy to carve the face. The most difficult thing is to wait for the foam to dry between layers.

Here are a few pics of the foam Tikis I made using the spray foam and carving out the shapes along with a lot of sanding, you can coat the foam with a house exterior paint to seal the foam and then spray or brush on other paints that would normally melt the foam, I covered mine with fiberglass I do a lot of carving using differnt foams take a look.

Those look great!
Any time I try using great stuff foam as a base I get a LOT of squiggles and air pockets. Your result looks like it went on much cleaner before you cut and sanded it down. How do you spray the stuff on in the first place?

Thanks!

Jonathan

The Tikis don't start out looking like much of anything but foam, I spray the foam in tight lines to start then I will add highlites with more foam and then start cutting and sanding my shapes, sometimes I will draw out on the tubes the shape and folow along with the foam, I couldn't find any start pics of the 4 foot Tiki totem but here are some in progress shots along with a starting shot of the 2 foot Tiki, I never carved wood but have done a lot of foam carving, in New York its easier to find spray foam then it is to find a palm tree :)

Just finished another foam Tiki, this time I made a Moai head using a cardboard tube, pink insulation foam, spray foam, bondo and polyester primer as a top coat, take a look, Later Eyeball

You guys were my inspiration to create this spray foam fireplace cover! Thanks for the tips!

Carved and ready to paint. I ended up spackling the whole thing because I spackled a few spots I wantd to fix, but the texture was different after spray painting and even brush painting with latex. So I spackled the whole thing for texture consistency. I wish I never spackled any of it and left the imperfections because the cut foam had a more "sponge" like appearance. Would have looked more like lava stone IMO if I left it alone. I just used a big serrated bread knife for all the carving. Definitely needs to be serrated as a plain knife just wants to push the foam and tear it.

Spraying and carving. I did parts of it so I could follow my pattern on the cardboard. Doing it again, I think I would try just spray foaming the whole board, draw the design on the foam, and carve all at once.

My template. A piece of cardboard taped to the fireplace glass. If it wasn't for the curve of the glass, I may have just bought a piece of the thick pink foam and carved that instead. (Don't worry. The only place that even gets warm on this is coming out the top. So nothing on this addition will be in the heat).

Note I had some extra foam left in the can, so I sprayed a bunch on a piece of cardboard to make a smaller face, instead of throwing it away. But, I came out the next day and the cardboard was all curled from the drying process. SO, if you opt for some sort of backing, make sure its firm enough that it doesn't bend easily while curing.

I make foam tikis for those that can't or don't have the time. Check out http://www.tikirancher.com for more details