Zaya's wood burnings, and a couple of new pictures.

Buzzy, I can't believe that I forgot to post my progress pictures! I think it was all the excitement and anticipation of getting to meet Benzart this weekend. My work was the last thing on my mind! Ignore Ben? Never!! I couldn't get these pictures on here fast enough! :)

I finally finished this guy.



The back is kind of a scramble of patterns. I figured that since it was the back no one would really look at it, and I could get some practice doing different things.

Oh and Buzzy, you're going to get it! Thanks for a putting me right to sleep by putting on that 3 hour Bukowski documentary. At least I had my best friend to lounge with me!

Awwww, best friend Kiva and Zaya

Zaya

holy mackerel, talk about detail? Looks like a small piece and I can't imagine how you packed
so many swirls and curls into it. Very nice.
Bukowski huh? Ironically I have spent the morning listening to some vintage beat poetry
and music, cool stuff.

Thanks Zaya, that is a Whole Lot of Detail. Thats the way to do it,, Practice with different looks and swirls until you find the stuff you like the best and the stuff that fits together the best.
It was So great meeting you and BayPark, we enjoyed the time we spent with you guyz,.
So What about the Last 3 daze, what have you been burning?? Spill it.

[ Edited by: Benzart 2006-11-03 09:11 ]

Congatiki, Thanks for checking out my stuff! Yeah, that little tiki is 9 1/2 inches tall and packed full of patterns. I'm testing out this new woodburner, and trying to get a feel for how the different pens work. The woodburner is too cool. How funny that you were listening to vintage beat poetry and music too. Wow, Wisconsin, is it snowing there yet? I have some friends that live in Madison, and would love to visit one of these days. I'm thinking maybe more in the spring time. I don't know if this spoiled California girl could take the cold. :)

Benzart, Ok, no excuses from me. The last few days the burner was a little lonely, BUT, I've had an idea rolling around in my head for a cool pattern to draw out. This weekend Buzzy was prepping some logs so I thought this would be the perfect time to sketch out what I was visualizing. The only thing is what came out onto the paper was nothing close to what I was imagining in my mind. Something else evolved instead, but I was happy with what came out. Does that ever happen to you? It's almost like something is channeling through your body creating, and using you to do it for them. So this is what I came up with...

So next I started burning something like this onto a beautiful piece of palm that Buzzy cut and sanded down all nice and smooth for me. My favorite thing about it is that it has that amazing grain pattern that I love in all his tikis. I've only just started on it today, and will post some progress as I get futher.

Keeping up the suspense!
Zaya

Zaya it's nice to see that you have been busy. your designs are getting better and better every time you post the pictures. I really like the tiki that you just finished.. Keep up the good work and hope to see you soon.

Nice burnings Zaya. The designs are looking tops! :)

My comment would be to focus on getting the lines smooth as possible. Practice pratice practice! :)

Yes, The drawing is Cool. Most of the time when I start a design, it evolves way beyond my original idea to the point the old idea is not recognizable. Your latest piece has a uniformity to it that is hard to find but it' there. Can't wait to see it put to wood. And, like Hewey says, work on keeping the lines smoothe. I Can't draw and my drawn lines are all over the place and the Hard thing is that what you draw, you will burn. I'm always thinking,"I can straighten them out with the burner", but they end up just like the drawing,,crooked lines
Looking Fantastic though...

Zaya wrote;

"It's almost like something is channeling through your body creating, and using you to do it for them."

Perfect!!

Hiltiki, Hi! Thank you for the nice compliments. I'm looking forward to seeing you real soon! I'll bring my burner so you can try it out. :)

Hewey, how's it going? It was cool, I saw your picture on Marcus Thorn's thread, nice to meet you! One of these days Buzzy and I will get down there to meet you for real. Thanks for checking out my latest sketch! I learned a few things when I did this one.

1. Having an idea in your head is completely different from putting it down on paper.
2. Even though you're working on a practice sketch don't rush, always do your best work.
3. Remember that everything you do is going to be shown on this thread!

Benzart wrote:
Most of the time when I start a design, it evolves way beyond my original idea to the point the old idea is not recognizable.

Benzart, that's exactly it! It's kind of neat actually. I tried drawing some of the design onto the wood first, but then when I actually went to burn it I found that it was distracting so I erased it. The other things I've burned I just freehanded so that seemed more natural to me. I'll see what happens as I go along. I just want to do a good job!

RevBambooBen, Hey, it sounds like you know what I mean! Thanks for checking out my stuff.

So last night I started burning the edge pattern on the wood, and continued with more detail tonight. Here's what I've done so far...

Ok, get our your magnifying glasses!

This is from tonight...

Little by little!

Zaya

P.S. Buzzy, I finally figured out the close up mode on my camera! Oh yeah, and look at how beautiful the grain on that wood is. Thank you for making me a perfect piece!

That is the pattern I used on the upper beams in the Tropicana longhousee, I Likeee
I'm glad to see you working again so soon. Post pix as you go!
More later

Burn Baby Burn!

Hey Zaya I'd love to see a bigger version of your avatar. Is that Supergirl?

Benzart, Wow, I didn't realize that! I'll have to look at the Tropicana Thread again and check that out. It's funny because when I burned the pattern on there I did it in a way where there was a lot of separate pieces to it, but when I was done and looked at it as a whole it appeared so differently than I thought it would. So funny how that works. I wonder if it's because I'm still figuring out different techniques of burning that I can't always get the end result I was originally wanting? I don't know, I think I'm over analyzing it. I'm just going to keep burning! :) This part is going to flow into the other patterns in the end so this is only the beginning!

Hodadhank, Hi! Unfortunately I can't enlarge the picture, but it's Black Canary from Birds of Prey. Here's a similar picture that I could englarge...

Hopefully I can burn more tonight!

Zaya

[ Edited by: Zaya 2006-11-08 15:59 ]

Very nice work! Lots and lots of detail. For some reason the last piece you've started reminds me of a Tiki Tony painting, I don't know why. I know what you mean about the end result tuning out different than the initial idea. But for me I truly believe it's because my ideas are light years beyond my talent! And you're right, the grain on that last piece is incredible.

On 2006-11-08 16:28, finkdaddy wrote:
I know what you mean about the end result turning out different than the initial idea. But for me I truly believe it's because my ideas are light years beyond my talent!

Finkdaddy, That's so great! I can totally relate. Thank you for the nice compliments. The lastest hook you did is amazing. I really like how the top is twisted. I'm intrigued with how it is to work with bone. I can't get over how smooth and shiny it turns out. Great work.

I was able to work a little more on this tonight. Here are some update pictures. (Benzart, I'm trying to get better at taking progress pictures. I should know better too since I see Buzzy taking them all the time.)

I wish it wasn't so late because I want to do more!

Zaya

Buzzy, your thread is better than T.V!

How is it possible that I started burning at 11pm, and what seemed like 5 minutes later I looked at the clock and suddenly it was 200am? I must have just traveled through time. Here's my progress from tonight's work....

I can't wait to do more!

Zaya

You're getting better at your spacing of them swirls. Nice and even this time. You get better with the Tiki Central world looking over your shoulder while you work. Like the progress pictures: lets me go whoa! and then whoa! and then whoa! again.
How long have you had that camera?
Buzzy

Zaya, This piece is Really starting to come together. I Love how you are building on what you have done and also that you are keeping it symetrical. Also I know it is difficult on that Palm, but you are doing a great job at keeping the lines continuous and flowing. Lookin Great!

Buzzy, Hey thanks! Oh, and by the way, I've only had my camera for 4 years now. :)

Benzart, Thanks for everything! It's been fun building off each pattern, and I like seeing how it unfolds. Tonight I worked a little more on this one...

If only we could have more hours in the day!

Zaya

Fantastic!

NICE!

Zaya that's great!!! I really like it!! Can't wait to see it finish! but you are already working very hard so...Take your time and Congratulations!!!

Hiltiki and Sneakytiki, thank you for checking out my latest burning!

Clarita, thanks to you too! It's great seeing people on TC from all over the world. I've heard wonderful things about Argentina, and know someone that lives in Buenos Aires. I'd love to visit one day. I really like your latest glowing candle, it's really cool!

So far tonight I don't have an update on my own work, but my 7 year old son surprised me with a drawing of his own! Here's a look at it....

Here's a picture of the artist himself next to our Bay Park Buzzy tiki.

Before I know it he's going to have his own thread!

Zaya

[ Edited by: Zaya 2006-11-14 19:51 ]

WOW, You are Kidding me, your 7 year old son did that? You must be Very Proud! Are you gonna show him how the burner works? (If you do, you might as well buy yourself another one because he won't want to give it up!) What's your sons name? You should let him join.

Little Zaya son has talent for this, it shows!! You are a great family thanks for posting this inspiring thread! And about Argentina is definitely and interesting country to visit I think. Because of the great rage of climates around the country from snow to desert or jungle all you can imagine....The thing is that is expensive in general and very big so maybe you need some time and money to really make it worth...
I still don't know much of it....But for example I recently went to visit "Mar de las Pampas" is in Buenos Aires but at the Atlantic coast, a new vacation spot,and is really really beautiful....Keep Rocking and Burning!!Congrats!

Benzart, yes, I'm so proud! It's fun seeing him picking up on little things that I'm doing, and taking his own interest in it. Oh, and thanks for suggesting that he learns to use the woodburner because now guess what he's wanting to do? I knew there was a reason why I shouldn't have taught him how to read! :) That's ok, I told him that he would probably have more fun learning how to carve, and that Buzzy would be happy to let him use all his tools. Phew! Got me off the hook of having to buy a new burner anytime soon! :) We'll have to think of a good Tiki Central name for Jaden and have him join one of these days! He thinks it's really neat to have friends all over the world. After he read yours and Clarita's posts he took out his globe and looked up Port St. Lucie and Buenos Aires on the map. He thought that was very cool.

Clarita, thanks for the nice compliments too! I know what you mean about things being expensive. I've done some traveling and have come across all different levels of expense, and I'll have to say that some of the more expensive places weren't necessarily my favorite. I always like to hear about specific places that people have been so you know first hand how it is. I work for a large travel agency in San Diego so we're always on the lookout for some new hot spots! :)

Well Buzzy and I had a busy weekend! Saturday before the UFC we had a few hours of burning/carving time to enjoy on this beautiful day. I never expected it, but I finished the piece I was working on! Here are some of the progress pictures from the day....

My set up.......Hey wait, check out that foot at the top!

Closer......

Buzzy hard at work in the Tiki Factory!

A little more with my piece...

This is the finished burning picture, but I'm also doing a couple of finishing touches to it. More pictures to come of that.

So if Saturday wasn't exciting enough Sunday we had even more fun! Buzzy and I spent the day with our good friend Hiltiki.

Here's a picture of us hard at work...

Oh wait, that's when we were sipping those delicious tropical drinks!

The tropical patio that Buzzy made was like a little sanctuary place. All those finishing touches that Hiltiki put in there made it like a true island getaway spot.

Here we are in the evening experiencing all the ambiance of this beautiful place.

Thank you Hiltiki for our wonderful day!

I did manage to burn some designs on a piece of bamboo while we were there! I realized I forgot to take pictures of it though so here are a few shots of the completed piece....

I feel so lucky I was able to take this week off from work! Too bad they know I didn't actually go anywhere so they're always trying to get a hold of me. Next time I'm leaving the country! :) Looking forward to a nice leisurely day tomorrow.

Zaya

hi zaya the wood burning looks awesome

hiltiki, where did you get the big tiki on the right side of your patio?

Hope it is yours, I love that tiki. :)

Zaya, I love the piece you finally finished and the Bamboo looks great too. Is it for a Vase or something like that?
Spending nice dayz like that with Hiltiki will Not get much work done.

Marcus Thorn, thanks for checking out my wood burning, and for the nice compliment! I really admire your work, and am in awe of the creativity and precision. I think you have great style too. :)

Benzart, Hi, and thank you! I'm happy at how the piece of palm turned out. Buzzy cut me the most beautiful pieces of bamboo to put around it as a frame, and as soon as I glue it on The Right Way it will look even better! It was one of those things where each piece fit in like a puzzle, and I thought I had it right when I glued it, and then found out soon enough that it wasn't. Then Buzzy came to the rescue and pried it apart for me so I could re-do it. I'll post some pictures as soon as it's done. The piece of bamboo was a scrap piece from a tiki sign that Buzzy made and I snagged it. :) I thought it would make a cool vase, but I definitely need to fancy it up a bit. I was thinking of doing more details in the patterns, but then I thought it might get too busy kind of like the rest of my stuff. There's plenty more bamboo where that came from so I can make this one simple, and then go crazy on the next one. We'll see what happens!

So no new updates on woodburning, but we did have some fun adventures over the Thanksgiving holiday! We went to the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, visited our owl and donkey friends, went go-cart racing, and even managed to get our Christmas tree this weekend! Here are some pictures from our adventures....

USS Midway Museum

Hoot!

Little donkey friends

Here's some future competition for GMAN!

More updates coming soon!

Zaya

[ Edited by: Zaya 2006-11-28 23:27 ]

Here's some of what I worked on this weekend at the San Diego Chop Chop at Mieko's house. We had such a great time!

More to come with this piece real soon.

Zaya

Zaya, keep it coming, it is getting better and better.

Zaya,

Your designs and results remind me of Flemish flair used on boxes and turn of the century adverts that were engraved in wood. Very nicely done.

Keep em coming

Mahalo

McTiki

Nice work girl! :) That last piece and the bamboo looked great - style and skill is definitely increasing. I dont think Ive ever carved what I marked out...

WOW Zaya, your Stuff is looking real tight. Where are you getting those flat, smoothe, palm boards? Anyone we know? Wait until you try burning on some Cedar or Redwood. You are really Burning Hot. I Love how your lines all connect and flow together. Nice.

Very nice! Congrats!!

Zaya, WHERE have you been Hiding? Come out, come out, where ever you are and crank up that wood burner and show us more stuff! We Miss you.

Hi Benzart! Awww, thanks for checking up on me!! I really am here, and honestly I've been feeling so guilty because I haven't picked up my burner since the last San Diego Chop Chop. I know, I should be ashamed! I could give you a bunch of excuses, but I won't. It's my own fault I haven't picked it up. I appreciate you hollering at me to get back to it. I'll listen to you for sure! :wink:

Hiltiki, thanks for the nice encouragement. I'm looking forward to seeing you on Saturday at the next San Diego Chop Chop!

McTiki, thanks for the compliments! That's so neat what you said about my designs reminding you of Flemish Flair. I'm so inspired by the Maori designs that I'm really drawn to swirls and patterns like that. I'm trying to broaden my horizons though and create some different patterns. There's so many ideas in my mind I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Hewey, thanks to you too! It's interesting what you said about not carving what you've marked out. I guess for me it depends on what I'm burning on actually. When I burn on Bamboo I just free hand it and don't mark anything. When I burn on a nice flat piece of palm however I feel like need to draw out the pattern first to make sure I have everything sized right and symetrical. Somehow the palm seems more intimidating because the ones I've burned were these beautiful pieces that Buzzy made for me and I wanted them to be extra special.

Clarita, thank you for the nice compliments too! I really appreciate it. I haven't see you post in a while either, and am looking forward to seeing more candles!

Well Buzzy got me a new tool box for Christmas! It's a really cool one like his, and I absolutely love it. I had all my burning stuff in a little travel bag before, and I was really growing out of it.

Buzzy also got me a new pen for my wood burner, and I'm going to be testing that out real soon.

So far my favorite pen to use is the Rounded Point Skew, and this new one is the Micro Round Skew. It's so nice and small I can't wait to see how it flows through the curves of those swirls. I'll let you know how it goes!

Zaya

So crack it out and get burning already! :)

Benzart wrote:
Zaya, WHERE have you been Hiding? Come out, come out, where ever you are and crank up that wood burner and show us more stuff! We Miss you.

hewey wrote:
So crack it out and get burning already! :)

Hewey, Okay Already!!!

Benzart, guess what I did tonight? I braved the torrential Southern California winter :), and spent some time in my freezing garage to do some burning! I really had to rough it sitting in there with my little TV going. I have a pretty good set up with a table to hold all my gear, and right behind the chair I'm sitting in is my car! So when it's time to pack it up I turn everything off, open the back passenger seat of the car, slide across the back and out the other side to get to the door leading back into the house. It's pretty funny!

I decided to add a few patterns to the piece I started at the San Diego Chop Chop in December. I've been meaning to get back to that!

Those circles are so tiny! I definitely need to keep practicing them. I was thinking of my sister when I was doing them because she likes those bubbly patterns. After I did those top two bubble sections it made me think of those neat Coco Joes figurines where the molded lava looks like it has little bubbly circles in it. Those are really cool!

Anyway, at least it was a little progress! I can't wait to do more! I'm going to go thaw out now. :)

Zaya

P.S. Hewey, little Bindi Irwin is on David Letterman right now. Wow, what a little doll. :)

New wood for you to practice on:

On 2007-01-19 00:11, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
New wood for you to practice on:

I'm so excited!! Thank you!!! I can't wait to try out that beautiful Ficus. I'm curious to see how different it is from the palm. Now come deliver those to me! :)

Back out in the garage tonight for more burning. It was extra cold so this time I dusted off the little space heater and tested it out. Ahhhh, much better. Come on Summer!

I still don't know where this is going, and why is it that I always feel like I have to keep adding more? I look at the empty spaces, and it makes me want to fill them. Then I fill them and I think it's too busy. Then of course after that I pick out which space I'm going to fill in next. It's a viscious cycle!

It's getting late, good night!

Zaya

Zaya, thats how the Maori Tattoo artists felt. The face was their board and they felt they had to cover every square inch, every little nook and cranny. It IS very addictive , once you get started it's hard until you think you run out of room, then you start adding lines where you thought no more would fit. It's amazing how everything just flows together like it is just one continuous line all over the page, board, skin, canvas,or whatever.
Welcome Back!

Benzart, I loved what you said. It's neat to think the Maori Tattoo artists felt the same way! I can definitely see how addictive it is. Thanks for all your kind words!

Well you won't believe it, but I finally finished burning my piece at today's San Diego Chop Chop! I had such a great time there today. It was a beautiful day, and the company there was even better. Here's how it turned out...

Awww, my good friend Hiltiki and I.

Next I'll put a clear coat of something on this to seal it up. Buzzy gave me a couple of really nice pieces of ficus that he cut down into boards for me. I can't wait to dive into those!

Until next time,
Zaya

Aww.... I am so :blush: ing and let's have a :drink: together soon and do some :tiki: carving and burning soon.

LOOKIN GOOD! Hiltiki To!

Hiltiki, it's a date! We'll plan a fun day together very soon. I can't wait to try out another one of your delicious drinks!

Thanks to you Benzart! I was so happy to finally finish that piece on Saturday. Now I'm trying to decide on a pattern for the ficus boards. I can't wait to see how different it is to burn those compared to the palm.

Stay tuned,
Zaya

[ Edited by: Zaya 2007-01-22 21:28 ]

Zaya, that is definitely your best piece yet, you have improved so rapidly with each piece! Burn Zaya burn, tiki inferno!