A question for "Professor" Benzart...

Hi Ben,

I'm glad you made it through Charley & Frances, & that Ivan is headed elsewhere.

I have a question for you - if you don't mind. I really admire your giant Maori Warrior tiki. The design, carving, finish, ....everything looks unique on this one. But the most intiguing thing to me are the eyes.

Also that signature pic at the bottom of all your posts. It has very unique and intense looking eyes as well, different than anything I've seen here on TC. Do you have a bigger picture that shows the whole carving?

How did you create these great eyes? Paint? Inlay?

On 2004-03-13 09:22, Benzart wrote:

And lastly, do your outdoor tikis get only marine varnish for protection? Does anything else need to be applied first to keep them from weathering?

As always, I don't mind asking if you don't mind sharing. Once again, Ben, I really appreciate all the wisdom and advice that you are continually doling out to the rest of us. And I'm glad to hear that you're O.K.

A-A

OK Aaron's Akua, sorry this took so long.....
First the eyes of the big guy were carved as normal and then just painted with black and white paint. Very simple, nothing fancy. That guy had Several coats of marine varnish only. I sanded down to 220 and started coating front and back. For all my hardwood pieces I preferred Marine varnish for it's durability and lasting protection. You have to figure that most of your pieces will Never get another coat of Anything, so do it right the first time and it will last a long time.
Second, this guy

is # 27 that went o BigBroTiki. He is about 3 inches tall and carved from "Chocolate" Maple. The only thing different about him is the Black, glass marbles I inserted from behind into drilled out hollows for each eye. You can se more of him at Svens house or here on my carving thread on page 15. There are before and after pic's showing without and with the glass eyes.
The glass eyes idea came from Sven himself and turned out pretty good.
I'm almost back to normal after the storm, just feel physically battered, but getting better every day.
Thanks and don't hesitate to ask any question you want. I'll do my best to impart all my "Wisdom" to you new carvers. Just ask.

Alright, Prof. Benz came through! I knew you'd see this post sooner or later. Of course, you know this will lead to more questions...

Do you sand that marine varnish after every coat? Lightly with 220? Does polyurethane work as just well, or should I use the marine varnish? Can either of these be sanded between coats?

I have to confess that I still haven't made it through your entire post. I'm just going to have to keep track of where I left off, and tackle it over a week of lunch breaks. Same goes for that locked "Carving Post".

That was pretty clever putting the marbles through the back on your little maori guy. The eyes are so lifelike and intense.

My tiki is solid, so the inlay is going to be inserted from the front & glued down to the wood. The tile that I had cut for the inlay isn't all that accurate in shape, so I figured that I would carve the inlay spots a little wider than the tile and make up for the accuracy there. Then I'll fill in the gaps with some sort of colored grout (similar to the tile color) or other material to make it look uniform (does that make sense?).

The problem is, I'm not sure if the grout will stick to the wood. That would really suck if the varnish didn't hold it all together and the grout fell out later. I need some type of filler that could be colored dark blue or black to "fill out" the gaps around the tile and contrast with the adjacent wood. Maybe a black silicone product? But, would the varnish stick to this stuff when I put the finish over? I'm sort of thinking out loud here, but do you have any suggestions on this?

Hey Aaron I woul sand between every coat of varnish. Thats how you get that deep built up look that dosen't look too thick. whatever finish you use, Sand between coats!
It's OK to think out loud, thats how you get answers. I would use "Plastic wood" or similar wood filler product to set in the eyes. it can be shaped, sanded and painted or stained. Thats what all the Bird carvers use to set their eyes in with.

Thanks Benz,

That's a good idea. I didn't know they had colored wood fillers. I checked out a few on-line, but I couldn't find any that came in blue - it's kind of an unusual color for wood filler. It's supposed to match, or come close to the color of the deep blue tile I'm using. The tile is on page 2 of this link, near the bottom:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10587&forum=7&start=0
I'll keep looking, though - I'm sure I'll find something that is blue and will accept a varnish or polyurethane coat over the top.

I think I will get the inlay areas cut, do all of my stain, & apply at least one coat of varnish before I put the tile in and fill the edges with the blue filler. That way I know that the color in the filler won't bleed over into the "natural" varnished palm in the whites of the eyes (the tile is for the cat's eye pupils).

I'm not sure you will find a blue filler. Why not use just a Natural wood filler and paint it blue to match the tile. that way the filler will hold and the paint will give it the color you want.
Good luck and I hope this helps.

Benz, you're too cool. That's too simple. And I'm just thinkin' too hard.

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-09-16 21:39 ]