Conga....Wisconsin stuff!

Conga, I'm Really loving this guy, fingernails and all. Love the finish, love the fingers, the eye-lashes the eyes, the mouth, the noze and his whole look. I'm sure he's having fun too , not sure what he's doing there but it makes him happy! Still have my Address?

Wow Conga, this guy came out great. I love the little lines and how you kept it to the necessary amount to make it work. I would be tempted to go all out on the lines. But the simple look really works. (and i know it only looks simple)
Keep it up

Many thanks Seeks, Benz and Grapa...glad you like the little bugger.
I'm not sure what he is doing down there Ben, either hiding something
or...well...you know.
Grapa...I was thinking of doing much more hook knife decoration. But
one night I just did a full appraisal...a little squint...some
mood lighting...and decided he was done.
Thanks to all. I appreciate the support and comments while Voodoo
was being born.

Merry Merry Merry!!!
Best wishes from cold and snowy Wisconsin.

MERRY CHRISTMAS Conga
I finally figured out why the Painful irritated look. It's the weather and he's looking for sumpthin down there that isn't there any more. :D: :roll: :o:

wow, your carvings are awesome. i just spent the better part of my afternoon reading through your thread. i am really impressed with the size along with the acute detail in your tiki creations!

Hey Conga,
You must have been visited by an ancient guitar god
I came across this guy in one of my books and he reminded me of your Voodoo guy.

Maybe it's the Hendrix hair do?
Merry X-mas

I know how he feels

Thanks Ben, nice to hear that you are feelin' better. Take care
now. Hail to the Chief! The Voodoo Child is messing with his frozen
zone, but it's starting to warm up around here :)

S!q, welcome to TC. I give you the 2008 award for the most confusing
name. How do you pronounce it, SICK, SEEK? It doesn't matter, thanks for
spending some time at my thread.

Grapa, I think I am channeling the ancients. Their names are Benzart and
Basement Kahuna, they just don't know it.

Coco, you know that feeling too huh? Even tho Voodoo seems to have lost
something that he can't find, he can still "stand up next to a mountain,
knock it down with the edge of his hand." He's tougher than he looks.

Merry Christmas, it's warming up to the low 30s here today. There are
times when my furnace is actually off. We haven't heard much lately
from LakeSurfer, pray for him, he might be under snow.

Thanks Conga for Everything. Hope you are enjoying your Christmas. Eat, Drink and Feel Mary(she won't mind :) )

Happy New Year from Congaland!

This is a 42 inch abelam figure that is almost finished, just a
few paint touch-ups and some tung oil and he will be ready to sit
in a corner or hang on the wall.

Best wishes to all and keep up the good tiki work!

DAYYUMMMM CONGA, You be Knockin'em out right and left. You done went and got good at this stuff in spite of yourself. :o
Have a Happy New year Conga, Have FUN and be Safe. We Loves'ya

Many thanks Ben, thanks for bringing "the love." I can always depend
on my ole pal. If people up here stop buying cars I am gonna come down
south and live in your garage, right?
"Abby The Abelam" is finished off with a few baubles for the ears. Peace
and love for the new year.

That's a wild piece there, Conga. I love your use of color.....always something wild on this thread.....

-G

Many thanks G...whenever I carve I think of three peeps who have
been the most inspirational. I think I will do a bumper sticker...
WWBBKAGMD. What Would Ben, Basement Kahuna and GMan Do :)
The use of paint is always a bit of a challenge, being careful not
to overdo. This piece simply had to have color. Thanks for peeking in.

Abelam-a-ding-dong!
very cool Congatiki!
Nice form and the embellishments look tight!
Great job!

Brilliant piece Conga! The color looks good! It is probably hard to decide whether to use more organic earth reds, whites, blacks--or go for the bright polypop colors. I really love the latest!

Happy New Year
ST

Conga strikes again with Abby. Happy Happy Happy new year. I really like these figures and you did a nice Conga twist on it.

Nice Nice Nice love the colors.

Many thanks LLT, Sneakytiki, Johnny and Seeksurf, Abby sends lots of
love for the new year!
So, what to do now? Might have to do something indoors for a while,
if the weatherman is right we are gonna be colder than a well diggers ass
for the next week. We will be lucky to get above zero during the days.
That sounds a bit cool for outdoor carving, but it might be alright for
some extreme skiing, which will make it at least seem a little better.

I do have a new toy to play with. I previously used my angle grinder for
smoothing and final shaping but I picked up a carving disc which I believe
is sorta like a lancelot. I understand they can be a little tricky to
handle, I'll have to be careful!

I got an idea from Buzzy's thread, I am gonna look for a Wisconsin badger
to help with my rough work.

Now if you can only train a group of tiki carving badgers...I think you could take the new gopher tiki carving Sea World show from Buzzy purdy easy. Though a ton meaner, badgers are much, much cuter than gophers!

Great work as always Conga!

Yeah! I love lookin' at your thread, always the more obscure designs I never get around to challenging. Excellent stuff!

Conga, Nice stuff you are making, I want you to Keep making it. PLEASE, get a router speed control and slow down that King Arthur or which ever one it is you have. It will be Way more controllable and you will get more out of it. Keep the guard on it TOO!

Q - "What would Gman do...."

A - He would go fishin'!

Great piece, Conga. Congrats on the paint, too...looks great. Always loved the Leroy Schmaltz versions of these in the Kon Tiki Ports.

very nice! abby is sweet. the paint really looks like inlay or sharks teeth. love it.

bd

Well talk about "making my day." The Conga thread is rescued from page two
by none other than Basement Kahuna! Nice to see you around here again BK,
I really appreciate your comments. I like this style of figure so much
that when spring finally hits up here I am gonna make a BIG one.

And thanks to you Big Daddy. I think I did some of my best detail carving
on this one, so your comment means a lot.

Winter has been a real bitch up here, so I haven't been able to do any
big stuff, and I haven't had a chance to work much with my new carving
disc. I did purchase a speed control for my grinder, as suggested by
Mr. Benzart. This makes all the difference in the world and will make
the dangerous bugger somewhat more manageable. Anyone else using a
carving disc or grinder should get a speed control, they are pretty
inexpensive.

I do have a couple of things in the works, and one of them is pretty odd.
Oh shit, they're both pretty odd. Pictures soon.

Odd? From you? I don't believe you....maybe you should show us and let us decide for ourselves?

-G$

I don't know what an abelam is (er, I guess now I do), but it kicks ass! Haha! I don't remember seeing that short dude in the picture. I might have go through your back pages (again).

Oh, I wonder if it's one of those old ones where are the pictures are now tiny?

Many thanks to you Big T. The Abelam people are a New Guinea tribe, and
the "Abelam" style figure is referenced in a pretty well know book around
these parts, pg 247 in BOT. I'm just an upper midwestern whittler but
I think I might have lived in New Guinea in a prior life. And you don't
have to dig too deep to find the short guy. He's "Voodoo Child" whose
finished pics can be found in just the last few pages.

Okay GMan, here are a couple test shots. I don't really know what it is,
but some would call it "not-tiki."


Still pondering at least three background options to finish this one,
we'll see what happens.

[ Edited by: congatiki 2009-02-10 17:22 ]

Whatever you call it Conga, its very nice work!

Quite refined, and it shows the skills of a seasoned carver.

Hope you got a taste of Spring Tuesday... we hit 60 degrees and melted enough ice for me to get in that big lake and catch some waves.

Winter is coming back, but Tuesday showed that it's icy grip is starting to lose strength.

Soon you'll be back out in the yard carving up the big logs again!

Nice work on your latest!

Yep, I think you'd better keep a watch out over your shoulder, those boys in the White Coats are comin' ta take You Away, Away and I think the PNG Ancients have Already got a big hold on you! :o Are there long periods of carving sessions you don't remember,and do you wake up wondering where this thing came from and who did it for you? YEp you better look out behind you, they're sneakin up on you. You don't get these Master skills by yourself overnight and just start makin these things.
How did you Do it?
Did you do it?
Actually you have the skills to do better ones and I think you will prove that in the next few pieces.
OK, I
ll shut up now!
:lol

Very nice Conga! CONGA STYLE ROCKS! I like the way that fabric looks behind the piece too.

Nice conga way to mix it up.
Don't look like a bear to me :)

Thank you my friends, Lakesurfer, Ben, Babalu, and Seeksurf. This was
a fun little transitional piece out of winter. I finally settled on a
painted background, feeling that the carving would get lost in a darker
background like leopard print or the Massai wrap in the previous pics.
Like you Babalu, I thought the fabric looked great. My wife obtained it
on a trip to Africa, and I couldn't talk her out of it.



Thanks for checking in. Now I must ponder what I can possibly do to
warrant all of the lavish praise from Mr. Benzart :) Not sure that
I am worthy.

Nice back up color, sense you cant bend the will other the
significant other. I hear you. I have the same problem.
Must be why we are still married.

Thanks Seeks, and all you other casual visitors. It's been a little
while.


Just wanted to share what I have to look at before I fall asleep.
This is my "mudman" carving, embellishments to come.

Right On! I like this fella. I sure scene a powerful spiritual medicating
filling about him.

I can't wait to see that mudman finished! Thats an awesome looking woodgrain too. It makes simpler pieces so much more complex.

kahalakruzer and seeks talk right,especially like the woodgrain and the quiet strength that emanates from him...

WOW dude, that's some cool carving.
The grain is really cool, what kind of is that ?

Benjamin.

wood : I wanted to write what kind of wood is that :lol:

Sorry,

Benjamin.

Many thanks for all the kind words, Seeksurf, KohalaKruzer,
Laojia and Ben. This is my standard carve material up here in
Wisconsin, good ole' badger state basswood. Carves beautifully
but is generally absent of nice grain, except in this case:-)

I will get some new full body pics up real soon, I hope you like
him all finished up. It was my original intention to put a lot
of color on the face but I am sticking with a more simple look to
show off the grain. Other embelishments are planned.

The carving is based on a museum photo of some PNG stuff, special
thanks to Lakesurfer.

Very nice Conga!

Look forward to the other pics!

Glad you could find some inspiration in those photos... if you ever make it down here you should definately see the collection in person.

Winter is back with a vengeance! Hope you are staying warm up there!

Thanks Lake. Yes, spring is about to bust through up here. We
just had ice and frigid for the last couple of days, but we are
all looking for change that we can believe in.
Here are some update pics on my mudman. He is not finished,
but it will take a few weeks until I complete the final embelishment.
So for now, another 30 inches of conga stuff.

Hope you likee!

Gorgeous!

wow, very gorgeous. love the wood grain. looks like you spent asome time buffing the sheen into him. what kind of wood is it. the grain is just great.

bd

I love the simple design. Can't wait to see him finished.