New stuff added!!

Great pens, AS! Tikify your desk! Nice meeting you at Oasis. Keep on carving, bruddah!

Beautiful pen! It's always a pleasure to see your work. :drink:

Extraordinary piece! That would look totally awesome on anyone's desk. Great work, can wait to see more.

Thanks for all of the nice comments - they are appreciated.

wplugger - aren't you supposed to be painting some stuff?
GatorRob - I enjoy doing the pens, but they are a lot of work.
Bowana - its was a pleasure meeting you as well. When are we gonna see the wahine you have working?
SD and Lizard - Thanks. I always have something that I'm whittling on. There should be pictures in this post but the camera battery needs to be charged. - FIXED

I am off to the beach today for some serious de-stressification!

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2008-09-07 14:29 ]

Woah Aloha, Where did THIS Guy come from, Just Outta the Blue? I was beginning to think you had Forgotten how to do the Pens, Just when you were becoming the Pen-Master! However I'm Happy to see you proved me wrong and if this new one is any indication the next few will actually make us go Blind and Dry!

just gotta say. bro, if you can improve on that, more power to ya. that is some damn nice work! i've got the pen turning down pretty good. i just wish i could carve like that! again , nice work!

Alohaaaaa
That is a SWEET Marq. I can't see anything sloppy there...anywhere! It's good to have high standards though. OK let's se a BETTER one! Ha!

Thanks for all of the replies. Its been a while since I've updated - sorry. The small stuff just keeps on comin. Here's some of the stuff I've been doing here and there.

The summer here is brutally hot and spending more than an hour in the garage is tough. So the small stuff has kept me occupied. These are going to be presented in the Marketplace. I just got back from O-town for Halloween Horror Nights with a group of friends! Still feeling the after-effects. I love getting the crap scared out of me and my wife likes the gore. More to come

Aloha, Those are sweeet! I really like the original large one in the middle and the one on the right has some great detail. Keep up the great work.

Hey, those New guys are really looking great, my fav is on the far right. I agree about the hot Garages in this summer heat, it's Brutal and difficult to endure for very long.. I hope you have been catching some of the surf that has been around awhile. (guess it's gone now tho)C'mon up one day!

Thanks for the replies. My favorite is the one on the far right as well. These all got started from being scraps left over from the pen. Its amazing how quickly I can knock these small guys out. I have really been trying to focus on getting the Trio finished before starting anything new. They are getting closer, but everytime I picke them up there is something else I want to do. Its hard enough for me to finish one piece at a time - try 3!! Especially when I have a nice chunk of Coconut and more rootball logs than you can shake a chisel at, waiting for me!!

Yes Benz - I do owe you a visit but time is not my friend at the moment. I'll be in touch.

nah, you don't Owe me a vizit but it will be nice whenever time gives way a bit. I about thqt time thing having you all chained down! :lol:

Yeah, Halloween is kind of a tiki-ish thing, huh! Your carvings are looking frightfully good!

Yah, the latest batch of small guys are awesome. My favorite is the one in the middle. Don't know exactly what his expression is, but it's really cool looking. :)

Anyone want a rootball. All you need is heavy duty trailer and a 1000lb. winch (not talking about a woman). Fortunately I have a connection. These trees were planted a year ago and never grew. They will soon be mulch.

I want a rootball, I'd take the whole pile if I weren't so many states away.

The pile of pendants looks pretty inspired, like you had a burst of creative energy.

Nice set o' pendants, Bruddah! Nice clean lines. I haven't done anything yet with the wahine. She's still in line waiting for attention!

My personal schedule keeps m away from carving more than I prefer, but this weekend I finally got some time to myself. So first is wplugger and I taking care of the log pile. He has 2 logs and I now have one of my own (there are still probably 10 logs worth carving. Thanks Will for hookin me up with log transport.

Next comes the project that never got finished. It took awhile to remotivate myself to finish these pieces and I think I'm there. Done carving and sanding waiting for stain - this week. I did some test staining today and need to see how they dry. Enjoy

Wow Will! You have such a BIG log! :)

Tom - that Trio is great! The expression on the last one is especially impressive, he really does look full and satisfied. Amazing job!

Thanks Mieko,
All the girls say that.
Will

Really love your cannibal trio, AlohaS. "Trademark" A.S. stuff, full of
fun and character.

A.S.

The cannibal tikis kick major ass.

Can't wait to see them stained.

Would love to have one of those rootballs here in the yard to work on.
Nice score!

Your keeping the left coast on fire I see Aloha....Can't wait to see what you and the Plugger do with them tasty logs there...Keep-um coming!

Great carves love your style. Wow the logs you are coming up with!

Ahhhhhhhh man...Can't ya drive a RootbeerBall up to me?!!
Awesome chops A.S.!

Thanks for all of the response. The trio has been stained and are close to being complete. I put the first coat of Poly on them and it took almost 3 days for it to dry (it was a little damp in South Florida last week). They should be COMPLETED this week!!

While I was waiting for them to dry I started on the next log. A piece of Coconut that has been curing for a few months in the wood shed. I had high hopes for this piece of wood till I started to peel it. Under the bark is a layer of "hair" and the wood is very soft. Sable Palms have the "hair as well, but I wasn't expecting it with the Coconut. I haven't decided if I want to continue with this or not. Anyone have any experience with Coconut?

I spent an hour peeling the log last night with hopes that it would not be a total loss. The bark came off fairly easily and the wood underneath was still a bit damp. So I broke out the chainsaw and cut the log in half. I now have a pair of soft, soggy, hairy coconuts!

On 2008-10-29 10:49, AlohaStation wrote:
I spent an hour peeling the log last night with hopes that it would not be a total loss. The bark came off fairly easily and the wood underneath was still a bit damp. So I broke out the chainsaw and cut the log in half. I now have a pair of soft, soggy, hairy coconuts!

I see no one wants to touch this subject. :wink: :lol:

EEWWWWWWWW! Hairy coconuts, That's disgusting..... Shave those things with a sander and 80 grit sandpaper at least................ Love the carvings!

Wow Tom, your trio is Really excellent. I Really like how you are finishing the arvings, I mean the cleaning up in all the small spaces normally overlooked b the artist. It's hard to go back over a piece to refine what you've already dne but it Really pays off in the final look. That extra bit of are in the clean-up really puts the piece over the top. You have always been one to do that on the smaller pieces but now I wee that in the big'uns too.
Super, Super Nice look!

Thanks for the replies. I took extra time finishing these guys just because every time I picked them up something else needed to be done. I finally cut myself off and bit the bullet (get it :wink: ). They're DONE! Here are some dark images that will give you good idea. Final shots are coming - consider this a preview!

Aloha, those guys are Actually Incredible looking dudes. A Certain Realism that is SO Hard and Difficult to capture has Easily rolled off the end of your tools to give you claim to an Excellent rare skill. You are learning how to creat realistic looking Human pieces Keep it up and you'll be teaching me one day soon.

Super cool! they look great, love the finished colors.

These guys are great. The three stages are a great concept and very well executed.

Ditto all of the above, very cool pieces. Design great, color great,
top shelf stuff. Now forget about all of those other obligations and
carve something else.

Benz - Thanks! I'm still working on that whole "walking on water" thing. These guys were a struggle and there are plenty of flaws that I see personally. Creating 3 that were very similar was very difficult for me. Most of my carving is done freehand and these guys required a lot of planning x3. Like anything, if I did them again it would not be as much of a struggle.

Seeks - These guys are carved from locally grown Mahogany. The color from the Mahogany is just fantastic and really needs to be seen in hand. I have one more "edge" piece of the log to carve before diving into some really nice heart wood. More to come...

Conga & Grapa - Always more to come...

I took some more photos last night with a bit more light. So here they are, the Cannibal Trio by me. This was a commission for a TC member - their concept, my execution. As stated before, this was a real challenge for me. Started these in April (page 43), put them down for a few months and regrouped/remotivated for finishing. Hope you like. Enjoy

jaw-dropping

AS, beautiful carves.

Man, those are so SWEET! Someone around here is pretty damn lucky! And whoever it was also had a really cool concept. They are oozing with character. So kudos to both.

:D :o WHOA! ...thump!...thud! :o :D

A.S.

Stoked!

Chock full of personality and detail!

These guys are a milestone piece to be proud of.

That top picture looks like it is from a movie poster about "The Happy cannibal" movie that is coming up. Super stuff.

Thanks for all of the nice remarks. Carving hardwood is much different than the palm. It takes a lot more finess and attention to detail than the palm. I'm still getting the hang of it and hope to improve. I am currently working on another pen that should be done by next week.

Benz - I was trying to get a darker feel than just an ordinary studio shot. It looks great on my computer but some monitors make it look a bit too dark. I really wanted to get the moon in the background but it had risen before I was set up. The dark images are actually 2 second exposures I guess I'll use a longer exposure next time. Carving and photography, hand in hand - who knew?

very neat. beautiful pieces - love the pics. hardwoodz rule!

damn, those guys are sooo coool !!! makes me want to carve better. great work.

Very cool Aloha!!! The pictures are nice too, the top dark one looks like a painting.

Craig

What a great riff on a classic theme. That moody night shot is just perfect!
As a proud owner of two AS cannibals I can see a great progression in how you've tackled these guys. Now you just gotta do the pole version..... :D

On 2008-11-10 17:56, AlohaStation wrote:

Droooooool. I've been anxious to see these done. I turned this pix into my background at work. The photo was perfect.