Buzzy's work: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

[ Edited by: Tiki G. 2006-06-18 19:15 ]

TIKIG: I'm always trying to keep a lighthearted tone throughout my post so I hope you don't think I was being too defensive in my tone, hostile towards your choice of tool, or overly defensive in my choice of tool. It was just the tone I chose for that particular post.
I get asked this question all the time so I'm glad that you showed people another option. On my follow up post, I just wanted to weigh in why I like the planer better and add facts from my experience to let other people decide which one they like better so they might choose the best one based on all the info that we all contribute. Essentially, both those tools are the exact same thing. They each have two 3 1/4" blades that spin rapidly around a drum. Also, I couldn't find how much that wizard was on the website, could you tell us how much it is, if you know?
Thanks for adding in, Buzzy

Buzzy any new pictures of the last one you are carving. It looks great so far. Real different from the other ones. Keep us updated please.

Yeah, Cool post Buzzy, I think I'll take planer # 2 today, Hey Hey..
The latest tiki has a strange new twist and slice and I'm sure there is a method to your madness IF Madness is what it is. Either way it is a cool looking tiki and as I said earlier, I am loving watching your progress. Keep on Posting..

Hey Benzart, I have a cordless version of the frond remover to go along with planer #2. Let me know if you want it. I'll even trade it to you for something you make. Maybe a Moari head pendant with gold teeth and a abalone shell bling bling necklace on him that says "DA PLAYER". You know, nothing overstated, yet sublime in its elegance. Keep in touch, Your west coast pal, Buzzy
Hiltiki:



Made two of those one hour slash and burn tikis today too. Will post those ugly things later. Enjoy this one for now.

On 2006-06-17 21:41, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
Also, I couldn't find how much that wizard was on the website, could you tell us how much it is, if you know?

I looked into buying a log wizard a year ago or so, and the best price I found online was $179.99. I ended up buying the same Ryobi planer as you, Buzz.

The tiki store ran out of my budget line of tikis last week. So,I did two more of them today and will to a few more soon. I guess I'll call them #3 and #4 in the Slash and burn series. Once again, I spent no more than one hour on each one.

started with a couple mexican fan palm stumps

ended with these

in between, all this happened

next one




too windy to finish burning

Mostly chainsaw-Refinements were done with gouges-Ugly but they will sell

Slash and burn, I like it! Hey, and as for earlier, you play nice Buzzy! Don't make me come down there and take my computer away!

My number of days worked on this tiki to actual minutes worked per day ratio is disappointing. Right after I TCB, I promise myself and the whole world that I will work on this Tiki until I pass out tonight.

Okay, I have to go drop off a couple of tikis at the store right now. This always leads to at least one quick and easy job that has nothing to do with carving. So no matter how easy the job is, or how much I will get paid to do it, I will turn it down no matter what. I promised the world that I would carve today and I will keep my promise. I am Buzzy, the carver, and I have work to do...

On 2006-06-21 12:06, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
Okay, I have to go drop off a couple of tikis at the store right now. This always leads to at least one quick and easy job that has nothing to do with carving. So no matter how easy the job is, or how much I will get paid to do it, I will turn it down no matter what.

So if it was my "day off", and I was walking in front of my place of employment, and I should happen to find a pile of money on the ground, and I should have to bend over to pick up the money, then would I technically be "working" and break my promise to the world? Probably not. Then, what if the pile of money was spread out throughout the parking lot and I had to bend over several times to pick it up and walk several feet between each individual piece of money that I needed to pick up? It seems that would technically not be working either. So, if I had to do less physical work than walking around the parking lot and picking up piles of money, then by logical assumption I did not work today, thus I did not break my promise. The important thing is not whether or not I actually broke my promise. The fact that I do not feel like I broke my promise to carve all day today is more important than the if I actually did break my promise. This is true because my feelings are much more important than what the facts may state.
So, after I didn't work for that pile of money that I got at work today, I kept my promise and carved until I passed out tonight. Only tonight was an hour later until I passed out and took a nap. Here is what it looked like when I awoke:

If I cannot fit an entire body down below this freakishly large head(I think I can I think I can I think I can I think), I'm going to plane it off with my ryobi planer and carve "Aloha" on it and call it a day. Oh, man, now my girlfriend's going to take her computer back...and I was doing so well for couple of days. Zaya sweetie, if I didn't say things that pissed people off, then I would have too many friends and I wouldn't have so much spare time to devote all my loving attention to you. So please don't take your computer back. I was joking, like that puppet hand dog guy. I can say anything if I just have a puppet dog on my hand. Hey, I need a puppet...
Puppetmaster Buzzy out!

Oh man! Buzzy, I think you just pissed off at least 8 people! That's it, I'm taking my computer back for sure now!

Dude. You've been out in the hot CA sun too long... or you're sleep deprived.

I agree.

YEs, I think you have too much time on your hands and I think you need to get a real job. Something like bending over all day long picking up little piles of money sounds like pretty hard work and I think you should look for something a bit easier like sweeping up all the sawdust some carver makes. That sounds about right.

Benzart: Great idea! You got your own broom or should I bring mine with me?

Worked on the mouth last night.




I just need to get this thing done already...

you need to be so done already. :) so I can have it....:wink:

Hiltiki: Which font should I carve "Aloha!" with? I'd bring it right up, but I want to wait until Benzart ships his new one to you. Then I can place this one a few inches away from his and proudly boast, "My carving is getting close to Benzart's lately!" and not be totally misrepresenting myself. Then you can send me home. With this...
Late afternoon update:

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2006-06-23 20:32 ]

Sooner or later, I'll run out of wood that needs to be removed...


and this will be done.

Bisping!

From the back it looks like a dinosaur baby, lets call it Godzitiki or Godzilliki.

Buzzy, you're right, there's not much left to be removed, but a Lot in small pieces. Keep it going and don't quit until there is No More left to be removed. He's gonna be a Nice one

GMAN: Bisping saved the season in his last two fights. Good showing last night. Cannot wait to see Ortiz/Shamrock.
Benzart: Just a few thousand more little pieces to go...


Now I'm going to hide the tiki under a layer of details...You won't even rocognize it!

I'm lovin' the design!

Worked on this one for awhile on Sunday. Did some sanding and clean up work. But the sight of it kept making me want to take a nap. I need to walk away from this sucker for a couple of days before I start to hate it.
Put knuckles on the hands though. I like those. Knuckle sandwich anyone?


sanded it a little

did the nose sunday night but no pictures

I was totally sick of carving on a hard, slow moving log. I wasn't in the mood to concentrate on details and such, so I decided to put this on hold until the heatwave passes. I was going to plane a few logs just to make today productive. I used my RYOBI PLANER and in a matter of moments, a 5'3" 16" diameter at the base mexican fan palm was clean and ready to carve into. I couldn't wait to tear into it, so I didn't wait. I grabbed a pencil and sketched this out

started on the face

carved it at chest level

face finished

starting body



hey, hey, hey, it's Fat Albert...

starting legs

more leg work

Oh no! No daylight left in today...

Oh man! A nice wet log. Just what I needed. I felt like I was in a rut for a couple of days. This gives me some momentum. Can't wait for tomorrow...

Buzzy you keep on getting just better and better.

I love making a mess...

Right now, it's actually more finished than it looks here

In a couple of years, there will be a movie out called "Skid Marks." It's a comedy about EMT's. Anyway, there was a scene where they were in "Vietnam." In reality, it was a middle school in La Mesa. And those vietnamese huts you will see in the background: I made those. Add movie set construction to my resume. While they were filming today, I went home and took my Ryobi planer and cleaned a log in an astonishingly short amount of time. Then I went back to the set and tore down the huts. Then I came home and carved again. Good, productive day. No pictures of the Nam, but here's the next fence post for my yard

Hey those lines look wrong! Don't worry, I'll just fix them later when I carve it. It doesn't have to be drawn right, just carved right.

Here it is after carving some this afternoon

Two corner pieces and I'll have my fence...

Bustin' out a bamboo fence Buzzy out!

As long as you keep making a mess with tikis like these,,, No Problem. "The more mess, the finer the piece" is what I always say and you are getting pretty messy here recently. No Napping between tikis,, I heard you had a nap the other day, Not Allowed!

It's too hot to do anything but complain about the heat...
Today's work:
Face drawn

face and body rough cut

at least I didn't get stuck in traffic today.

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2006-06-29 22:14 ]

Tiki #25
Around Christmas time, I went to Costco and saw several books that I wanted. At the time, I had no extra money to spend on myself that shopping trip. When I went back a couple days later, all of the books that I wanted were sold out already. I settled for a book of asian art. I looked at that book for a couple of weeks and spent some time drawing out some common asian motifs and styles. It was during this time that I started this tiki, #25, back in February of 2006. I wanted to see if i could make a tiki that appeared Asian.
I used a mexican fan palm, a little over two feet tall. This was a very hard and dense log. This was the first of this constitution that I carved of this log variety. I like this type of fan palm most of all. It's hard and slower going, but it holds detail well and almost never has cracks. I think it came from way down on a very tall and skinny tree that was very old.
Here it is drawn out

my drawing of the tikis at this stage were still very tight and exact.

Nearly every single detail is drawn before I start carving any of it. It is almost as though I have carved it in my head before I ever actually carve it with my hands. the first cut I make is with a chainsaw. I take it back exactly how deep I want the mouth to be.

Mouth carved to depth-I just chisel it out to the chainsaw cut

Face definition carved next

Neck/chest next

crown details started

Next day:I had to carve away the drawn out teeth. Since they were exactly how they should have been, I placed small marks where the tooth hits the lip tp keep the teeth correct

Face basically finished

Now I just keep working my way down. I vowed to make up a body from my head and not use anything for reference

This kind of carving is much easier with gouges. Too bad I still didn't have any yet. I look back at some of my "old" stuff and am surprised at how difficult it was to do some of it with the tools that I had. I'm getting spoiled now

Almost done

finished



finished it with an amber shellac


I love this grain

This was the last small log I would do for some time. I did about ten small ones in a row and was ready for larger work.
I can't wait to catch up with what I'm doing now. Only about twelve or so to go...

Tiki #26
When I brought the last load of logs to my house, my back was sore and I cut all the pieces before I loaded them into my truck. Most were between 2- 3 1/2 feet tall because that was all I could lift. The corollary of this was that my next set of carvings would be short ones. After doing the chairs and about 10 small scale quicker ones in a row, I was dying to tear into some tall logs again. I must have been automatically stuck in two foot tiki mode when I decided to do my first "tall" one in a while though, because I ended up doing a stack of two short Marq inspired guys. Oh well, at least the log is taller. This one was done with another mexican fan palm, planed to perfection with my trusty ryobi planer(have I mentioned how fast this tool is yet?) the guy on the bottom is holding a Maori in his hand. the explanation is that he got it from his cousin a couple of islands over.
I tried the picture drawing technique on this one. I took a picture of each part of the log...

...then I printed them on to a piece of paper and drew out what I wanted each half to look like. This was something that I was messing around with at the time. I had marks on the drawings that corresponded with visible marks on the log to make the transfer of the images in scale easier and quicker.

drawn

ready to carve

Some day (real soon, actually, upon reflection) I will have a nice set of gouges. I did my time and paid my dues with the flat chisels. C'mon Uncle Sam, send me that refund!

If I had gouges, I could make all those fancy details that people make when they carve Marqs.

Sunset.

Next day, bottom guy

couple hours later

closer, almost done

All done but the ears

I let it sit to dry for some time. A couple of weeks later, I got all the money back that uncle sam took from me the year before from my paychecks over what he should of had taken. I immediately went out and bought a flexcut 6 piece starter set. Instant gratification. I tussled with the idea of redoing most of the details with the new tools. I decided that since it had been a few weeks since I had carved this piece, I should let it reflect my skills and tools at the time. I could realistically get caught in an endless circle of constantly refining the same pieces over and over. I moved on. There were a few embellishments that I was going to do when I sanded, so I did those unfinished areas with the new tools.
Stained it with rosewood stain and a couple layers of clear shellac




What I learned:

1. All those smooth scoops are a piece of cake with the right tools.
2. The right tools are expensive in comparison with the wrong tools.
3. There is no comparison in the quality of output of a nice tool and a cheap tool.
4. Tax refunds last less time than paychecks do.
5. Hey, you can't put a Maori on a Marquesan!
6. Hey, I can put a Maori on a Marquesan!
7. Water based stains are not as nice as oil based.

Buzzy, I Love the lessons you are giving AND the lessons you are Learning!

Carved a little before Ona's hoedown on Saturday:

Today's before the sun sets progress:

Didn't see you at Ona's party?????

Tikis #27, 28, 29 A step backward?

Was this next set of tikis a step backwards for me? Yes and no. Short term: yes. Long term: definitely not. These next three were carved from the leftover cut outs from the three chairs I did in the preceding few weeks. All three of these were carved in one day. These were practice tikis and were approached more from the technique angle. I was less concerned with final outcome of these than most of my work up to this point. There were a couple of things that I wanted to try with these log pieces. One thing that I wanted to do was try to do more precision cutting with the chainsaw. Another was to work very fast on a piece. Another was to carve the same scale face with hand chisels and compare the results with the ones that I rough cut with the chainsaw. Bye bye slow modem people! See you next page or so...

Leftover pieces from the chairs(one is missing)

chalked and drawn, Yawn! Actually, I had to make the nose way higher than I wanted to because the tree service put a big gash on one spot of the log. I just worked it into the nose...

I cut these lines wearing my safety gear

mouth cleaned with flat chisels(c'mon uncle Sam, send me my refund...)

I cannot see anything different about this picture from the last one.

This one looks different though. Ready for burning...

There is this always pissed off guy on American Hot Rod. I forget how to spell his name, it but it is pronounced like "burnt." Whenever they say his name, I yell "BURNT" as loud as I can. This is now "BURNT!"

I did the next one all by hand, quicker than I usually work, but still trying to do the best I could
Here it is drawn out to symetrical perfection. I should have left it like this. Looks fine to me. Hey, maybe I'll just start selling drawn out logs to carvers. kind of like a carve by numbers kit...

Clank. clank. clank. Pieces fall out.

Just follow the lines.It's easy. Crest White Strips commercial here. (My first sponser. Yes, I sold out. Next up I join the carver's union and charge way too much for my stuff)
Before crest strips...

After...Check out that bright white smile!!!

I kept carving. I just did the face. It's about a wrap for this one...

Slap on some teeth...

Details so that you can charge a couple more bucks for it...

Done. Move on. Next one was done as fast as possible. Mostly chainsaw.

Done.

If Zaya was to be here at this very moment, she would be covering her ears because I'm yelling "BURNT" again.

(If you are actually still reading all this blather, I overburn the burned areas, and then sand off the excess. I changed my mind about the black pupils and made the eyes bigger than I originally planned.)
All together now...yell "BURNT"

C'MON Florida, put your hands up and yell, "BURNT". Now Wisconsin! "BURNT"

Stained it with two colors of stain:

I like the way it looks with the various shades. Looking at these pictures, I almost miss this thing.

I just sprayed on some sealer for the other two. Can you tell which one was done by hand?

Around this time, my tikis really started piling up around my house.

It was about this time that we heard about Tiki Oasis 6. Everything started getting real crazy after this. It still is.
Anyway, What I learned:(Shouldn't I be getting royalties for this part by now?)

1. I can tell the difference between my hand carved and chainsaw carved stuff easily.
2. Do not throw away any good log pieces. I almost threw these away, but kept them for practice.
3. I made about $220 carving these pieces in one day. OOPS! hey IRS, I mean I gave these to a charity auction and they sold them for $220. About that refund I mentioned earlier, If I buy tools for my "business" with my refund, can I use that as a deduction and get another refund, but only twice as large?
4. I have too many tikis now. It is official.
5. My ugly, practice tikis all sold first at Tiki Oasis.
   Geeze! This took forever. I can't wait to catch up to present day tiki making time...
   Reflective Buzzy out!

Most of you do not read these words(except hiltiki and benzart-you are my best TC friends forever. BTCFF OMG!!!),but I would like to comment on an earlier post that I did in April. I learned a lot more about the industry side of tiki in the last few weeks. Especially in the San Diego area. I think that some of these incidents that I will mention will emerge in any large tiki market area. If you are a carver trying to do this for more than a hobby, it might be nice to know what you are up against.
Also, in the same post, I mentioned a Mr Local Tiki Maker Guy, whom I wrongly attributed several tikis to. I have since learned a few things about him too. Very interesting things...

On 2006-04-11 21:43, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
It was a simple design and I've seen several copies?, interpretations?, around the San Diego area. I think it's a design that an individual local tiki maker is mass producing and selling all over the county.

I knew so little back then...
It's actually an old Leroy S. design, I believe. And it is not a local tiki maker, I have found out. These tikis are actually mass produced in Indonesia.Imported in huge crates by the thousands. Retail about $299 for a 3-4 foot tiki. The sad thing is, the Real Local Tiki Maker Guy chose these tikis to copy, put on his website, and sell. So let me see if I have this right: Back in the day, Schmaltz goes a travellin' and sees a carving he likes. He comes home, does a few variations, and then finds a design that many people like and he makes several. Someone replicates one, sends it to Indonesia, and the United States has thousands of this same design throughout. Mr Local Tiki Maker Guy sees one of these, says "That's cool, I'm going to make one of those." He replcates it exactly, posts it on his site, and says he will make one for you in this design. He even charges the same amount. Hey, did he even make the original? He said he did on the website. How come half his tikis look like the exact same ones I have seen at several stores throughout the county, and in several Tiki Magazine ads? I think that it is funny that I copied his copy of copies of an originally copied original, that was probably a copy of someone elses original in the first place. It would be ironic if the original that I am now theorizing that Schmaltz copied from and old island carver, was made originally by the grandfather of one of the sweat shop carvers that make the copies now. .

Every last one was carved with the exact same design that was the exact same size. He probably uses a stencil and does them in lots, assembly line style. They did vary slightly from one another in that the eyes and details were painted in differing colors.

I was wrong again. It was really about a hundred guys in Indonesia getting paid pennies a day. They make the same design over and over and over again. I saw that Crazy Al did this with one of his tikis. Is he actually outsourcing himself out of his own job?
There are about seven different prevalent designs that I have seen that are really common. Most would recognize them all. You can get the same identical tiki in three different sizes too. The heads are usually the same size, they just make the legs longer and charge more because it is bigger. Expensive Daddy Longlegs Tiki: I'll take a thousand please!

I think that I counted 14 small ones and 4 large ones all lined up when I drove by. About two weeks later I happened by and I didn't see any of them out front. I pulled in and walked through the entire store looking to see how many tikis the store moved in the last two weeks or so. There were none anywhere. They all sold. About a month later, I drove by again and noticed another lot of tikis had arrived. It was about another twenty of the exact same one. This time there were no large ones-just three rows deep of the same replicated small one. Another month later I drove by again and there were only two left. Since then I've seen one more large load of the same tikis that are presently down to only two.

I have found out the following: In San Diego, a certain tiki importer, drops off a load of tikis to several patio and tropical themed stores. He does not charge them up front. He returns in a week or so, conducts an inventory, and then collects for sold tikis, and drops off more. Same designs, over and over again. Who is buying all of these? Not collectors. This is who you are in competition with if you try to sell your stuff at the retail level in San Diego to the general public.

Oh yeah, I'm also sorry Mr. Local Tiki Maker Guy that I tried copying at least two of your tikis early on in my tiki making journey.

Well, since they were actually not yours. I'm not sorry! Remember when we were at Tiki Oasis, and you kept looking at me all pissed off every time I wheeled another tiki I sold by your booth. Well the reason no one bought your stuff is because it all looked the same. You only brought two designs. Two designs that everyone else has. You only had two designs that didn't sell, though. I had twenty. You had zero designs that sold. I had ten. Buzzy's hint: Diversify! Or copy a less copied copy, at least. And don't look at me all mean when I sell my stuff, because that just isn't in the tiki spirit, is it?
Little More Learned Buzzy Out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2006-07-06 02:14 ]

More great lessons learned from and by the Buzzy. Lot of Ironic stuff there for sure.
The key to sucess is to first have Fun, thencarve what you feel will sell and try not to directly copy anyone elses stuff that "They thought would sell" because it might not.
However, I Might want to have a few of my pieces duplicated overseas and sent back to me where I would finish them and sell them at reduced prices simolar to Crazy Al's pieces. It is a Sound idea and may save me a lot of work and would give many more peeps a chance to have a Benzart of their own. I Dunno, just thinking.
See what you do with your lessons? You make people think!
Happy happy happy

Buzzy that is very interesting. I wonder who is buying all these mass produced tikis. I like being on TC and seeing all the carvings that the artists do around here and having the choice to pick the ones I like, knowing someone I know made them. I think that's what makes them special. I find myself referring to these tikis by the artists name. I guess it is a matter of taste and knowledge when it comes to buying arts and crafts. Thanks for all the information Buzzy.

By the way it is (H+B=BTCFF-OMG!!!).

Buzzy here, back in familiar territory. I was wandering around TC yesterday, doing some sightseeing and I ran across this free fire zone- no man's land area called "Marketplace" for the first time. Scary business over there: I felt like I was in that movie Escape From New York. Call me Snake!
It was a fun vacation over there, but today was back to work. I spent a good deal of time getting my sanding area ready. It's time to tackle the eight carved, but unfinished things I have lying around. By then, the second fence post will be done, and both will be ready for sanding/staining. I don't know how I let 9 finished things back up, but I've got a lot of work to do. In between sanding the chair, getting my sanding area ready, and hanging out being Mr. Cool, I did a little work on this second fence post today:

I thought I'd share some of my limited edition Tiki Themed photo art with you guys finally.
I call this one: Dog, Logs, Big Tree and Tiki

I love my dog!
Speaking of dogs, this side of the log isn't as good as the other side. I have very little work to go on this now. Ugh! Sanding time, big time. At least I'm happy about finally seeing some of this stuff finished, all shiny and new...
Wearing a sanding mask all night Buzzy out!

Sanding line:

Many of these need finishing touches here and there after I do some initial, but necessary sanding first.

Beautiful San Diego day today. Break time now. Yes, I'm working on a holiday. I love my job though, and since I'm my own boss, I told myself that I could knock off early to spend UFC 61: BITTER RIVALS with my loved ones. The breeze has been going good today, so I actually sanded the chair outside

It's too breezy to burn outside right now, so after this post, I'll drag it in and burn it. Then stain it, stamp it, and send it...
PUBLIC PM FOR S. and/or C.: Zaya just left for Cape Cod yesterday, so I have no way to contact you while she is gone for the next couple of weeks. I know you guys check this regularly, so can you email me when you see this to my link below. I'll be done with this tonight after UFC rites are celebrated. I also have two things to ask S. too. thanks.

I will now continue...
When I sand all my stuff, I take frequent breaks to get out of the dust and rest my arms. Today, during one such break, I came up with an idea out of the blue and started to run with it...
I have all kinds of pieces of palm wood lying around. I started with this scrap:

A few minutes of carving and I brought it to this palm plank:

These are the pieces that I will put together for this little project:

This is just a simple prototype project that I'm going to test out while I take dust breaks. If it works out and is as quick as I think, the plan is to carve Maori patterns into another plank, inlay the New Zealand Maori stamps around the carved design, and build a black bamboo frame around it all. I actually spent the morning contacting stamps dealers looking for more stamps...

Here's a close up of the body of the fence post #2. I forgot to post this yesterday:

I'd like to remove more from the base, but I need the wood to bolt into, and it cannot be top heavy.

Tim Sylvia still HW champion of the UFC...(my prediction)
How many hours until I can see Shamrock get beat up!!!
The rest...Monson, Mir, Aldana wins, Stevenson loss (my hopes)
Others...Don't much care, hope they're good...

While I'm here, I can't remember if a gave a shout out to a couple of O'side guys for watching my back a few times now and then...Got you guys covered too, thanks. You can take the boy out of NC, but you cant take NC out of the boy. I was born here, now I live here, but I'll always be from NC...Sorry it took so long to give you guys your props.
People I know don't ask me what I'm up to anymore. They just log in and look...
Break's over.
Blowtorchin' Buzzy out!

Back to WORK he says.. We KNOW he goes back to PLAY, Buzzy you can't fool us, you enjoy this too much to call it work and we enjoy it so much we call it Play,"Honey I'm goin out to play today OKAAA We gotcher# right there Buzzy and we Love ya!

Monson!

Benzart:(sing along to the tune of that Beach boys song now...)

And I'l have, fun, fun, fun, til they come and take my blowtorch away...

Progress:

I want to put the clear on the white parts now but...
UFC time!!!
Pay per View Payin' Buzzy Out!

Didn't take Tito long.....

-G

Buzzy I really like the 4th guy from the left, the one with the 4 layered headdress, hands are together, tongue is out. You know??

G:That UFC was disappointing...as a whole. Good blood fight early...Pissed no Monson coverage other than 2 seconds of nothing: Is that a new tribal tattoo he is sporting? I'm going to have to search my UFC archives and see...
But first...

Chair's done, three more due as soon as possible -if I can ever get the wood...Shouldn't have split those logs a few months back after all. I even remember thinking before I cut those, "No one else is ever going to want another one of those...I want to see if I can split these big old logs."

I'm putting this picture here because I know that people do not bother to read my words, and I want them to know this is a chair

Worked on that Maori frame stamp thing too:
Planed the palm panel flater and even, and then cut black bamboo pieces to fit. Butt joints for this. I tried miters the first time, but I need to make a jig template with clamps to do it right. This is a learning piece, so easy is the key, for now. At least I tried the hard way first...

It measures about 14 x 6 inches

It takes longer than you would think to do this, because you probably wouldn't notice the hand carved shaping that I had to do to get the bamboo flush. Let me point it out to you here:

here is a close up of the palm plank grain and one of the bamboo pieces slighly planed to sit flush with the plank

Some times I could go on for ever...most of the time I actually do.
Tonight's bedside reading for me will be The Art of Maori Carving. I hope me eyes don't melt for looking at the wrong moko accidently...I actually know less, the more I try to learn, but I keep trying nontheless...I'm stubborn like that.
Boring Buzzy Out!

Is this my carving thread? Should it only be for carving stuff? Let me think about this for a second while I decide whether or not to keep making all kinds of new threads in "creating tiki- other crafts", or just throw everything I do in one place, right here, home sweet home.

Reason I ask is this:

A couple weeks back, I was talking about a movie set i was working on. This picture is from the production company of the work that we did for "Skid Marks." It doesn't look like Vietnam to me, but it doesn't look like Lewis Middle School softball field either. If you live in SD, look out for a big yellow sign that says "skid" with an arrow when you are driving around. Follow the arrow to the nearest school or park, and you will probably find them filming. I saw one up Claremont DR earlier today. You'd be surprised who you meet hanging around a movie set...Just look like you belong there.

That wasn't about carving, but if I was not a carver, this opportunity never would have come my way. So then, if I am a carver by definition(I currently play this role in the whole tiki universe dynamic,) then by extension, everything I do should be applicable here.

Either way, I'm going to post away. You guys, both my loyal readers that is, are the ones who this actually affects, so let me know.

Right now I have something that has to do with carving that I will share with you. It's not actually carving, but I think it fits here best, on my carving thread

People collect different things. Even the slightest reference to tiki will create the corollary of its value to some collector, somewhere. If you collect stuff like this, let me know and I'll give it to you after I am done. Read on...

Here is a blueprint for a hole at a miniature golf course that is set to be constructed soon:

here is a detail

I like the way the architect drew out the Tiki example

Anyway, this course will be made, this hole will be built, and four tikis will be carved for it. If you collect tiki stuff like this, then here is your opportunity to get the original blueprints that I used on this project, along with any and all other letters of correspondence about this project. If none of you guys out there want all this stuff when I'm done, I'm going to give it to a guy I know named Juan, the trash collector. He collects everything...
Buzzy

well there we go. that is looking very nice. keep the good work comming.