Bowana's Other Crafts

Thanks for checking out The Carve-O-Copia. Some of these images have appeared on TC before, but I wanted to consolidate them onto one thread.

This Moai is about 3' tall. I carved it out of Styrofoam planks that were glued together. You can see some of the vertical lines where the joints are.

I then troweled on Bondo over the finished piece and sprayed it with Fleck Paint. It looks like it weighs a ton, but it's really light. This one was affectionately named Bondomoai!

This one was carved from Eucalyptus which can be difficult. It's hard wood, and most pieces that I come across are split so bad that they are unusable. This one is named Ali'i (Chief).

Another piece carved from Eucalyptus. It's 18" high, named Lanakila which means Victory. (The victory being mine in that I finally finished it!)

My love for Kona style and Coco Joe's must be showing by now.

Aikane (Friend) here was carved from a hard piece of HBX2 clay. HBX2 is used for auto body and auto part prototypes. I had designed this piece to be slip cast so I was careful not to have any undercuts. I ended up just casting it in resin. It's about 4" tall.

This is the project I am currently working on. I started this carving at Mieko's Chop-Chop. It's my first real attempt at palm wood.

The wood is still a little wet inside and at first I thought I had escaped any cracking, but a few showed up later. Some cracks are okay though. I believe it was AlohaStation who wrote "Worry about the crack when the plumber comes over."

Thanks for looking. I'll post more shots later.

[ Edited by: Bowana 2010-10-26 17:23 ]

Very Nice, great style.
How tall is the eucalyptus one?

Tahitiki

[ Edited by: Tahitiki 2007-01-04 21:10 ]

Thanks Tahitiki. Wow, I just this moment posted on your thread!

The Eucalypus carvings are 14" (Ali'i), and 18" (Lanakila). Where do you get your Euc wood?

Dav! Nice work. Coincidentally, I just bumped up your other thread before I noticed this one. The Meiko chop-chop carving looks great, and I just wanted to point out that I carved two ends of it with my chainsaw. The rest looks pretty good too.

Aaron

Wonderful things in the Carv-O-Copia. Great attention to detail and love the style.
How long you been doing this?

Nice stuff dave!

TDav, You have posted some Excellent tikis here and using some very difficult woods. I can see you are Really into Clean, Crisp detail and your pieces are about as Perfect as they can be. Your Moai is top knotch as are all the rest on down the line. You have put a smile on my face today!

Thanks guys.

Aaron: Good to hear from ya! Yes, you did a fabulous job with the chainsaw too! How is your Moai from the Chop-Chop going? Have you posted any pictures of it? I've been looking around using the search but have not found anything.

The Hula girl has been re-molded, but I've put it all aside for now. Getting a little bored with it. I don't know if you saw this continuation thread or not http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=21904&forum=18&27

Congatiki: I have been sculpting and carving since before I can even remember. I got into Tiki carving maybe 8 or 9 years ago.

Tikigap: Thank you!

Benz: It's about time I posted some more actual carvings! Glad I was able to put a smile on your face. Now we are even! :)

Here's a couple more:

This is one of my first Moais. I carved it out of an old 4X4 redwood fencepost. I had no idea that the two tone coloring was going to happen. A nice surprise though. It's 11" tall.

This is Huhu (anger). 19" of pine wood rage! The finish is shoe polish believe it or not.

EXCELLENT carves Tikidav- great detail and character in each one..

Oh yeah- Bondo RULES!

hey man looks great! i REALLY like the one you are curently working on. MAN do i need to get my hands on some palm wood.
really like the teeth on that guy too.

Man, you are a superb carver. Nice work.

Man, you are a wonderful carver.
I love the shoe polish finishing it's just amazing.
Very good work on the carving you begun on Mieko's chop-chop, can't wait to see more.

Benjamin.

Top shelf! I love the kona style as well. Do you have any in-progress shots?
JP

On 2007-01-05 08:54, Tikidav wrote:

Aaron: Good to hear from ya! Yes, you did a fabulous job with the chainsaw too! How is your Moai from the Chop-Chop going? Have you posted any pictures of it? I've been looking around using the search but have not found anything.

Hah! Yes, always glad to take credit for my contribution of 2 chainsaw cuts. It was a lot of hard work, man. :)

Carving time's been tight for me. I did manage to get one more carving session in after the chop-chop mostly with the chainsaw and the Lancelot. So you can imagine that's it's still pretty rough looking, but moving in the right direction. I think I need at least one more session before I can before I can share progress.

Where am I now? At work... on a Saturday. Shit!

Cheers,

A-A

On 2007-01-04 21:04, Tikidav wrote:
The wood is still a little wet inside and at first I thought I had escaped any cracking, but a few showed up later.

Now you just have to wait for the mold/mildew stage. Probably about another 10 days or so...
It will only be a problem if you are planning on keeping that "tooled" look to the finish, rather han sanding it. After the mold dies/dries, it sands off easily, but it stains about a 1/16" to an 1/8" deep. Just thought I'd warn you...Happens frequently, usually about a week or so after carving it with this type of log.

Buzzy

Tikidav, just wanted to pop in and say that I really like your work. I mean every piece you have shared is teriffic.
Plus I admire artists like yourself that can achieve such excellent results with different materials. Your Moai are tops in my book. Thanks for sharing your work with us. SO COOL!

Thanks so much for all of your responses.

Capt'n Skully: Agreed! Bondo does rule. Especially when there's a world of sin to hide with it.

Tiki Duddy: Yeah, I guess living in San Diego makes us take having palm tree logs at our disposal for granted. Hope you will be able to score one for yourself.

BK, JP, and Benella: Thanks and Merci for visiting!

Aaron: Glad to hear that you were slacking on the internet while at work on a Saturday. Just as everyone should when they make you work on the weekend!! Will you be at 4WD's Chop-Chop?

Buzzy: Thanks for the heads up about the mold/mildew. Haven't noticed any as of yet. I have come across some rotting areas towards the core of the wood. It's darker and doesn't carve. It just sorta wants to fall apart and splinter, so I was not able to go as deep as I wanted on this piece. (see pictures below)

8FT: Thanks for popping in!

Today I sketched out the eyelids and beard using a rifler mostly. Better control in the tight areas.

I wanted the feet to be thinner so I changed it so that the feet are on a base. Too easily breakable if the feet were that thin and freestanding.

You can see the rot I mentioned on top of the head and between the knees. Hard to see in the pictures, but it's the splintery looking areas. I wanted to carve deeper and put some more open space between the legs, but it looks like I'll have to stop where it is now.

Dave,

What kind of rifflers do you use? Can you post a pic? I have some stone rifflers that are just the right size, but are way too course. I also ordered some wood rifflers from an internet site, but they seemed way too small for any serious medium scale carving.

Love the details emerging on this tiki.

Ditto for me... he's lookin really nice. I'd like to see a pic of the rifflers your using as well...

Great stuff. GROG like.

Excellent , Precise detail TD, I really love the face on this guy. Ditto on seeing the rifflers too!

Very nice! I really like how perfect your teeth are. You have great attention to detail. Can't wait to see him finished. :)

Very nice work :)

Wow Dave, I'm really impressed by how this big guy is turning out, of course most of the pictures you have of him make him look smaller than he is. Great work on your other stuff too, it's great to see what people can do with a redwood fence post.
Mieko

Thanks so much everybody.

The riffler, eh?

It's about 7 1/4" long. Really not very big, but excellent for doing detail work. I used it a lot when carving the Styrofoam Moai. Actually, I have used on all of my carvings. I'm planning on putting it to good use when I start on the AAC block you gave me, Aaron.

It's got a straight end, and a curved. (The tip was already broken when I got it. I swear I didn't do it!) No manufacturer name. It has "Italy" and the number 2, and letter B (or R) stamped on it. It was given to me years ago, so I'm afraid I don't know anything about it's origin.

It's great for making grooves. Quite a groovy tool!

Now here's a question I've got:

What is the cause of the horizontal marks pointed out by the arrows? That's not the grain. It's left by the chisels. I would like to have nice clean chisel marks, but I keep getting this. Is it from carving with a dull tool? Anyone else experience this?

In case you are curious, that's the hat of a Gnome carving I'm also working on. Not a Tiki, but there's no reason why the two cannot be friends! :)

Travelocity!

Dave, you're work knocks me out! I'm looking foward to seeing what you carve at the chop chop.

About time you had your own carving thread! They're all beautifully executed pieces, but I particularly like Ali'i as he's a little different than most of the Hawaiian influenced pieces you see- he reminds a bit of the feather effigies.
I think I have a very similar riffler to that - it's extremely useful for limestone carving, and I always use my little ones when I'm bone carving. They are such a versatile tool. I would love some decent quality ones for hard stone work.

4WD: Wassup, Bill! Looking forward to the Chop-Chop. I'll probably bring the one I started at Meiko's to work on if I'm not done with it by that time.

Paipo: You are correct, sir! Ali'i was based on the Hawaiian feather effigies. I meant for the mohawk/frill to be bigger, but ran out of real estate on the log. I wanted it to look like this smaller (3 1/2") figure that I had sculpted a few years earlier.

Also, here's my entry for the Paipo/Tama "Who Can Make It The Smallest" contest.

Not a very good shot, but my camera won't go that close. It's a Moai I sculpted and cast in resin. I was planning on casting some in silver, but it never happened.

On 2007-01-08 20:50, Tikidav wrote:

Also, here's my entry for the Paipo/Tama "Who Can Make It The Smallest" contest.

Not a very good shot, but my camera won't go that close. It's a Moai I sculpted and cast in resin. I was planning on casting some in silver, but it never happened.

Whoa....we may have a new titleholder! What medium did you use for the original sculpt and what tools were used to shape it? I think a little stone ahu pendant with a row of those guys along the top would look pretty neat! Is it just a head, or is there a body hiding under your thumb?

WOW!!! From really big to really small - Really impressive!

*Id like to know what the original was made from too? Wax?

**And just how small is it? 9.9mm is the target if there is to be a new winner! :wink: :lol:

Tama

Thanks for the tips with the riffler: I forgot I had one ! And it's very helpful:)
Beautiful work for Ali'i... And lanakila is superb.

Benjamin.

On 2007-01-07 19:58, Tikidav wrote:

Now here's a question I've got:

What is the cause of the horizontal marks pointed out by the arrows? That's not the grain. It's left by the chisels. I would like to have nice clean chisel marks, but I keep getting this. Is it from carving with a dull tool? Anyone else experience this?

If there are not grooves in your chisels, my guess is this:(picture on right-last 2 lines of explanation)

Benella: Find that riffler!

Paipo and Tama:

Looks like you guys got me beat. Mine's 12.5mm.

I sculpted it in epoxy putty. The kind that's used for making figures for role-playing games. This is the original sculpture. The other picture was of a resin casting.

It's just the head, no body. I mainly used these two tools:

A small steel sculpting tool that I ground down myself to suit miniature sculpting, and a standard curved dental pick.

Thanks for checking it out. Was that a Spicoli "Whoa!" Paipo?

Buzzy: Thanks for the info.

Nope, no grooves in the chisels. They were cutting in the direction of the yellow arrows leaving the horizontal marks the red arrows are pointing to. Each mark is a sort of flat spot like your book mentioned. Do you get this on your carvings? It's more prominent on harder woods.

TDav, Those lines are caused from chisel forward motion interruptions, which you get every time you tap the chisel. If you try pushing the chisel through a piece of wood by hand, shallow enough so that you make a Long sweeping cut, then you get a groove that has None of those lines. Now try making the same cut using a mallet on the chisel and you will see those lines again. It's a matter of experience and feel. If you can make the cut with ONE hit of the mallet, there are no chatter lines.
The MAIN , Good thing about those lines is that You SEE them and are trying to find out how to eleminate them instead of just ignoreing them and hoping the sand paper will remove them or cover them up. Goodonya

Hi Dave,

Maybe a heavier mallet would help with the lines, and wail on the chisel. Let us know what happens. I have the problem too, but less so since I got a heavier mallet.

YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS : I found the riffler that helped me to finish my current tiki.

Do you have more pix of Lanakila to share?
It's a wonderful piece.

Benjamin.

Benz & Tikigap: Thanks for the info. It sounds like you guys know exactly what I mean. I am indeed using a rather light mallet. I'll be purchasing a caveman club for sure.

Benella: Glad you like Lanakila. I'll post some more shots of him for you.

BUMP.

I love how the big guy is turning out! Very nice. I'm also very intrigued by your miniature guy - what kind of epoxy putty? where do I get it? how long do I have to carve it before it cures? Can it be painted? Have you made rpg miniatures? Maybe I'll just grill you on it on Saturday. :)

Tikigap: I got myself a heavier mallet, and like you said, the problem is less so. (but not completely gone!)

Benella: You asked for it, you got it. Lanakila:

........and thanks for the bump. Hows the riffler work coming?

Here's some progress on the big guy. I'll probably name him Big Mouth or something.

Brand new shave and haircut!

The ever widening crack. Getting to be a bit of a concern now.

....and Mieko: The mini-moai was sculpted from Kneadatite Epoxy Putty. It's good for sculpting miniatures, but absolutely horrible for carving. Magic-Sculpt is my fav putty for carving. Sure, you can paint it. I'll bring you a wad of it on Saturday and you can try some out.

I have to say Dave, that Lanakila is a nice tiki. I'm even more impressed that it is done in eucalyptus.
You can hide those cracks on the big guy the following way: Sand it enough to get a decent pile of dust. Mix the dust with wood glue or elmers white glue and make a paste. Fill the cracks with the paste and let it dry. I usually put a big pile of dust over the glue mix to leave as much of a layer of bare wood dust as possible as it dries. Sand it later and stain it. Sometimes you will have to reapply stain over the fixed area because it doesn't take the stain the same as the bare wood. That crack is in a good place and should be pretty easy to hide, or at least make it so it is not distracting.

Buzzy

Thanks for the pics.
Lanakila is even more beautiful that I could ever think. Very nice work.

Big mouth is very good too.

The riffler work is coming good on my current project. Thanks

Benjamin

Thanks, guys. Glad you like Lanakila. It was the first carving I made using eucalypyus, so I had no idea what to expect from it. The wood is not rock hard, but it's hard enough to get good detail on a small figure like this.

Buzzy, thanks for the repair tip. I'm sure I'll be putting it to use. I have plenty of sawdust!

Wow man, these are great! Killer great! I likee!

What happened to Big Mouth actually ?

Benjamin.

perfect work!

Thanks for visiting, GMAN, Benella, and Tiki Diablo.

I think I'm done with Wahanui (Bigmouth) here. I found myself doing a lot of smooth work on it trying to get just the right contours. After a brief, yet insightful conversation with 4WDtiki, I decided to put the tool marks back in.

I wanted to give the faceting a sort of uniform feel all the way around the piece. I also broke it up some by having some alternate smooth areas (face, neck, hair). I saved hours and hours of work trying to get it super-duper smooth everywhere by having it mostly textured, so thanks for that, Bill.

It appears to be a bit wet still on the inside, so I think I better wait a while before staining and sealing it.

Bigmouth strikes again!

un-freaking-believable. that's a trophy piece!