Bowana's Other Crafts

A huge masterpiece, man.
Very beautful.
What's next? :wink:

Benjamin.

man do i love that piece. how big is he? i think that is one of my favorites. GREAT work.....WOW is that incredible

Bigmouth Strikes again allright, What an Excellent carve, Just Plain Perfect, WOW. I'm very envious of your talent, true Master!

Thanks for stopping by, pdrake, benella, Tikiduddy, and Benz!

Benella: I'm not sure what's next. Probably something small so I can finish it this year. :)

Tikiduddy: Bigmouth is 34" tall. It's the biggest carving I've ever made.

Wow, it's great to see him all done! I do like the tool marks, he looks just so sharp and perfect. :) Something small next? do you need some basswood? Rockler is finally selling some, but I have a lot too. :) I was gonna pick up some rifflers today, but didn't have time, I think they're really gonna help.

Great thread too! Everything is so consistent, with your style! in all the different materials, you're Very talented!! Saludos!

Beautilicious Dave! You freakin' nailed it!

Wow, hopefully I get to see this guy up close sometime....stunning man!

WOW! I missed this thread, major mistake! I've been preparing for a Lono myself, and yours is how I envisioned mine! Dang!
Yours is absolutely right on, beautiful. Good show. Hmmm, I'll TRY to find ways to make mine look different than yours!
Maybe I'll smooth mine out, instead of the chisel look! 8)

I can't say anything nice...that hasn't already been said. So I'll just say nothing at all, except DITTO to all the above.

Sneaky

On 2007-01-04 21:14, Aaron's Akua wrote:
...I'm predicting your sculpting skills are going to blow us away this year of '07. Your first showings here were really good. BK good... Benzart good... C'Al good...

Said it before & I'll say it again...

Tiki rock star in the making here!

Awesome work, Dave!!

On 2007-02-10 21:44, Aaron's Akua wrote:

Tiki rock star in the making here!

In the making? He is already a Tiki rock star! Wish I could carve that well. Looking forward to seeing more.

JP

Dude, You shred!!! Sweet tikis bro!

incredible work, TDave. i can't believe i've missed it up till now. WOW!

Amazing palm carving...so perfect and nice, almost like it's sculpted from some other material. BEEEutiful stuff.

Great stuff Dave! Man - someday... maybe someday... I can only hope and keep smashin the logs. I wish I could carve like that.

:) Thanks so much Mieko, Clarita, Squid, Babalu, Surfintiki, Sneakytiki, Aaron, JohnnyP, VonTiki, greentikipat, Polynesiac, and tikigap for visiting!

Your comments are are all very well received! :blush:

You Tiki Cats N' Kittens are rock stars too!

A friend of mine who is in a Polynesian dance group had two 17" pieces of palm wood that were to be made into matching drums to be used for their dances. She told me that the carver attempted to make a drum from one of the logs but failed, and stated that the wood was cursed. My friend then offered the other log to me to make whatever I wanted with it.

Hmmm..........One of a pair of cursed palm wood logs offerd to me by a Polynesian dancer? With a pedigree like that, how could I say anything but "Bring it!"

Here are some progress shots of a Moai I'm carving from said cursed log. I'm finding that it's a very difficult piece to work with. It's got some areas that carve like "budda", and others that carve like-well, something worse.

Much of the wood is splintery and wants to fall apart. I had to limit the use of the chainsaw to just very basic blocking out because it was really chewing it up. The rest was done with chisels. I'm starting to think that maybe there is some truth in the wood being cursed! Dang rotting wood!

I'm afraid I may have to abandon this one, which breaks my heart because no Tiki should ever have to be left unfinished. :cry:

On the plus side, on deck would be the carving of the AAC block courtesy of Aaron's Akua and Mieko

Thanks again for your visit!

Another masterpiece for you tikidav.
This moai rocks !
Very good stuff.
The alliance of straight and rounded parts is just awesome.
Bravo

Far out TikiDav! Where have I been? That there Wahanui is the Sweetest! And Lanakila too for that matter. Superb!

From a 12.5mm moai to THESE?! Bravo!

Tama :)

I dunno if your a "rock star", that distinction probably goes to our kiwi friends Paipo and Tama. I think your more like Big band, specifically the song Woodchoppers Ball, or perhaps a LOG superstar.

"People don' know what all it takes tah be a log supahstah." -Cypress Hillbilliez

The Moai may be in s*#t wood but your making some sweet lemonade outta that log lemon!

-Snizzle Tizzle

Yhis is a Super looking Moai. You Might be able to save him with a can or 2 of MinWax's "Wood Hardener" (No jokes!!). Saturate the soft wood thoroughly and let it dry and then carve away. Don't abandon this fine friend!

Nice Dave! One thing about a Moai - I've always liked seeing them with a very "aged" look to them. He looks really good already. You should think about leaving him all rough and rotted. (I know that'll be hard for you!)

I say it all the time but this time I mean it. I gotta ck. in more often than I do......this thread is incredible. Great work.

Well, here it is! I was able to salvage that horrible hunk O' rotten palm wood and make a decent carving out of it..............

..............and if you believe that, I've got a very nice bridge I'd like to sell you also.

Yes, I am a liar (duh). This is a Moai I created in a 3D program called FreeForm. I forgot I had this shot of it until I got an email from pdrake about another 3D program called Moi.

I know what some of you are thinking. Good Lord, the computer is going to put the wood carver (among other artists) out of work! I disagree. The computer is simply another tool that is only as good as it's operator. Take advantage of it! Wood carving will always be here.

Benella: Merci! Thank you for stopping by.

Tama "Ladykiller" Poutini: Thanks for your comments. I'll have a hot babe post her picture on my thread too some day. I gotta start making some jewelry.

Sneakytiki: I wanna hear some Cypress Hillbilliez! They're probably a real hoot.

Benz: Thanks for the tip on the "Wood Hardener". Sounds like it's got more than one use. :) I was not able to locate any though. I ended up leaving the piece rough.

Mieko: Your suggestion of leaving the carving rough for an aged look validated the way I ended up leaving it, so thanks for that. Yes, I can now make something without getting out the calipers and making sure it's absolutely perfect!

Mr. Dale: Thanks for visiting! Your comments are appreciated.

.........soooo, why did I not post any pictures of the rotting badwood Moai that I've been going on and on about? I just could not get a shot of it that I was happy with. It's not that much different from the last picture I posted of it anyways. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

In a mood for Moai!

I finally started carving one of the AAC (aerated autoclaved concrete) blocks, or as our Aussie friends call it, Hebel. These are 24"X10"X8" lightweight concrete blocks that are very soft and easy to carve. At the risk of repeating too much info that is already on TC, I would like to refer anyone interested in this material to Aaron's Akua's thread http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10451&forum=7&vpost=143993
This is where I learned about how to work with it. Anything Aaron says about it on this thread is pretty good advice. Thanks for that, AA!

Here it is with a few very basic cuts for the profile. I used a regular carpenter's saw for this.

Here's after a few more cuts, plus some sureform work.

I found it useful to save some of the scraps that were being cut off and use them to prop the carving up while working on it, so don't throw them all away!

These are some of the tools I used. As you can see, there's nothing too fancy. Carpenter's saw, a square, scratch awl, rasp, some Sureforn type "cheese-graters". and my famous riffler.

I found that when working with AAC, it worked best for me to draw the profile on the block and saw away what was not needed, taking extra care to make sure I was cutting squarely. I drew a lot of lines on all sides of the block to use as reference.

Be warned though that this stuff is messy and the dust gets absolutely everywhere! A respirator or dust mask is in order!

Here's some progress shots of the AAC Moai.

It's really nice stuff to carve. Lots of possibilities for clean and straight lines. It's messy though!

Here's another piece I've been working on. It's a 32" palm log I got from Buzzy a while back.

The symmetry on the eyes/headdress was really hard to get. Lots of measuring and remeasuring. This log has a real funny smell to it too. Think I'll call this guy Stinky...

......either that or Booger.

I love that Moai! Great use of concrete. There is a 6'6" tall, 2' deep by 2' wide piece of white plaster of paris or something down in my basement that the last owner started carving and left. It weighs a few hundred lbs and I have a trap door/ ladder down to the basement. I want to cut it into moveable sizes and get it out of there. Maybe I can carve on it?

Wow!! Fantastic stuff. That Moai is superb and the other tiki has a great vibe. Can't wait to see more.

Awsome Tiki!! I like your take on the eyes and headress and the mouth/nose area is perfect. :) Mahalo, Freddie :tiki:

Love the moai but Stinky/Booger is magic: woow

Benjamin.

Great stuff, Dave. I'm really glad to see some of that AAC put to good use.

Are you trying to tell us that this is your FIRST AAC project ???? Dave, you are a natural! Glad to see your latest stuff. Most Excellent!!!

You do beautiful work, man. Top quality and time intensive. Very nice.

DUDE!!! GROG had seen your other threads, but GROG not check this one out until now. AWESOME CARVINGS!!!!! Keep up the good stuff. Beautious!!

Thank you for your visit Sneaky, Aloha Station, Freddie, Benjamin, 8FT, Aaron, BK, and GROG.

Sneaky: Go ahead and carve the hunk 'O' plaster! It's not going to carve like AAC though, but I'd like to see what happens with it.

Aaron: Glad you finally got to see what happened with your AAC block. Any reason why you wanted to get rid of them?

8FT: Yep, that is my first AAC project. Have you carved it before?

AS, BK, Freddie, Ben: Thanks for your comments. They mean a lot.

GROG: I've never been able to find any of your work on TC, even by doing a search. Can GROG please send Tikidav link?

[ Edited by: Tikidav 2007-04-18 21:05 ]

That hebel guy is great! Nice and clean lines mate - well done!

GROG: I've never been able to find any of your work on TC, even by doing a search. Can GROG please send Tikidav link?

GROG might have to make GROG own thread to show GROG' crap----er.....art. Keep an eye out for the GROG BLOG in OTHER CRAFTS .

Your stuff is totally awesome. Do you/are you selling any of it. Atomikitty and I organize the art shows t the Tonga Hut, and we'll have to get you to come show/sell some stuff at the next art show or an upcoming one, if you're interested. Is La Mesa down by San Diego? It would be a bit of a drive for you, but Doug Horne came out from Arizona....

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-04-20 09:03 ]

Thanks Hewey! Isn't carving hebel fun?!

Aha! So GROG have secret life! Tikidav going to send GROG PM.

Really Nice stuff T-dav, that last tiki is really Killer! the moai is cool too, both of them.

Hey, Dave - I've given away a whole snotload of that AAC block! Not seen a whole lot of it reappear on TC threads for some reason, though... I'll not name names, but the recipients know who they are!! Why? When I started carving I seriously felt the need to stockpile logs, AAC & stuff. Now I know how easy it is to get materials, it's carving time that's hard to come by for me at least. Carve it up - I know where to get more.

On 2007-04-19 21:15, Aaron's Akua wrote:
Carve it up - I know where to get more.

Thanks AA. Gonna remember that! :)

Thanks Benz. What I really need is tool sharpening lessons. Arrrrg!

On 2007-04-18 21:55, GROG wrote:

GROG: I've never been able to find any of your work on TC, even by doing a search. Can GROG please send Tikidav link?

GROG might have to make GROG own thread to show GROG' crap----er.....art. Keep an eye out for the GROG BLOG in OTHER CRAFTS .

YAY! GROG thread! Word taken!!
If you can do entire shows and movies you can do some Tiki art for us!! :)

Here are some shots of the pendants I was working on at 4WD's Chop. I finally got them done. These are resin castings which I then painted.

This is a Yipwan design from New Guinea. It's about 3 1/2".

This tough guy is a fairly standard Lono design. It's about 2".

Thanks for checking in!

Hey Dave, that Lono turned out great. How many of them little guys you make? I need a couple. But, I do not want to be on a list. Can you help me out, without committing me to a list? ..or going to an event either. thank you.
C-Ya,
Buzzy

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2007-07-23 20:50 ]

Man, don't try that without those mag-glasses huh? Both look great, where's the order form?

Yay Dave! They look great! And they're DONE! I'm impressed!
Get a little box and make sure to always carry some around. I've been surprised at where I can sell pendants sometimes. :)

I was wondering what you've been up to lately, and there's my answer. Sweet pendants! What medium did you make the originals in?

There is some really amazing work in this thread. Very inspiring.

[ Edited by: tikidreams 2007-07-24 00:13 ]