Some new photoshop pics (with moai!)

The Finkinator strikes again. Awesome design. You'll have to share story on how you thought this one up. It's killer.

Mahalo

McTiki

Wow. I'm with McTiki- you'll have to share the story on this one. Top shelf idea.

Looking amazing so far!!

That is cool! Great creative idea!

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone! :D My little hula flirt now has a hula skirt. It's made from little pieces of maple and pua rosa. It wasn't very difficult at first, until my band saw blade broke, then it was hellish.

Now, it's time to accessorize!

Wow! What to say? What a cool idea! Thats awesome! Great design and color combination. Sorry, I pretty ignorant on this, but I take it the purple heart is some kind of natural colored wood?

Great job. I can almost hear the music and see her hips sway. Using the purple heart for her hair was a real nice touch.

Looks great, man! Fantastic idea.

A beauty finkdaddy...but keep your eyes on the hands!!! :wink:

Thanks again guys!
I've been putting some final touches on my girl in between Packer plays. The chord you see was only to hang her while she dried. She'll have a nicer one tomorrow.
The toggle will be made from bone skulls to match her accessories.
This has been a blast to carve and I can't wait to start the next.



She's almost complete!

That is sweet! The skulls put an excellent touch to her, not that she wasn't already a hip shakin' gal! Fine job bro, Go Packers!

Awesome mate! So who's the lucky purchaser?

She is sooooo cool!! You're going a great job. Can't wait to see what's next.

Finkdaddy, that's just sick.kool work indeed!.

I can't wait for the you to start the next too!!This one turned out fantastic!I really really like her!!Great design,beautiful materials,excellently made! Congrats!!

This is some really nice work. Style, innovation and excellent craftsmanship...very very nice. I love the little skulls.

Yo Finky! I don't know how I missed this little girl? It looks like it was a bugger to do? What put you onto this idea? I bet this took a lot of patience? Very clean job.

-G

Hey everyone, I finally finished the chord on this gal tonight. Thanks for all the kind words along the way. :)

Gman! No one really put me up to it. I got the idea on a night when my wahine and I were out celebrating her birthday with some of her family at an amazingly horrible club in Milwaukee called Victors (anybody from the area would know what I'm talking about). A couple of hours earlier I had a conversation with Lake Surfer about the carving business, so I was sitting at the table in the club, turning over a lot of ideas in my head while the DJ was playing terrible dance music at dangerously high volume. Then in one magic moment, after approximately my 7th beer, I saw my wife's purse that she had left on the table. It was like all the loud music, all the choking smoke, all the 40 somethings trying to look like 20 somethings, and all the ridiculous dancing just disappeared. My world instantly became nothing except for the cartoonish drawing of a hula girl on the front of my wife's purse. I spent the whole rest of the evening trying to piece together in my head what a 2 dimensional cartoon drawing would look like in 3 dimensional wood. I started carving it the very next morning.

Here she is:

I have to replace my bandsaw blade this weekend, and then it's on to the next!
Thanks everyone! :drink:

You're nuts Finkdaddy. That is one great piece of work. Nice. Gotta go drink some more.

Dear Finkdaddy,
Amazing Hula dancer and the toggle just fits in. Congratulations, you must be happy to get movement and grace out of a rigid medium as wood.
Thanks for the images.
Hugs,
Sebas

[ Edited by: Sebastian Urresti 2007-10-10 20:02 ]

Wow! :o That's one beautiful wahine you've carved, Finkdaddy! This is an amazing piece of workmanship like nothing I've ever seen! Congratulations! I feel honored to own a couple of your pieces and continue to enjoy watching what you come up with next!
Cheers!

Amazing.
Bravo,

Ben

Curves a plenty there mate, she got style :D The gloss finish completes it nicely too. Come on, wheres the next one already!

Finky, You have done such an Incredible job on this Hula dancer! I can't believe the Jump in skill level you have taken. You have earned Much respect, be proud!

outstanding work fred! the colors, shapes and execution are all first rate.

That Hula girl totally sucks. You should get rid of it by sending it to GROG.

Conga, we're all nuts trying to do this tiki thing. Now go drink some more!

Sebastian, thanks. It took a lot of pencil work before I got it right.

Jen, thanks again. I'm glad you like your pieces.

Benella, mahalo!

Hewey, curves is where it's at mate! The next one will be even curvier.

Benzart! None of it would happen without everything you've taught me. Not just in actual technique, but in frame of mind too; the willingness to see a project through with the highest quality possible. Thank you my friend. :D

Bullet, thanks man. It means a lot coming from a true collector like yourself.

Grog, you're right. In fact, it sucks so bad I already sent it across the country and began a new one! :wink:

Tonight I began the next piece. I'm going to be doing a short series with the same girl doing various different things. I'll let each one be a surprise as they move along.

Here is phase one of girl two:

Thanks again!

This whole concept is absolutely stunning. Looking forward to this one.

Thanks JohnnyP!

Here's where I finished up tonight.

Lot's more to come!

This ones starting off pretty sucky, too. If it ends up as sucky as the other one, you may have to send it away to GROG, since you already disposed of the other one.

Ouch, she's going to be a killer.
What kind of wood is that ?

Waiting patiently for next pix.

Ben.

I'm really enjoying the progress of these pieces. Totally awesome designs and work!

Definitely looking forward to the whole series Finky, you Really have a beautiful concept going here, Congrats on working it out. That red wood looks like Makore, a beautiful hard wood similar to Mahogany. Not sure about the white wood.

Luv the new hula girl already. The 1st one was killer! The skull belt is really awesome!!

Just curious - what kind of glue is holding all the pieces of the hula girl together?

thanks!

Thanks everyone!

Ben, the dark wood is purple heart. For some reason in the pic it just lost it purpleness. The lighter wood is yellow cedar from Alaska, which if I remember correctly, I got from you a while ago. It's real nice for carving. It's nice and soft, but the grain is very, very tight so it has a good amount of strength. The purple heart is hard as hell, but it looks great when it's polished up.

BigT, I used carpenters glue to piece it all together, but I think a good amount of strength came from the multi coats of poly I added. It looks fragile, but it came out surprisingly solid.

Another update pic later. :)

Fred - Wow. This is a fantastic idea for a series. VERY creative and well executed. You're getting better all the time! I really look forward to seeing her complete!

Josh

Thanks Josh, here's one for you...

Here's where I ended up tonight. The body is cherry and the fretboard is makore. I don't know if you can tell in the pic, but there is a tiny red hibiscus flower on the body. Next I'll have to make some arms for her to play it with!

Man, this is so cool, I love the uke.

Simply amazing.

That's all i can say.

WOW! Mate, that's just amazing. You've really kicked it up gear with these girls :D

Pure crap. Looks like GROG going to have to take that off your hands when you're done. :)

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-10-16 21:31 ]

you're amazing as the uke.
Will you add strings ? :lol: (that's a joke of course)

Yes, This one is looking every bit as good or better than the first. The Uke is Cool too. Be careful not to let the purple heart stay in the sun very long, it will turn BROWN and lose the Purple!

Thanks Benella and Benzart!

Here's where I stopped today. Her right hand will eventually wrap around the fretboard once it's attached, and the line where the left one was attached will be covered by a neat bracelet idea I have.


Thanks for looking. Now I'm off to a relative's wedding, more tomorrow!

Just gets better mate!

Fresh image. The flow and colors work well together.I really like your work on this one!

Very nice! And she plucks!

-G