BlueSage Carving post

Aloha,

Long time Lurker, first time contributor. I've been carving Tikis for about 9 months.

The first Tiki here is my first attempt, and may be too ambitious, but it is fun.

Made from a log from a jackfruit tree. More than a foot tall, but never measured it. The wood is interesting because of the light color, some variations of color running through it, and it's dense wood. Not a hardwood.

Still working at it. Once I am satisfied with the body I will start in on the floral headband and Plumaria blossom in the center of the piece.

Next up, a small piece made with the jackfruit wood. This time it's under 2 inches tall. This was my second piece and I carved it one night with the blade on my Leatherman. I finished it with some Spar urethane.

I had trouble getting a close up that wasn't over exposed and blurry.

The final piece is larger than the previous one. Maybe 3 or 4 inches tall. This was done in eucalyptus and finished with some spar urethane. I used a carving knife set I bought at walmart, but the wood was so hard I didn't get the depth I wanted. This was an experiment to see how a 3 faced tiki might look. I was inspired by hindu art.

And finally all three of them together, with special disco lighting!

[ Edited by: BlueSage 2007-07-03 01:51 ]

Bluesage, welcome to TC !

Very nice first carves! I like the big one! He's got serious potential.

What tools are you using for the larger one?

Mahalo

McTiki

Thanks!

I'm mostly using a 1/2 inch chisel and the cheapo carving tools. The half rounds are useful for around the eyes. My V blade isn't very good, looks like the metal was bent, so the V is crooked. Some of my best carving is done with ordinary knives.

Welcome to TC. I started with a 1" Craftsman chisel and a roofing hammer - now I have a tool chest full.

I got a bit of sanding in on the big one, but only one side so far. This is a progress piece:

This next piece was inspired by 4WD's tikis and Marquesian in general:

Obviously, some experimenting going on here. May turn out to be junk. Next time I want a hollow, I'll use bamboo...

Hey, I like the hollow concept, looks like you might be alright with it, just be easy with the mallet! How was the center of that log, mushy or good n hard?

The piece is actually about 4 inches tall, so the inside was bored out with drill bits in an old fashioned hand drill, and some carving knives. It was really hard stuff, and it only goes a small bit down into the mouth area. I will not be hollowing it out from the bottom.

If it were bigger, I'd make it into a drum...

Update!

I finally finished these 2 pieces. the larger one is a healing tiki made for my wife, so a lot of the design of it was hers. The smaller is a 2 faced marq with a hollow center. The smaller is about 3 inches high and the larger is over a foot high.

Wow! looking great! i like that lil guy.
Good stuff!

Excellent first bunch of tikis. Thanks for showing all the progress shots.

killer stuff dood