TikiMango's Carvings- P31, Bone Hawaiian Tapa Hook

I decided to follow the advice of others from my painting thread and pull my carvings out and put them into their own thread. Currently I don't have the space, tools, or time to really get into carving, but I hope to very soon. In the meanwhile, here is my first attempt at relief carving.

This was a teak(?) serving platter I found at the local thrift store. It's 6"x13", and I managed to hack at it with some crappy "wood carving tools" from Michael's art store. It seemed like I had to spend 5mins of sharpening for every 3mins of carving. The nose didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I introduce to you the W.C. Fields Moai.

Pupule Tiki!

[ Edited by: TikiMango 2011-02-05 12:24 ]

Last Sunday I was visiting Kirby's Rumpus Room and spied a torch there. I took my first ever carving and torched it up upon Kirby's suggestion. Here's my interpretation of Ku, 24" tall out of Douglas Fir. All straight chisel.

The grain pattern gives this one a slight Marty Feldman character I think.

Cool! I don't remember seeing your painting thread, but your carvings are already pretty damn nice! I like the tray too. I don't think I would have noticed the nose if you hadn't pointed it out. Just thought it was part of the plan. :)

Do you plan to do any more finish on the Ku?

Thanks for the comments TheBigT. I've received a few ideas on how to add some details to the Ku and slim down the base he is sitting on but as far as a surface finish I kind of like the burnt, unsealed look it has now. This will be an indoor tiki, and burnt wood smells better than sealed wood to me.

Frikin awesome dude! When are you going to start selling stuff? You should set up a table at the tonga hut on saturday.

Wooooooooooooooohooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Good to see you here Mango!
Dig the platter.

Tyler

This lono is killer work. I love the finish.

Benjamin.

I guess I need to change the name of the above from Ku to Lono, the more I look at it, the more it is a Lono. Oh well. Here is a small 4-incher out of bass wood, done a couple of months ago. This could be considered my first carving.

I really need to invest in a hook knife. As for the finish on this, it was acrylic paint that I diluted with water to make a wash.

On 2008-12-05 07:29, TikiMango wrote:

The nose didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I introduce to you the W.C. Fields Moai.

Yo TikiMango! Looks like you left enough wood so that you can still fix that nose a little bit if you want to.

I'd try removing the stuff in the red dot area and moving the green line area down to where I drew it in black. Moving the eye lines down to where the black lines are will help that area a little too by making the nose look a little shorter.

Nice work, keep it up.
Buzzy Out!

Buzzy! Mahalo for the advice, but I think it's better to let sleeping menehune lay. I'll probably attempt another platter and will pay closer attention to proportions to get it closer to the image you have marked-up. If I tweak this one, there's no telling what the outcome will be.

On 2008-12-08 19:22, TikiMango wrote:

Great design on this guy! Wikkid!!

And carving bas relief like your Moai is no walk in the park. Try a profile or 3 quarter view sometime instead of a full frontal. I get ideas for bas relief technique from studying coins.

Keep up the good work, Ray!

Bowana

Very cool looking design on the 4" tiki!
I love his huge underbite. One of the coolest looking originals I've seen in some time.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comments guys! Here's another 4-incher, the last scraps of bass wood I have. Did this all with a 1/2" straight chisel and some sand paper. Stained it with some acrylic paint.

cool mango.. very psychedelic back drop..happy new year..kirby

cool shit man!

Hey that acrylic came out good! Nice little guy.

Here's my Teeny Tiki Tea-labra, another 4" mini tiki.

He almost looks like he's "Home Alone".

This guy had a nice hole in his head (much like mine), what to do, what to do?

Stick a tea light in it of course!

Teeny Tiki Tea-labra is tits,man!
nice overall shape and stylization!
Rad!

Amazing piece. Looks like you took care of this wood all along.
I'm impressed.

Bravo,

Benjamin.

Definitely some Wild and Excellent stuff man, Where'd you learn how to do that like that to that wood? Much Respect

So I made the move from Los Angeles to Florida. I am still living out of bags, and searching for things that I can't find, very frustrating. Since I am still looking for work, I had to think of something cheap to occupy my time, and had a hard choice of spending portions of my nest egg on canvas, brushes and paints, or break down and finally try to get serious about carving. After being here for a few weeks now, and seeing the plethora of available palm logs it was a no brainer what to buy.

I was able to disassemble my very first entertainment system (dear old dad doesn't throw anything away), and reuse the concrete cinder blocks and 2x12 to construct a saw horse or work station for my carving space. For the record, three stacked cinder blocks feels like a really good working height. I also found a nice furniture dolly for $15 at Harbor Freight which works nice. I was also able to get my hands on a 3ft palm log. I have no idea what flavor of palm it is, but it seems to be carving nice. So I started my first palm, here's where I got after a couple of hours.

Not sure if I am going for any particular style or look, I think I'm just channeling whatever or whoever I can. I had forgotten how intense the FL sun can be, and managed to burn myself real good. I look like the typical tourist now, but I know in no time I will have that proud Florida badge of honor, the obligatory flip-flop tan lines on my feet! Yeah! It's been too long. And here's where the first day ended. I sort of like the scars and battle wounds on this piece of wood, just not sure how much I can keep.

Looking good. Can't wait to see what happens next

love your ingenuity on the work station..you always impress...This tiki looks like its going in a realy great direction.. and seems to hava a very unique design.. cant wait to see more...
P.S. We miss you over here at the rumpus room...

LA to Satellite Beach - holly crap you have to suffering from culture shock! Its good to see that your keeping yourself occupied. That looks to be a Sable Palm (FL state tree), probably the most plentiful palm in your area. The tiki looks like a great start - Carve Deeper! You are carving the bark and not the best part of the log. Invest in a cheap angle grinder and grind all of the bark off. You will find the wood underneath white and firm - excellent for carving. Sables can be a little stringy but it is good for tikis. Keep your eyes open for other good carving wood around. Mango, Avacado, Campher, Mahogany and Live Oak (just to name a few) are all over. You just have to sharpen your botanical identification skills. Keep us posted.

Coco Joe and Kirby, thanks for the kind words. I'm missing the Rumpus Room too. I can't seem to find orgeat around here, looks like I'll have to mail order it.

AlohaStation, thanks for the tips. I figured I was just carving the outer bark... that's why it was so easy to work. I'll go deeper on my next one after I build up my tool inventory. I really don't have anything around here. When I do carve into the fleshy part of the palm, it seems really "wet", does this mean this log should have dried a bit longer? I was told it was cut down about 3 months ago. I also trimmed one of my dad's mango trees, so I have a few 6" diameter logs that are drying out now.

So this tiki is about 80% complete as far as I am concerned. I am open to suggestions about how to finish him off? Should I use stain, or just a sealer? Should I leave the chisel marks (which I like), or should I sand him down?

I'm not sure why I enjoy under bites so much. Looking back at my smaller pieces, they all seem to have them in the design.

I'm really enjoying his pouty lip. My dad hasn't lost any of his wit, he saw my tiki this morning and says, "Ah, I see what you're making now, a self-portrait." He then pointed out the slanted eyes, pug nose, and goofy smile.

Pupule Tiki!

[ Edited by: TikiMango 2009-04-02 12:22 ]

You really knocked him out quickly. I like the under bite. The big difference you will find between East coast and Wesy Coast palm is the amount of water that palms have inside them. I have cut down dead palms, brought them home, and when I stand them up water will flow from inside. This will also cause the dreaded Palm Rot. Carve it while its wet and that will actually allow moisture to escape. You will have to wait to seal it or mold will develop under the finish (I like to wait about a month). The thing that is most deceptive is the color of the wood - once you put some Poly on, it will go from bright white to a rich brown.

Mango

Nice work !

Kirby's got me bitten by the carving bug, and I'm gonna go up to the rumpus room with a few logs I found on the side of the road in a pile of palm logs from a cut down tree that said "Free"...so i took a few. Gonna have Kirbs teach me some basic Tiki carving and give it a shot. I'm sure it will be terrible, but I'll try it out.

Glad to see you are occupying your time in FLA with Tiki stuff.

The rumpus room misses you, bro.

nice work there mango. good to see dead wood put to good use. if you like the chisel marks leave them in. do they complement the carve or take away from it? give it a day or 3 and see if it wants you to do anything else to it. you'll know when it's ready. really like the use of the dolly as a support/holder, something i never would have thought of. been trying to figure out how to tie down the logs i have before i started carving them. keep it up.

bd

Nice work! Got a good style workin.

Ray -

You know I love your tiki carving style..distinct and flowing. Your prana life force comes through plenty I think. I wouldn't go as far as your dad saying its a self portrait, but looking at this piece I feel you created it. That's a big deal to me - your style rubs shoulders with anyone else out there. Execution and workmanship will develop pretty quick. You've always been a whittler anyway - it shows.

You did this pretty quick. Personally I would leave him natural looking but aged over time. No finish required in my opinion, but I guess time and instinct will guide you as always.

Now I want to throw this out to you: In the future - for me - carve a tiki looking like a deity they are..powerful..exalted..supreme..and MEAN :)

Keep us all posted with your work. Cheers! G

I don't want anyone thinking I carved this in one day... we can't all be as quick or prolific as Ken Ruzic. I got the log over the weekend and started carving Monday, so this is 4 days of work, or about 20hrs.

Ya! nice looking fella there already.

Your guys Really Talk, I'm Impressed with how much Life they have!

On 2009-04-02 13:56, tikiyaki wrote:
Mango

Nice work !

Kirby's got me bitten by the carving bug, and I'm gonna go up to the rumpus room with a few logs I found on the side of the road in a pile of palm logs from a cut down tree that said "Free"...so i took a few. Gonna have Kirbs teach me some basics

Oh sh-t, sounds like an old school carving party is in order. This time with some notice. Mango I thought the tiki looked familiar!

Just a little update. I decided to stain my carving a red mahogany. I hope I didn't do wrong by that, but if you've seen my paintings, then be happy I didn't paint him electric blue.

I might sand him a bit to bring out some of the high spots, but I still have to wait a couple of weeks before I seal him.

Below is a picture for you guys stuck with the snow... I know, I'm rubbing it in, sorry.

Nice work! Keep at it and happy carving.

That coolor is Perfect, it really gives your tiki an old looking presence.

I don't know it sanding will hi-light the wood, simply because the stain should have soaked in pretty deep. go the other way and give the lo areas a blast of black!

The best part of that beach shot is theat the water is an inviting 75ish degrees. Was swimming in it today!!

I was given another palm log, a cast-off someone had down the street. It was only about 18" tall, but was a good 12" in diameter after I stripped the bark off. I call him my "3-toothed Marq". How long does it take for palm to dry? I was told this bit of wood was cut last Spring, yet it was still wet.

It's amazing how much time you have to do the things you want when you aren't going to work.

Nice work Ray!

Keep doing these carvings, man. I can't wait to see you attempt a full-size monster. Thanks for posting.

I found a 2x12 yellow pine board and decided to try to carve a canoe and rowers. I thought the yellow pine would have a wide grain like the Douglas Fur that I had experience with, but the grain was much tighter. After I was carved and burnt this, the middle rower snapped off while I was wire brushing. This probably explains why all the rest of these that I have seen had inlaid rowers instead of trying to make it from one solid chuck o' wood. So I cleaned-up where the break occurred, and now refer to this as The Missing Rower.

I got real lucky with the placement and symmetry of those two knots. The overall size is 36x12.

The grain just wasn't as tight as I wanted, so I didn't put a lot of detail in this piece. I'll seal it and stick it on the wall anyways.

Mango...good stuff !!!!

Nice! Very nice. Like the little guys. You used acrylic paint to stain? Did you use it like a paint/water wash and did the grain lift on you? The new guys looks really nice and the canoe is coming along great. Keep'em coming and happy carving.

All your stuff looks real cool. You have your own style for sure.

I really like the teeth on that last one. I haven't seen that before.

Tikiyaki, Badd Tiki, thanks for the kind words. Tikiyaki I heard you are being schooled in carving, can't wait to see pics of your progress.

Tikilizard, yes- the stain was a watered down acrylic, and the grain did not lift on me at all. Of course with the watered down paint, I had to apply a couple of coats. I suppose it wouldn't have needed to be watered down at all, depends on what look you are going for.

TM: wow, sweet stuff! Especially this guy - he rocks!!

Still no work to be had for me here in FL. I keep looking on the ground, but can't seem to find a job just laying about. At least that gives me time to hone up on my carving. I managed to run into a guy that knows a guy that has 33 acres. People pay him money to dump stumps and trees on his land, which he composts and resells. Anyway, I managed to score a few sable palm logs from him, so I think I have enough carving material for awhile.

I carved this guy last week, and finished him off today with a custom coat of Classic Oak. I mixed about 1/20th of the Red Mahogany in as well, hence the "custom". At 29-inches, he's not riding any big coasters. I really wanted to carve this guy standing, but the log wasn't tall enough for the proportions to come out right. So he's kneeling with his feet tucked under his butt. Can't really tell in these photos either, but I carved-through his arms.

I really need to get me some power tools! That was a lot of wood to chunk-out with a 1" chisel. At least I have an angle grinder for the major sanding. I'm trying to carve deeper, I just don't seem to get there... at least I stripped-off all the outer bark this time. I'm entertaining names for this guy, as Number 3 doesn't sound good at the moment. Any advice and comments welcomed.

Howabout "Numero Tres"?