New GREEN LAVA tiki step-by-step

Aloha!

Marcus Lindemann from Florida here. I am currently working as a Huna Therapist and have been carving very simple Hawaiian style tiki (ki'i 'aumakua) and even using them in therapy. I never trained in carving, so my work has very little surface finish.

Enjoy!

Carved from a Big Island beach stone, this little Ki'i was a gift to a shaman living in the Midwestern US.

This Ki'i was an attempt at purposefully making an image that looked ancient.

This Ki'i is used as a healing stone for my clients these days, which is why all its surface contours have been extremely stylized and smoothed. It now has a female counterpart when working with people who require two energy polarities (Ku and Hina).

A random collection of Akua Ka'ai Ki'i I have made from all sorts of branches and wood that had lots of energy going through it.

Aloha!

Marcus

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2009-11-27 12:10 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2009-12-10 08:20 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2009-12-18 06:29 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2009-12-30 16:51 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2010-01-19 06:51 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2010-02-07 16:22 ]

[ Edited by: Aweulekuula 2010-10-27 07:53 ]

On 2009-02-11 12:43, Aweulekuula wrote:

This Ki'i was an attempt at purposefully making an image that looked ancient.

Welcome to TC Aweulekuula - these sure don't look very amateur! Beautiful carvings - the stick gods are great examples of designing to the materials, which is something I am a strong believer in. This one in the picture I've quoted is very similar (in feel) to a genuine old piece I was shown a while back, and definitely achieves the aim of looking like it could have lived in a cave for several hundred years. There is something quite primal and spooky about tikis made from lava. How big (or small) is this fella?

Marcus, excellent carvings, but I have no clue what a Huna Therapist is. Can you enlighten?

Love those wood carvings, so many.

for never training in carving, you have a very old soul telling you what to do. the stones have an ancient look to them. nice, very nice.

bd

Oooooops!

Sorry for not explaining what Huna is. Huna is a Hawai'ian healing philosophy that includes methods of talk therapy, forgiveness therapy, energy work, shamanism, and much more. I have a Masters of Clinical Social Work, but have found that Huna technique appear to be more effective for many of my clients than the more "traditional" Western modalities.

Aloha!

Marcus

These two Ki'i Pohaku 'Aumakua were carved from a really dense Hawai'ian lava stone and are about 3 and 1/2 inches tall. Both now belong to a friend and fellow energy healer. The first one is the more "female" of the two.

Aloha!

Marcus

Oh, and the ancient-looking Ki'i is 6 inches tall.

Excellent stuff, Especially for someone who says they are not experienced??? Some of that stuff looks like you picked it up from the Museum! NICE.

I just got this natural piece of lava and it screamed to be carved. What you see is the natural curvature of the cooled stone. This piece cooled down so dense that it sounds like a bell when struck with another stone.

This is the finished 'Aumakua. Rather than having a human shape I simply followed the natural curves of the stone and intigrated a face at one end. The result is somewhat spiritual in nature and resembles both a wave, boars tusk, and whales tooth, all important in Hawaiian culture. Oh, and it still rings when struck.

Aloha!

Beautiful!

i second benzart. beautiful.

Very moving, soulful sculptures.
truly beautiful.
Any of these for sale/trade?

Some of them are for sale. I am not sure if I will sell this curved one because there was so much work involved, but I also feel like it's not supposed to stay with me. I need to post images of tiki that are for sale/trade in this thread.

Aloha!

Marcus

Hi Marcus, great stuff here. You've got a nice style. I see you live in a wooded area. Cool. Man that lava is so ugly in it's raw form. Who would think such beautiful things would come out of it?

Nice! And authentically based, too, which is wonderful. You could teach a lot of the newer folks around here already just based on that alone. Keep up the good work.

Right on! Let the piece speak to you. Nice work.

Here are some of the 'Aumakua style wooden images that do not fall under the category of "Akua Ka'ai" (stick images) that I hve done over the years.

I carved this fellow almost 14 years ago. He was the first tiki I ever made and I still feel he is the most powerful one of the bunch. But back then he didn't have the facial beard pattern and the hair added to his Mahiole crest. His eyes are of pearl shell, the pupils are wooden pegs, and the teeth are made of a small shark jaw.

This is the second image I ever made, about 12 years ago. It's carved from black ebony as the corresponding Hawaiian wood is now extinct in the wild. Again, the eyes are made of pearl shell, but this time the pupils are two small palm seeds. The hair, btw, is my own.

Shortly after I made the black 'Aumakua my baby sister told me I needed to make a light-colored counterpart for it. This was the result. My sister donated her blond hair for it (It was her idea, after all), the eyes are pearl shell and palm seed and the teeth are more shark jaw.

The image of the left is a "Ki'i Wahine" carved from Ohia Lehua wood that a Hawaiian family sent me and the "Ki'i Kane" on the right was carved from red Milo wood. Both were carved about a year ago. The tongues are made of bone.

This little fellow was carved about four months ago from super-hard Arizone ironwood (all the luster of Koa or Milo but so tough you can take him anywhere and he won't break). He felt very much like a warrior, so the hair was pegged to resemble a Mahiole and he got a really big tongue (=lots of mana).

Aloha!

Marcus

Great, traditional style you have going on. These guys probably have a mana all their own.

Very interesting, they look like museum pieces out of the depths of time...

Impressive, very impressive.

Great Work! you have it down those sucker on killer.

Really beautiful work. I live in Tucson, and Ironwood is REALLY hard. Even harder than Mesquite, which I tried to carve as my first try 'cause it was easy to get here. Quickly learned to put it aside and go with palm (you have to work at getting palm here in the old pueblo). You did a great job with it. Got a piece of milo from Maui, gonna try in a while.

Sorry for the prolonged absence. I had three expos for healers and metaphysicists in March and there was little carving going on.

Here is some new stuff that has come about since then:

These are my two best "Akua Ka'ai", or Hawaiian Stick Images. The female (Wahine) is made from Gaboon Ebony with pearl shell eyes and a bone tongue. The male (Kane) is made from red Arizona Ironwood and pearl shell. These two are display items for my office.

This Ki'i Aumakua was kept intentionally simple, with the facial features being abstracted to a point where only the cranium and protruding jaw are visible. It was carved two years ago and I had planned on making it more detailed, but when it reached this point an inner voice told me to stop. It was made from a piece of Hawaiian Lama wood, a wood traditionally used to creates temple inclosures or images for healing purposes. It has not been stained or treated apart from hand-rubbing and the black inclusions are a natural feature of this wood, which is in the ebony family. It is one of two images that I consider my "personal images" and I have used it extensively in Huna Healing sessions. You could say that it is a true "working tiki" rather than a display item.

It represents a more female polarity as opposed to its "counterpart".

This is the male counterpart to the previous image. This tiny piece of Ohia Lehua wood had an uncharacteristic reddish tint, which is rare in this sacred Hawaiian wood and usually infers great mana. The resulting "Akua Ka'ai" was also left purposefully simple without staining and has found extensive use in the last month and a half during healing sessions. The second of my "working tiki".

This small 8-inch "Kii Aumakua" was carved from a more normal-colored piece of Hawaiian Ohia Lehua wood, although it too has more red in it than usually found. This one was carved for my dad for our joint trip to the Big Island this month for my official ordination as "Alakai" by Serge Kalihi King.

I am especially happy with the balance of this image as the tiny feet and hands, which are found mostly in old images rather than the modern ones, still allow this image to stand freely and without support. Also, the extremely exagerated calf muscles are also a very traditional Hawaiian features that I rarely manage to get right. Again, there was no staining or varnish, only cloth and hand-rubbing.

Above is the image without the pearl shell eyes and bone tongue to show what a difference in personality the inserts make.

Aloha!

Marcus

A black hina Ki'i Pohaku carved from shiny black basalt.

A shaman friend brought me a branch of curved red cedar and asked me to carve him a Ki'i from it. This is the result.

A Ki'i Pohaku Hina (to the left) and a Ki'i Pohaku Kane (the right).

A pair of tiny Akua Ka'ai made from Macassar (spelling?) Ebony. The Ki'i are only three inches tall.

Three Ki'i Aumakua from Hawaiian basalt lava. One is a double-set with the pounder and pestle representing the male and the female 'Aumakua.

All your works are great! As I said before, very traditional, and museum quality to boot. Great form.

Aweulekuula, Glad to see you back, your carvings are Really Awesome but as long as you've been carving I'm sure you don't need us to tell you you are that great, A Master. We DO LOVE your work. these guys are so alive looking and look like they're hundreds of years old at the same time. You have certainly got my attention and I Respect what it takes for you to create stuf like this.

Gosh...

Thank you all for those awesome comments. Just make sure you don't overinflate my ego. It's already way too large to begin with.

I actually wish I wasn't so lazy to go and give those lil' Ki'i a better surface finish.

Aloha!

Marcus

A pair of tiny Akua Ka'ai made from Macassar (spelling?) Ebony. The Ki'i are only three inches tall.

I love these. Nice to see the new work. What kind of tools are you using to produce these?

For the small wooden images I usually use a Dremel tool, especially when working with woods as tough as ebony and on a small scale. Normal chisels would be mindnumblingly difficult to use in these cases. The lava/basalt tikis start out using a hand-held circular saw with a diamond blade for the rough-cuts. Then tunsgten-carbide Dremel bits for the finer details, and finally tons and tons of sandpaper on both the wooden and stone images.

Aloha!

Marcus

This tiny little fellow is just about three and a half inches tall, but probably one of the happiest Ki'i I ever carved.

This was an unusual beach stone from the Big Island, very elongate and smooth. It was about 4 and 1/2 inches long and the Ki'i that came from it was purposefully given a smooth and "washed out" feel to it. It was gifted to a spiritualist living in the Midwest.

Aloha!

Marcus

Good to see you back Marcus! With a lot of magical carving... you feel comfortable style ancestral may be you should try to find the gesture of the old with the techniques of yesteryear. I myself start this kind of reflection, I think there are many things to do...

J.

Ed Kaiwi (formerly from Kauai) from Maui is a native cultural practitioner and Kahuna. He had asked me a few weeks ago whether I would be willing to carve his official staff of office. I was blown away by that request. Here is the result, the 'Aumakua image topping the staff is a Hawaiian Eagle ('Io) spirit.

This staff image just "happened". The detailed face at the Ki'i's feet followed by one stylized face and a number of stylized chins represent the chain of ancestors while the staggered headdress represents the chain of spirits towards the higher realms.

Love your stone work. Really I love all your work. Nice detail. I don't know how you get so small. Patience I guess.

You have My Attention, Incredible stuff seems to follow you around?
HappyHappyHappy

Great staffs, and what an honor. Congratulations.

In the summer and fall of 1997, when I first decided I wanted to carve Ki'i, I ordered a huge chunk of ebony off of eBay. I found out that the Uhiuhi wood I would have liked to carve had gone extinct in the wild and that ebony would be the best substitute to approach its qualities. The second image I carved from that chunk (my third image ever) was never intended to be more than an exercise, to see whether I could get the body posture right before I carved my first Akua Ka'ai (stick image).

This was the result. I was never really happy with it, since the base didn't allow the Ki'i to stand up and it wasn't a pure Akua Ka'ai or 'Aumakua image. So for more than ten yeasr this poor little guy has been sitting on the back of shelves or in the closet.

Four days ago, as I was packing up my carving stuff after finishing the last Christmas gift images, I felt hat maybe it was time to fix those "mistakes" on that image and I went back and removed the stubby base, freed the arms from the torso, and re-shaped the chest a bit. Now he is a pure 'Aumakua style image and sits on my shelf with the rest of my personal Ki'i. I guess he was my own Christmas present.

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!

Marcus

Congratulations on your present to yourself Marcus, it's a keeper. You are
wonderfully skilled and your attention to history and detail is inspiring. Beautiful
work as usual.

Yes Sir! That is a dandy! I do think he would look better here in my Manroom though..... Love your stuff...these buggers look like they just crawled out of a museum.

http://www.oceanandislandarts.blogspot.com/

[ Edited by: GMAN 2009-12-18 08:54 ]

A 40-minute, 1-inch tall Ki'i from a sea-urchin spine. No idea what I'll do with it.

On 2009-12-18 08:55, Aweulekuula wrote:
A 40-minute, 1-inch tall Ki'i from a sea-urchin spine. No idea what I'll do with it.

Super cool. Maybe you could turn him into a necklace. The staffs turned out awesome too.

Marcus, I Love that "Aumakua style image" that you resurrected form the box of lost souls. It's Amazing how pieces slide into that box when we meet a dead end and can't figure out how to continue, OR we just lose interest because to continue would take more time and effort than you have to spend at the time, but what's More interesting is when they finally get noticed and take that journey back to the world of the living and most of the time they end up be and I still have one I want to do "Right"\ing So Remarkable people wonder why you didn't finish them to begin with.
I am HAPPY for you And this carving that he made it back and the Ancients are happy too and surely must have nudges you a bit here and there to get him back on the bench. One to be very proud of for sure.
Thanks for sharing.

Oh, Yeah, the Spine,,, Awesome as usual and I still have one floating around my bench that won't go away and that I'll HAVE to make time for soon before he drives me Crazy/crazier. :P

After recarving that one image another set of Ki'i came up and demanded a "re-shaping". These two popped into a dream rather vividly and stated that it was now "their time to walk".

They had originally been carved about seven years ago from two very old tourist ebony carvings from Africa I got from a yard sale for $10 each. They were a male and female pair of heads carved on two cylindrical trunks that were just covered in patterns, not full sculptures. Something inside that wood demanded full bodies so I carved them into a corresponding pair of Hawaiian Ki'i 'Aumakua.

Sadly, as they had very limited space to themselves (they had been carved as narrow cylinders) and I did not have much faith in my carving abilities, I never really carved their feet for fear they would not be able to stand and balance. I also failed to narrow the legs down enough and seperate the arms well enough from the bodies.

All these things I now corrected and the result is a Kane and Hina pairing that I now consider my best.

I also just learned that the brown ebon they are carved from most closely resembles the now endangered Uhi'uhi wood, from which many sacred 'Aumakua images were carved, in both color, hardness, and even density.

This is what they looked like when I first carved them:

(Note how much wider the legs are as compared to the arms and how close the arms are to the body... plus they have no feet.)

Here you see them after the corrections:

(Note how the legs have been narrowed and the arms freed from the trunk... and that they have feet now. The overall effect makes them more dynamic and alive, I feel.)

This image shows the remarkable luster of the brown ebony when the light hits it juuuuust right. No varnish or oil is ever needed on these guys, plus they are so tough that almost nothing damages them. They are the perfect travelling Ki'i to set up sacred spaces and such.

Aloha!

Marcus