Beginers guide to Tiki?

Heya all, been doing bonework for a few years now, just recently got into stone and am loving that as well. I'm infatuated with the poly-pop art and want to try a bit of everything.

Would like to start a modest Tiki, maybe 4 feet or so, I guess what are the basic tools you guys are using, is it all chisel work, angle grinders or something I'm not even thinking of?

Anyone have a link to a step by step for newbies looking to carve wood? also, what would be a good material for a newbie to start with? Where do you get nice size rounds, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome aboard Djwirk! Always nice to see some new tikis around here.

I'm sure you will get plenty of input on tools and procedures. I start
with chisels, a carving disc and an arbortech power chisel until I get
things fairly well shaped. Then I'll mask-up and use an angle grinder to
get some smoothing and sanding done. The final carving step is a hook knife
to clean up edges and get some detail. Like I say, you'll get a lot of
tips from the peeps around here.

Let's see some of your bone work...even if not poly-pop or tiki.

[ Edited by: congatiki 2009-10-07 14:27 ]

Another quick question, I guess it comes down to inspiration. With all my previous work, I've tried to emulate someone's work or replicate the actual artifacts/etc. I always felt like that was a bit of a cop-out, but without using something as a pattern, I just didn't feel like the art came out 'right'.

Are there any good books or sites where you can just immerse yourself in all things Tikiesque and get a grasp of the design sensiblities, at least enough to create completely custom work and have it turn out looking good?

Thanks!

I'll take some pics of what I have left and post them later. A lot of the pendants, etc. I've made have been sold along the way or traded to friends. Just recently started stone working though, I have a Hei Matau I'll post in a sec, though it's in dire need of some 600 grit finish work! (Waiting on the burrs in the mail!)

On 2009-10-07 14:28, djwirk wrote:
Another quick question, I guess it comes down to inspiration. With all my previous work, I've tried to emulate someone's work or replicate the actual artifacts/etc. I always felt like that was a bit of a cop-out, but without using something as a pattern, I just didn't feel like the art came out 'right'.

Are there any good books or sites where you can just immerse yourself in all things Tikiesque and get a grasp of the design sensiblities, at least enough to create completely custom work and have it turn out looking good?

Thanks!

The answer is: this site! :) It's a great source for tikis old and new. You should be able to browse for days without exhausting all the content here. There are tiki examples across several of the forums here. Just start browsing and taking notes.

Hei Matau I've been tinkering on this week. Carved from black jade, will post again later once I get a nicer finish!

A Moai I carved out of a piece of driveway gravel while I was bored and waiting on some finishing tools for the jade I'm working on to come in the mail.

Photo quality sucks, am away from my house atm, pics I'll get up later will be taken with an actual camera, not my phone!

Footnote: Bandage on finger totally un-carving related! :)

Hi, welcome to TC. Looking forward to seeing more pics of your jade carving..! :)