SDshirtman's first carve Finished 11/6/09

I've been working on my first tiki for several weeks. I did lots of research for design ideas here on TC and its been a great resource. Been doing lots of reading and studying on the artform. I'm an artist by trade but have never worked in 3d or carved before. I'm already getting addicted to it.
I took my tiki to Monkeymans chop a few weeks ago and got to meet lots of cool people. Thanks to everyone for all the great tips. I've been aprehensive about posting my work but as I promised 4WDtiki, I'm posting some pics of my progress. I'm reasonably happy with the progress but the more I browse TC the more I wish I would have chose an different design path more in line with traditional tiki. Maybe next carve.

So here goes.

Here are the logs as delivered. I have a tree trimming friend who hooked me up on logs. I wish I would have specified logs with out the husk.

I shaved the log down with a ryobi hand planer I got from home depot. $65

I roughed out my design and dug in. I had it in my head to carve my first using only hand tools. I'm using standard chisels and one gouge I bought from rockler for $65 (ouch)

Soon after I started I realized I didnt shave the log down enough so everything I drew got erased when I reshaved the log.

Here is the progress after a week or so. I bought a ryobi mouse sander for $30. I roughed out the teeth. I was going to do simpler teeth but thought throwing a tongue in there would be more of a challenge.

Here it is after some more work on the teeth and some work on the nose.

I wasnt really sure what to do on top so I went with a sort of crown design.

I'm probably being a little too meticulous but I'm using a small sanding block to flatten the bevels on the nose and crown.

I should be taking more pictures but here it is as of Friday night. I roughed out his "crown" and have his eyebrows done. I'm thinking of making the notches over his eye brows into little pyramids but I havent decided yet.

Late Friday night I roughed in the body. I didnt leave myself much room to work so I had to simplify.
I also took Bills advice and bought a 4.5" grinder for $20 and a router speed controller for $20 from Harbor Freight. My neighbor gave me his used electric chainsaw and I started using it Saturday to rough out the legs and arms. I like the control you get from hand tools but love how fast the power tools let me progress. So far I think the grinder was my best purchase besides the gouge. One of the problems I'm having is figuring out what I'm going to do on the feet. I wanted to do toes but I dont know if I've left myself enough room.

Thats all I have so far. My wife is working today and my Daughter is babysitting so I have all Sunday to drink beer and carve. I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-22 13:17 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-28 01:20 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-11-06 15:29 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-11-23 22:31 ]

[ Edited by: sdshirtman 2009-11-26 11:00 ]

Progressing nicely, John! Good decisison on carving in a tongue, rather than giant teeth!
Are you undecided on the eyes? I see some faint lines...
Go, man, go!

Impressive , Nice job

very clean for your 1st carve you already look like a pro what ook u so long to start awesome job ill have a beer with u buddy yeah c mon!!!

Very neat work! Waiting for the rest...

J.

Your apprehension about posting was completely unfounded. Very nice work!

keep it up!
Looks sweeeet!

Lookin' really good! Me thinks you've done this sort of thing before... Keep it up.

WOW,WOW,WOW!!!!!! you are awsome!!! that is the stuff right there my freind!!!! cant wait to see this sucker dun !!! looks like youve been doin this for years!!! hell of a first!!cheerz!! go,go,go,go!......

Thanks for all the kind words.

I'm getting more comfortable with and used the chainsaw in conjunction with the grinder to work on the body today. It didnt come out exactly how I wanted but pretty close and I think it will work. I might have cut into the legs a bit too deeply and think I might have compromised the strength of the base. His hind quarters are starting to take shape as well as the arms. I'm still thinking about how I'm going to finish the hands.

Back side.

Cute butt :D

Looks great Shirtman!

Welcome too Tiki Central SDshirtman, it seems you will fit in nicely here and your first carvings are really Impressive. It looks like you have done this kind of thing before?

Nice lines dude, this looks awesome.

WOW! Great job!!! I'm really impressed.

the more i look the better he gets !! excellent balance!!! doin great!!! keep it up!! cheerz!!

A man after my own heart...LOTS of sanding perfection!

nice!!!!!

looks like some type of aquatictiki, maybe from neptune's lounge...wherever he's from, he's one cool tiki...can't wait to see his buddies !!!

I had a chance to work on his body a little more. Thank god for grinders.

I'm thinking about making his toes hang over the edge of his pedestal but we'll see.

I sanded his hindquarters. This is officially my wife's favorite part.
And yes, I have a 4 slot toaster.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the progress so far. I'm thinking about if I want to do any designs on his arms or legs.
I'm also thinking about instead of burning him possibly using an airbrush for more control. What do you guys think?

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-22 13:26 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-22 13:28 ]

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-22 13:33 ]

Excellent design and carving....very nice.
And....looks like you got a hell of a toaster too.

WOW, unbelievably amazing !
Smooth as I like it.

Benjamin.

Sweetness! love the lines you have brought out and
smooth as butter. Beautiful!

MAN O MAN O MAN! What a great job, You was born to make tikis.

He's coming along nicely! As for airbrush or other, that's your prerogative (your creation), depending on what you want him to look like in the end. I've seen spray paint, torch, stain... all used to achieve a different look and feel. Surprise us!

sdshirtman!!! WOW!!! THAT IS ONE SWEET TIKI!!!! smooth as your tikis butt on a summers day and clean crisp lines WOW! as drastic wagon stated you were born to do this!!! and as for air brushing or burning or a combo its your tiki and as far as i can see you will do a great job w any!!! always remember its sumthin you created make sure you do what your mind thinks is right!!! cheerz!!

[ Edited by: BIG tiki scott 2009-10-22 16:56 ]

Here are the latest pics. I think I'm almost done. Seems like I have a million hours in him so far.
I'm contemplating doing some design work on the legs and arms. We'll see though. I dont want to overkill it.
Iv'e been sanding the living hell out of him to the point that I never want to see sandpaper again and I dont think I have fingerprints anymore.
My garage also has a fine coat of dust everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! What a mess.

I wish i would have taken more pics of my first carve progress. My wife has some on here camera. Anyways here's what I have.

I used a dremel to do the lines in his hands. I haven't broken out the dremel much the entire carve except for this and a tad around his tongue.

I made the lines a little deeper and sharper with a chisel. I'd love to know how everyone else is doing it.

Here's a few to show a 360ish view.

In retrospect I would have done a few things different on the back but I'm cool with how this came out.

Here are some close ups. I did a small burn in his mouth to get a feel for the torch.
Still deciding is I want to burn him of use an airbrush to blacken in the deeper cuts.

Was kind of nervous about the eyes but now that its done I'm wondering what I was worried about.

So I think I still have some more sanding to do then I can think about staining him.
I bought some minwax special walnut to color him with.

If anyone can advise me I'm wondering if I should stain him all at once or do him in sections. Its been 15 years since I stained anything and he's a decent size at 44". Now that I'm this far into it I dont want to botch the last step.

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement so far.

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-10-28 01:49 ]

Wow shirtman, this is an Awesome carving. The sills you have demonstrated are far beyond entry level and show great control and use of the tools at hand. Personally I would Not burn the details as yours are crisp and sharp and leave plenty surfaces for the shadows to show the real detail. I think if you burn it you lose that shadow interaction. Originally the burning was to smooth out the chainsaw tracks and combined with a wire brush was very effective at smoothing which we do now with a grinder and sanding papers. Stain could go either way, he is a very contemporary looking tiki so going with too dark a stain cold go against that. But it's OK to or not to stain.
Really Nice work and photos.

Nice carve! I would not burn him and would think about not staining him as well. Palm get MUCH darker when you put Polyurethane it. You may be happy with the natural color as opposed to staining him. Get a scrap piece and do some experimenting, especially if its been a while since you used stain. Either way it is still a cool tiki!

Very cool, like where its heading.

Thanks again. The complements really mean a lot to me coming from you guys. The suggestions not to stain have me second guessing what I'm going to do. At the same time I think I'm going to do it anyways. I'll do some test pieces beforehand though. I am going to heed Benzart advice and put the torch away. I'll post some pics after I get some color on him.

I vote for stain. Something light to medium. Stain makes a carving 'pop'.

VERY nice. I do like the teeth and the ridge of the nose. Outstanding work. Don't know about staining palm as I haven't tried it. If I didn't know any better I would have tried to stain it all at one time though.

You might try a sealer coat of clear shellac first. Then build your coats of stain on top of that until you like it.

very clean carving . . . can't wait to see the finished product.

He's looking really nice. Can't wait to see him finished. Question for you, wouldn't it take less time if you waited to sand at the end of the carving? Unless you don't carve back over any area you have already sanded. Just a though. Keep'em coming and where all enjoying your progress posts.

Sick sick sick! Well done.

Go with the stain.

I'm glad you put the torch away Shirtman and I think your tiki will be happy too. Btw, Where is he, Not done YET?
Getting a little Behind in your work?

Very nice carve shirtman! clean lines, good finishing and already your own style. hat's off!

On 2009-10-28 01:44, SDshirtman wrote:

I made the lines a little deeper and sharper with a chisel. I'd love to know how everyone else is doing it.

For my part I made this kind of detail only with chisel or gouges and carving knife...

Well pursuit to finish this beautiful piece!

J.

really nice carve, so clean and smooth, and as for finishing, heck you could just throw random colors of paint at him and he would still look great.

Hello everyone. I haven't updated this in a few days as its been a busy week. Had a lot of work to do plus Halloween falling on the weekend left me little time for working on my tiki. So here is an update.

I finished sanding him and got him ready to stain. I bought some walnut minwax and did some samples on a separate piece of pine. They turned out WAY too dark so I exchanged the walnut for some lighter golden oak. (Thanks for the tip Bill)
I stained him Wednesday and he came out not as dark as I was hoping. It was a learning experience.
Since I decided not to burn him I didnt have the contrast in the deeper cut areas I wanted. So my solution was to darken those areas with an airbrush. I used some transparent dark brown paint instead of opaque black paint. That way I can only go so dark if I went overboard. I used it pretty sparingly.
I gave him a few days to dry and then him with the stain again to darken him up. I finished the second coat and this time he came out too dark. Or so I thought. A few days later and he seemed to lighten up a touch as the wood soaked up the stain. He's still darker then I intended though.

I was also wanting to to some kind of tribal design work on parts of him. I found some traditional patterns I liked on the interwebs. I was going to use one of those acrylic paint pens but after some test I abandoned that idea. The main reasons were that the paint bled too much, the color sucked and the line width was too fat. It was also incompatible with the poly I tested it with. When I hit the dry paint pen with the poly it melted like I just poured acetone on it.
My wife sugessted picking up a cheap 25w wood burning pen. (Gee why didnt I think of that?) It worked like a charm and I like the fact that it will never fade or flake off.
So last night I finished burning in some patterns on his eyebrows and headdress.

Late last night I was going to give him a coat of satin poly before I realized I bought the indoor stuff instead of the outdoor spar poly.
So after yet another trip to Home Depot today I was able to give him a coat of poly to seal him up. He's been drying for 2 hours now and I'm still getting used to the sheen he's got. I have some pictures to post as soon as I download them to my computer. Should be later tonight or tomorrow.

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-11-04 14:42 ]

Well I just can't Wait to see how the burning works out. Some of my BigBenzarts had the details burned in much like you are doing and they turned our really nice.
Your first tiki is Way Excellent so far, a study in perfection he is with every surface and edge sanded smooth and sharp:

YES, What were you Worried about for sure. It seems to me the level of fine detail you re capable of would be better shown in a nice piece of Hard wood and I'm sure it would not be so worrisome?

What kind of art have you been doing the last 20+ years, I saw that in another post? Got Pictures?
Thanks for sharing the fun!

Can't wait to see some new pics. Testing stain on anything other than Palm is not good. Palm has a unique grain that is nothing like Pine. Walnut stain is dark, but on Palm it would definitely be different than on Pine. Also, Palm can be painted quite nicely - after you seal the wood. Palm is too porous as raw wood and will soak up your paint causing major bleeding. Seal with Poly and then paint - you may get the results you want. Looking really good!

Ok here's a better update with lots of pictures.

Putting on some stain..

I liked the color when he was wet but when he dried the next day he lightened up quite a bit so I hit him again.

After the second coat of stain was dry I did some design work on him using a wood burner.

I also hit him with a coat of oil based spar urethane.

He soaked up quite a lot of the spar. I considered letting him fully cure so I could sand him again but didnt like the
thought of yet another sanding session. The directions on the can said to do the second coat within 12 hours or re-sand. I chose to recoat within 12 hrs.
I thought the second coat was harder because I couldn't see see where I had already been as easily as the first coat. The hardest part by far was getting into the mouth and under his teeth.

I still have to seal the bottom once he cures a little harder as he's going to live in my backyard. I'm calling him finished. My wife took WAY too many pictures of this project but here are some of the final shots.
Detail of the burning. Theres something odd going on here. The rest of him is cured pretty well but everywhere I used the burner is semi tacky. I'm wondering if there is some kind of reaction going on. While burning him I was constantly wiping oil off of him that was being released from the wood. Kind of like a tattoo artist does. I'm really hoping these parts will cure properly in time. You can also see the subtle highlights I did with the airbrush here.

Sir-Mix-A-Lot would be proud.

I like the way the satin finish mellowed out. I was worried that it was going to stay super glossy.




So I'm calling him done.

[ Edited by: SDshirtman 2009-11-06 13:42 ]

[ Edited by: sdshirtman 2009-11-23 22:46 ]

I was thinking some of you might be interested in the tools I used. I had to acquire a lot of these specifically for this project.

Things I had to buy for this.
Ryobi planer - $65
4.5" grinder from Harbor Freight $20
Router speed controller $20.
Japanese pull saw -$20
ryobi mouse sander -$30
Sandpaper - $20
Stain and Spar poly - $20
Wood burning pen - $15
Swiss made gouge - $65
4 weeks worth of beer, wine, scotch, and cigarettes - unknown but I bet its easily more than everything else combined. LOL

So it seems I've invested about $260 in tools and such. Everything else I already had on hand.

I'd like to again thank everyone here who has contributed ideas, thoughts, advice and encouraging comments. TC is an excellent resource.

Absolutely fabulous! What a great and original carve. I love the "burned"
designs. And what is that big gray machine in the background...is that a
toaster too?

Congratulations....step to the head of the class!

[ Edited by: congatiki 2009-11-06 15:13 ]

Very smooth work, nice!

This tiki carving is way nice, I think it's really too nice for the backyard...you don't have a tiki room, living room, den? You might try on scrap wood doing the woodburning first then staining with 24 hours between coats and way cured like a few days before puting clearcoat on. It's tough not to be in a hurry when one is so close to being done. If you do put it in the backyard I hope you got a big dog to watch over it. Really nice job.

That's probably the best first tiki I've ever seen.
The only downside is we're all expecting the next one to be better! :P

I wouldn't be in any rush to seal the bottom, especially if there's any doubt about the wood being fully dried. It can still be outside in the yard, just don't have it sitting in dirt, or a hard surface that pools water at all. Best thing would be to have spacers under it so it can 'breathe', or finish drying.

Good job!

YES! He definitely finished up Beautifully. Your burn works are Great but would have been better done before the finish, You are probably right about some reaction, the heat brings the moisture up, the burn rempves the finish and the opening sweats out gunk. It will eventually cure but Should be (cough,cough) sanded over the burns and allowed to dry or the moisture may bring on the mold!.
Excellent everywhere, even Beyond excellent. It shows that you have a perfectionist art background too.
So you spent at Least $260.00 on stuff to build him, spent countless hours from start to finish so that means you will probably sell him for say $125.00 ?? lol :o

Hurry and start another one and tell your wife Not to skimp on the photos next time. :D

Looks like some heavy duty vac-u-form equip, silk screen stuff and print stuff maybe? Cool machines.

Very Well Done!