Fire Up Your Imagination With the Tiki Masks

Hey guys, I know most of you here are crazy for Tikis, and you may want to design a Tiki mask yourself.
Here's some finished Tiki masks from Bamboo & Thatch Etc. by Benson's Import. I really hope they can fire up your imagination and that you can design more amazing Tiki masks.
If you really do that, don't forget to share with us!

Now, share you the pics of Tiki masks.

Hawaiian Tiki Mask, open mouth painted

Hawaiian Tiki Mask, big smile painted

Pineapple Head (Dark) Mask

Other Kind of Masks:

Gruulu Mask

Peacock Mask

Buddha Mask

Balinese Island Mask

If you want to see more, you can come to visit http://www.bambooandthatchetc.com/Tiki-Mask/

By the way, I really love this forum!

Check out Tiki Mask at http://www.bambooandthatchetc.com/Tiki-Mask/
Bamboo and Thatch Etc by Benson's Tropical Sea Imports is proud to provide our customers with unique Tiki masks of various styles & sizes.

[ Edited by: Polly 2010-08-12 22:49 ]

Polly! This thread is for Artists & Carvers
It is not for Sales,you need to post sales Items in "Tiki Marketplace" only

The majority of you pictures ARE NOT EVEN TIKI!
The few that are tiki are the worst kind of tiki.

:roll:

Are you for real, or a spammer?

TCers have known about Benson's for years. Too bad Benson's doesn't know it's own customers anymore.
Sad, they must be hurting if they are trying to sell this stuff to tikicentral.

They are just boosting Oceanic Arts sales buy trying to sell this stuff.
Maybe Polly is doing this behind her bosses backs. Hmm?

To put things into context: Benson's Imports is a venerable old business that has been around since the days of Oceanic Arts. They supplied many a Southern Californian Tiki bar in the heyday. I discovered them in the late 80s, when they were still in their old warehouse in Long Beach, a dark and dusty, forgotten old place, the way we urban archaeologists like them. It was here where I found my first Covarrubias maps (in their restroom) and where I was tipped off that another place existed like it, called Oceanic Arts.

Since they moved, they have updated their offerings (as the import company they are) with lots of imported Asian products. They have regularly advertised in Tiki Magazine. While they have many things to offer for the home bar or backyard Lanai builder, the Tikis they offer are mostly of the above style.

Polly, thank you for your enthusiastic post, but you must realize that this is a forum mostly for Tiki specialists and collectors who have a keen eye for what authentic American Tiki Style consists of. The pieces you posted may be OK for the average consumer, who has no idea about Tiki culture, but here, they are seen as examples of all that is misunderstood about Tiki today:

Asian folk masks and Buddha garden statues are not Tiki style. And the other masks, with their garish colors and generic facial features such as white teeth and pineapples are, for the true Tiki enthusiast, the lowest of the totem pole (forgive the pun) in contemporary Tiki design.

We are glad that you like Tiki and this site, and if you are genuinely interested in the style, read and learn, there is lots of information and examples of what Tiki is about to be found here.

And folks, like I said, (though I have not been for years) a visit to Benson's for a wide array of tropical supplies is not a to be discouraged.

I have already alerted Polly some days ago that the Proper thread to make her posts in,should be
The Tiki Marketplace thread,yet she seems to have ignored that advice and continues to make sales post
in many of the other Threads not appropriate to soliciting Sales.

Benson's Tropical Sea Imports may be a cool place to shop,but Polly seems to not care about any of the basic rules of TC.
even after being alerted to such facts.

I am surprised at the mild response from some of you (BigBro)who normally lay down the law on these kind of posts with Tactical Nukes! :lol:

One always has to respect the elders in the chain of Tiki transmission, even if they are not what they used to be. And support small businesses in this economy (without compromising one's integrity).

Sorry I made you guys misunderstanding.
But seriously, what I really want for the post is just sharing.
I didn't realize that sharing is a mistake.
Thank you bigbro, I'll learn more and I still love Tiki Central.

GROG sees that this has been moved to the Market place, which is the proper place for it. GROG has bought a bunch of bamboo and stuff from Bensons. They also have some nice Tikis there (not pictured) and good prices for them. The first carved Tiki GROG buy was from Bensons, and GROG would have bought the traditional KU they had then as well, but it had a large crack, and GROG had already spent a lot on Bamboo, lauhala matting and stuff. Got some nice Tapa cloth there, too.

On 2010-08-12 22:24, bigbrotiki wrote:
One always has to respect the elders in the chain of Tiki transmission, even if they are not what they used to be. And support small businesses in this economy (without compromising one's integrity).

They just own the name now.

The real Bensons have been gone for a moon or two.

On 2010-08-12 22:02, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

I am surprised at the mild response from some of you (BigBro)who normally lay down the law on these kind of posts with Tactical Nukes! :lol:

I'm guessing they're paying Sven off!

(in this economy....:wink:

crap is crap!

Bamboo Ben
Custom Tropical Decor
I build stuff for you!
http://www.myspace.com/bambooben

[ Edited by: RevBambooBen 2010-08-13 05:36 ]

I'm with Grog....For thatch, bamboo,nautrical decor , seashells etc, benson's is a great place. And they DO have a few nice carved tikis there for a low price.

Unfortuntaely, these pics are not any of them, but they DO have some nice stuff.

If you live in the beach areas, benson's is convenient, and always stocked full of stuff.

On 2010-08-13 05:31, RevBambooBen wrote:
They just own the name now.
The real Bensons have been gone for a moon or two.

Didn't know that. Like I said, it's been a while since I had been down there. Oh well.
I am even happier then that O.A. is still O.A. and doing well at that.

On 2010-08-13 05:35, RevBambooBen wrote:
crap is crap!

I thought it wouldn't hurt to explain WHY ...every now and then.

On 2010-08-12 22:02, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
I am surprised at the mild response from some of you (BigBro)who normally lay down the law on these kind of posts with Tactical Nukes! :lol:

I actually very much appreciated Sven's response. Just like most of you, when I saw that stuff, I nearly choked, but flaming someone for their lack of tiki knowledge really doesn't do anyone any good. Sven's response was guiding without being condescending. I kinda feel like this is how we should be responding to newbies who don't really get it YET.

FIRE UP YOUR FIREPLACE !!! - WITH TIKI MASKS !!

[ Edited by: tipsy mcstagger 2010-08-13 17:33 ]