Sand Bar

CALL ME ISHMAEL. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely -
having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me...

no, wait... that was an entirely different tale of woeful obsession...

besides, my name is Robert, sooo... yeah, don't call me Ishmael - that'd be crazy.

By way of introduction -

Born in 1961, I've always loved the sea - my home is girt by it.
I was a very keen surfer and consequently have always been a social outcast.
I have what you might call a bar-room sense of humour and tend to swear a lot...
I know I drink too much... and make lewd comments... mostly for the humorous shock value.

I'm not an artist, and don't pretend to be one - but am a keen wood-worker.
Neither am I an art critic - many times I've started to comment on others' threads,
but cancelled before posting so that:
(a). I don't sound like a gushing school girl.
(b). unnecessarily offend anyone.

Although, over the years, I do regret not letting some people know how much I admire their work.

I don't have any kind of vested interest in Tiki - although I have re-sold a few items for a small profit,
only to help purchase other items that better fit the over-all aesthetic.

I am, however, passionate about the genre - wife says obsessed :D - intend to be in it for the long haul.

I don't believe myself to be overly vain and I'm not the type that craves constant affirmation -

but which brings me to say a HUGE thank you to all the people that have left their kind comments below,
and while I might occasionally edit or update my thread, I'll not put your comments too far out of context.

The room that now contains our Tiki lounge was used by the original owners as living space while they built the house, circa 1955,
which is an entirely separate building - the Tiki lounge etc. are part of the shed.

In stages - and when time permitted - I was obliged to demolish and re-build the entire structure,
due to damage by termites, wood rot, and rust in the old tin roof.

Here can be seen the bare bones after some of the re-build:

Behind the masonry wall to the left is my workshop...

There are store rooms on either end - which I had to build first and second,
the third section in the middle being the lounge...

I've harvested most of the bamboo needed myself, damned hard work but very satisfying:

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-16 18:00 ]

I hadn't intended starting this thread until much later than I did, but several years ago [thread updated 2016]
there was some brue-ha over a few controversial threads and a LOT of TC'ers decided to leave
because of all the drama...

At the time, I thought - what the hell, may as well start posting now...

Although I had a fair idea that progress this end would be relatively slow, it never really
bothered us much as we've used the room before, after, and since the re-build anyway -
regardless of the interior decor.

Besides, it's been written - that a Tiki bar is never finished - I'd tend to agree...

In the meantime, I did start making a few things...

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-04 18:49 ]

Your lounge is gonna look great Bob. Your carvings are gonna be great also. Carve deeper!
The purchased masks for the lounge look to be African style made in Bali though, at least on the iPhone. I like your two masks better for your lounge.
Cheers,
Erik the Red

Love the carving, Bob. Can't wait to see what you do with the bar and lounge!

I never mentioned this to my wife, or anyone else, but right from the time of these two first comments on my thread,
in my mind I named my first two carvings after the gentlemen above..

Erik, and Bonj

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-04 19:03 ]

Good stuff Bob. Nice blank canvas there for ya. Nice car too!

which i imagine to be papuan...but not entirely sure.
cheers, bob

You are correct. Now that i'm at the desk top. Those are PNG style.

Left of center is juuust fine. Center being key.

Can't wait to see more progress on the lounge.

:drink:
Erik

mahalo friends,

Most of the stuff needed to rebuild the roof for the lounge is ready,
just need to nail some mates down as help, sometimes not easy.

The life size wahine found this lamp at a garage sale, and gifted it to me - bless her soul.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 22:16 ]

On 2011-03-10 00:18, komohana wrote:
just need to nail some mates down as help, sometimes not easy.

Offer some Little Creatures Pale Ale as payment... might encourage some helpers! I know I'd be swayed if I was in the West.

aloha Bonj,

the thought of bribery did cross my mind, but then it dawned on me that i might never
get rid of the bastards!... no, it'll be buggery and the lash... same as always.

heh heh heh... have you tried anything coming out of the sail & anchor?... some very nice brews.

As it turned out... one of the very few to actually lend a hand - besides my wife - was Gibbo,
even though I'd never met him before Tiki Central.

Thanks mate, welcome anytime. :D

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 22:44 ]

On 2011-03-10 17:19, komohana wrote:
aloha Bonj,

the thought of bribery did cross my mind, but then it dawned on me that i might never
get rid of the bastards!... no, it'll be buggery and the lash... same as always.

heh heh heh... have you tried anything coming out of the sail & anchor?... some very nice brews.

cheers...bob

hehehehehe... No, I haven't tried anything from there. I haven't been to Perth yet, so I'm limited to only what you send across.
The buggery and the lash might attract a whole different subset of helpers :wink:

aloha friends,

started moving all the junk out of the lounge area ready for the building work and
thought i'd share a picture of some more stuff before i moved it into the shed with
the rest.

the set of shelves are my latest find and stand 1.6m/5'3" tall.

this corner, which is hidden from view to the right in the first photo of the lounge,
is normally where i keep my music equipment and humble vinyl collection that i moved
last winter in case the old roof leaked...one less thing to worry about soon i hope.

there are still coopers at work in the swan valley, one of western australias' oldest
wine producing areas, and the cask on the bottom shelf is the product of their labour.

it holds about six litres or one and a half gallons, and when filled with rum should keep
us going for a night or two.

cheers...bob

aloha shipmates,

well.......all my friends showed up to lend a hand.....

:music: ..give me a home among the gum trees.. :music: ..tra-la la-la lah.... :music:

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-24 02:49 ]

Come on, come on, you are nearly there!
:)

Friends, the Tiki gods have been smiling on komohana... I got the iron screwed down
on the new roof and side wall one day before we got our first rain in a long * long * time.

Autumn has arrived at last and the cool change is most welcome.

Anyhow, I've since got most of the ceiling done...

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-04 18:44 ]

That's looking good Bob

Crikey Bob! What've you been feeding that pup! :)

Room is looking good, keep it going!

Cheers,
Chris

Great Start! Keep up the good work!

Suicide Tiki

friends,

i really needed this stuff out of my workshop, besides, it won't be too hard to work around now...

this will lead out to the bar - eventually -

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 04:38 ]

mates,

I know pets aren't Tiki, but I'll just go ahead and mention the dog briefly and hope no-one is too worried about it.

Chris - the little bugger seemed to double in size every week or so. :lol:

She's now about 10 months old - american bulldog - love her to bits.

Has the sweetest nature and is shaping up to be a great offsider.

I'll slip one last picture in of her at about 6 months old...

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 04:47 ]

What a cutie-pie! I bet he drools like there's no tomorrow! Show him a bisquet and turn on the waterworks! LOL

On 2011-04-13 05:36, WestADad wrote:
Crikey Bob! What've you been feeding that pup! :)

Room is looking good, keep it going!

Cheers,
Chris

Your room is coming together great! And its always good to have a helper hang out while you are working! If I had a chance to do a floor like you do, I would do something with that pebble epoxy stuff that is on the market. Basically you have small workable piles of pebbles that you mix epoxy into and then spread out in 4x4 areas. There are endless color combinations you can get and it would be easy to clean and easy on bare feet. Best of all its sort of indoor outdoor in nature and would work great with your outdoor bar. I have seen a lot of people do it on driveways and around pools. There are tons of people who can do it for you but don't even bother, its just a mix and spread kind of a job. Anyway that's my suggestion. As always keep us posted on your progress.

Regards,

Suicide Tiki

Looking great and I like Suicide's idea...that is a nice looking floor covering. Cute Tiki dog (oh boy, I will never hear the end of that...LOL...I love to feed the lions.)

Aloha shipmates,

Thanks for your comments.

Spliced the main brace good and proper last night - well and truly three sheets to the wind as the old time sailor men used to say.

Consequently, this one of about twenty five pictures I took - was the only one any good. :lol:

That's the doorway where I stood to take the first pic of the lounge, the "door" is just a sheet of 12mm ply
mounted on lift-off hinges and to which I intend to attach a full size poly-urethane foam carving.

You can see I've welded up a bracket to carry my guitars - really good to have them off the floor,
and mounted Erik on a length of 5mm rod - if you tap him - he will jiggle for quite a long time.

There are some weird perspectives happening in this room, Erik is much larger than he appears...

I haven't shown that wall on the right before - masonry - painted white,
a little over 5 metres long - you can see about a third of it - the rest is still under construction.

The chest on the floor holds the overflow of lp records that don't fit in my bigger cabinet.

cheers.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-04 19:11 ]

Looking great! Keep us updated. I'm ready for the next installment.

The life size wahine is up in Bali with a few of her girlfriends and has found
a painting which will go a long way towards finishing a project for the masonry wall. :D

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 16:12 ]

friends, i got my poly-urethane foam carving done - and that's him hangin' on the door..

a couple progress pics for anyone interested..

6mm ply backing..(attached some wire mesh to the ply to help hold him on)..

lay on the foam..

i used 9 cans..

upside down with carving tool of choice...old bread knife..

..if anyone was interested in making themselves something like this
i'd tell them to go buy a slab of commercially available foam because
it has an even density through-out.
free forming it the way i did, there were a lot of voids that had to be filled,
so any money saved by spraying it yourself is lost in the time needed to go back
and patch it all up.

speaking of the voids, i had to go and buy another couple cans of p-u and while at
the hardware store, scored a tin of mis-tinted paint for him at about one fifth
the price, so that was a bonus i guess.

also made a coral reef diorama that was a lot of fun - simple things amuse simple minds. :lol:
the coral i'd had for years - mostly from Queensland - coloured with some water-colour paint,
shells, resin fish and plastic aquarium weeds - looks quite nice in person.
maybe one day will post closer pics.

still have lots of shells etc. to put on the fishing net

the opening in the ply will be a faux window, with the painting that mrs.komohana brought back from Bali in the centre.
scored some nice tastefull leopard skin to make a backing for that mask there and enough to re-upholster a radio chair i found.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 05:27 ]

Nice work Bob. You certainly have made progress.

Kon-Hemsby,

the lei inn is one of my favourite threads and the reason
why the woven ply is from floor to ceiling on the end walls.

On 2011-07-14 05:50, komohana wrote:
Kon-Hemsby,

the lei inn is one of my favourite threads and the reason
why the woven ply is from floor to ceiling on the end walls.

Wow, I'm honoured. Thank you very much.

On 2011-07-14 00:28, komohana wrote:
aloha friends,

crikey, where did that month go?...

anyhow, i got my poly-urethane foam carving done and that's him hangin' on the door..

I love your foam carving! If you have more pics of the process or how-to's please share. I've worked with spray home for home improvement projects and I hate that stuff so I'd like to use the premade foam you mentioned - what is it called and where could I purchase it? Thanks for the inspiration!

Lori

[ Edited by: LoriLovesTiki 2015-11-29 09:35 ]

Love ya Lori.

K-H, welcome anytime.

yeah, the pre-formed foam is great stuff, i've encountered it quite a few times
over the years in my working life, most notably while working as a boat builder.
so, if there is a mob near you making fibreglass boats, they might be able to
steer you towards their supplier. it's not what i'd call cheap though.

or, if you had a mould of some sort you could achieve similar results, as the foam will
compact into an even density if it is contained. be a bit careful here as there must be
some sort of pressure relief. generally just a hole with something like a house brick over
it, if the pressure builds too much it will just lift the brick and escape. though for a
one-off like mine it wasn't worth going to this length.

when i did mine, i confess that i was impatient for results and sprayed the lot in one hit,
if i were to do it again i'd (lay off the 'refreshments'... :lol: ) and build it up in layers
to [possibly] avoid large air bubbles. as it was i carved him out twice, the second time was
after i'd filled all the dang voids.
the actual carving is easy and anyone could do it, while i was doing mine i thought it was rather
like filleting a large fish. like i said i used an old serrated bread knife and a bit of sandpaper.
i do have other pics but i don't think they'd be much help to you.

one hint: initially it didn't seem to stick to the ply, so i sprayed a little on then
worked it in with a spatula until the whole thing was covered then went back and put
the rest on.

to mark it out in the first place, i went down to a local electrical appliance store
and lifted a large piece of cardboard from their bin.
source your image, draw him out in one half, then flip him over on a centre line to
mark the other side, that way both sides are identical. after i'd marked his outline
i cut the cardboard out as i went on to do the details, eyes, mouth, nose, head-dress etc.
keeping all the bits as a guide later when it comes time to carve him out.

other times i've encountered poly-urethane, after it's srayed out and shaped you'd
adjust the chemical ratio and the p-u is sprayed on as a resin, or you could use
epoxy or polyester as a coating if he was going to encounter any heavy wear and tear.
in my case though, i just gave him a few coats of acrylic paint because the door he's
on won't generally be used by other people as it leads into a storeroom or into the shed.

as is, he doesn't weigh much more than a surfboard, which is what i was aiming at.

hope that helps,

cheers..bob.

edit: don't forget that all these chemicals are toxic.. at least until they harden.

wear eye protection at least because, as they say, "it sticks like shit to a blanket".

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-19 23:11 ]

About carvable foam: There is a product call AB Foam. It's a 2 part mix and can be poured into molds and there should be no voids. It dries very quick and expands exponentially! It takes a few tries to get the right technique.

http://www.fxsupply.com/poly/poly.html

Mythbusters playing with the stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_gojAEwJA

Thanks Masher88, yes that's the stuff.

the spray cans available are obviously a slightly different formula
that forms a skin as it sets.
you'll also notice the safety gear they were all wearing in the video,
making the spray cans possibly the better option for home use, but even
then you should take steps to protect yourself.

bob.

[ Edited by: komohana 2011-08-11 18:07 ]

aloha friends,

whittled out some little fishermen...

and there they are - gone fish'n...

i was gonna decorate the hull a bit - give them spears - and call them warriors,
but i'm a lover - not a fighter - and i'd rather fish than fight...

made a small shelf for my little wahine lamp with a screen incorporated - to help cover the music stuff...

to the right of the diagonal bamboo i'll add a wooden beaded screen - cut in half and doubled-up
to further hide that section of the room a bit.

spring is in the air - and soon those temporary grey iron sheets on the left will be gone
and i'll be able to start building the Tiki bar, at last.

cheers folks.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 05:41 ]

Bob, really nice work on the carved Marquesan "fishermen" plaque. Your home tiki bar is coming along beautifully.

While in Hawaii a decade or so ago, I picked up an antique carved wooden spirit boat that I assume has Indonesian or PNG origins...

-Tom

aloha friends,

many thanks Tom, i hope you all weathered-out the recent storm ok.

i'd imagine there's a bit of surf hitting the coast after a blow like that?
Dave and the crew would be happy with that, i'm sure.

a couple of years ago i found some (small) giant clam shells at a garage sale that had been
polished on the outside to be used as serving bowls, the woman wanted to keep one of them
and also a larger one, so i ended up with five.

i've finally been able to put them together as i'd imagined, and there they are...

cheers all.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 05:47 ]

Wow the carving is great and I've never seen lights like that before. Great idea.

Aloha, Bob...

Those clamshell lamps are awesome! Clever idea using the bamboo rail to mount the fixtures and hide wires.

Hurricane Irene generated some nice long swells and large waves that were great for surfing, but didn't approach closer than about 200 miles (322 kilometers), so no on-shore damage occurred here. My son, Tommy, left for Morro Negrito in Chiriqui, Panama, two days before to serve as a surf guide and instructor there for a couple of weeks. He was sure disappointed that he missed the fun here, but he's having a great time surfing the Pacific coast there.

-Tom

cheers Kon-Hemsby.

TikiTomD, glad to hear irene spared you her wrath.

Always great surf to be had in aussie-land after a decent cyclone.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 16:22 ]

Very Nice - I'm gonna have to think about using some bead walls too, that diagonal wall looks great as do so many other touches.

Wow...those clamshell lights are fabulous...great job!!!

Really nice fishermen!

WOW!!! Some awesome work, buddy! I could DEFINTIELY drink some rum at your pad!!!

aloha crew,

thank you all for your comments.

other projects have kept me busy the last few months, but i've got a little done in the lounge.

made the frames out of plywood...

carved a small Tiki...

after painting and assembling...

a few shots around the room...

last year, for my birthday, a friend sent away for those two mugs on the top left,
if anyone from tikifarm should see this - arrived half way around the world safe and sound...

when an old bloke down the road died a few years back, his widow asked me if i wanted this cabinet that was in his shed,
yes, I says - beefed up the inside with half inch ply, made some drawers and now it holds about 500 lp records...

cheers, bob.

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-03-22 06:15 ]

Looking Good.

Love your loung,picture frame is awesome. What's your idea on your lighting,you can make some really neat lights out of found objects and a good imagination! Keep up the good work. mud