Tama: bi-annual super-mega update! (image heavy)

A Gallery Forum? Damn, I have been away a long time.

For those unfamiliar with my personal tiki obsession; I am a fulltime self-employed carver in Aotearoa/New Zealand, working in the highly valued, traditional medium of 'pounamu' or 'greenstone' (technically, nephrite jade). This hard, translucent stone was favoured by pre-contact Maori for its superior strength and beauty & widely traded for use as tools, weapons and personal adornment. It is only found in a few isolated geographical areas (associated with tectonic plate activity) and is legally under the guardianship of local iwi/family groups from these areas. To this day the material is held in almost spiritual regard by Maori, an uncut touchstone often treated like a family member, inducing tears when touched after long absence. Personal items fashioned from this stone are worn by many and traditionally believed to inherit the 'mana' (esteem) of their owner/s, often handed down for hundreds of years as heirloom pieces.

ok, enough about the stone.. it has Tikis inside it, alright?

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Ill kick off with a few 'trads' as they account for around half of my work; the original maori "heiTiki":

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Had enough of those? Another traditional variant, the 'side-hanging' type heiTiki. The fingers touching throat or mouth pertain to oratory skill, of vital importance to a culture with no written language:

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phew! Time for some less traditional, more contemporary work. All designs/motifs are traditional in some sense but often plucked from woodcarving/weaponery etc and reused out of context as adornment.

'Upoko'(head) or 'Wheku/Koruru' (gable mask atop carved meeting house) inspired:

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Another, belonging to a TC member (I think/hope this is the one J? - apologies if I am mistaken, there have been so many, doh!):

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Different style:

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Unique piece, loosely inspired/representing the stabby-end of the taiaha (long hand-to-hand combat weapon):

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Contemporary 'pekapeka', native bat formed of double-headed manaia:

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Smaller version:

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anutha:

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Unique contemporary example:

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'Toki-wheku', a woodcarving adze (toki), topped by wheku/koruru head:

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'Toki-tekoteko', toki/adzeblade, topped by a tekoteko figure (the lifesize full-body figures found inside the carved wharenui/meeting house):

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'Toki-Manaia', adze topped with a 'manaia' figure (invisible, beneficent guardian-spirit type creature found in woodcarving, often highly abstracted)

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Unique, contemporary Manaia:

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Another unique figure, designed to fit an oddly shaped piece of stone:

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Contemporary Tiki:

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'Koro' (old man):

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Tahitian/Austral inspired 'Ti'i' figure, carved from obsidian (volcanic glass):

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'Putiputi' (flower):

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heiMatau/fish hook:

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Unique heiTiki, an experiment to see if I could simplify-away the arm/legholes altogether:

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'Toa-iti' (little warrior):

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Mottled warrior:

JT :wink:

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'Tane-iti' (little man):

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Well, thats it for now. Please feel free to ask any Qs. If anyone needs me, Im in the workshop..

:)

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Tama

[ Edited by: Tamapoutini 2012-04-02 04:17 ]

Amazing
U rock

On 2012-04-02 02:28, Tamapoutini wrote:

Another, belonging to a TC member (I think/hope this is the one J? - apologies if I am mistaken, there have been so many, doh!):

Yep! It's mine! YEAH! :D :D :D :D :D

Just amazing.

You are machine!! Great stuff. GROG like.

Beautiful pieces- exquisite crafstmanship!

Tama!!!

Great to see you back again!

Very nice gallery you've put together, and like the other artists, its so much easier to appreciate all your great work in one thread!

Thanks everyone! Rest assured I wont be leaving it so long between posts in future, this last was an all-nighter (and I still neglected to downsize a couple of pics..)

Laojia, my memory is shocking but the bones remember everything :wink:

Thanks Grog. LLT has been sending me little bottles of his special formula, keeps putting the price up though..

Cheers Lake, I like the division between in-prog and finished work threads. Havent had much of a chance to look through yet but am looking forward to it.

*Forgot to add pics of a recent celebrity-commissioned piece, will get onto that soon.

:)

Where's that Paipo dude?

Where's that Paipo dude?

On 2012-04-03 02:21, GROG wrote:
Where's that Paipo dude?

Sadly we dont get to play much these days as he is living an hour or so away in another town. A long overdue catch-up within the next couple of weeks though, to coincide with another drifting tiki-stoner friend. Ill club him for you.

On 2012-04-02 02:28, Tamapoutini wrote:
JT :wink:

:D

Fantastic work! Love it!

Tama!
Welcome Back you Carvin Maniac!
About time you got up here in these galleries!
:)

WOW Tama, Nice update. I think there's a few here I haven't seen yet! Thanks.

Beautiful work. It's difficult enough to work clay. You and Benzart are the masters of this art form. Thank you for your time to put up these photos, Wendy

Nice to see your incredible work on TC again, Tama!

Hey Tama (long, long time, no see)!

Don't forget this fine inanga princess:

Don't worry. She's doing very well here in Australia.
And as you can see, she's still really quite happy.

Hey Tama,
Great to see your awesome work once again, so much eyecandy in one dose is dangerous! How did you go with your new workshop/backyard project?
good to see you pushing the limits too.
cheers,
harro