Tiki carving questions about woods & finishes...

Can any of you carvers suggest ways to stain and finish a tiki carved from cedar? Also, what woods are you guys from the midwest using?

I'll carve almost anything I can get... mostly prefer White Pine, Basswood and Linden... soemtimes Blue Spruce... pine, pine pine....

Ditto on pine. It's the inland Palmwood-cheap or free, carves beautifully in the right hands, finishes great in urethane, tung oil, or acrylic or torches nice and grainy, and dries at an acceptable rate. It will crack a little, but who likes a new looking tiki? I like mine to look like Goughin once stared at them and sipped absinthe while getting his daily massage from his Tahitian girlfriend.

BK, I think you meant "girlfriends". That dude (paul) had a life!

I like that tung oil finish. It glows!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:13 ]

Whatever....fellas, looks like we got us an intellectual up in here.

On 2003-09-19 09:48, SES wrote:
Gauguin

Gesundheit

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:14 ]

Thanks for the input everyone. LakeSurfer I saw somewhere in the forum pages that you attended MIAD...do you do any 2d Tiki art?

A little... I'm actually surprised after disliking sculpture classes so much in school that I've found a passion for carving... I think its the subject... did you attend an art school?

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2003-09-28 13:55 ]

I studied at San Diego State and did the art core classes there and finished up my degree at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point after moving to Wisconsin in the early 90's. I didn't do any sculpture to speak of either but I'll be posting a pic of my first tiki carving as soon as I get image hosting and linking figured out. I am enjoying this kind of carving because the significance of the artwork is that it is tiki...no need to worry about hi art intellectualism and all of that. Very refreshing!