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A couple more weapons |
coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
|  Posted: 2010-02-07 2:31 pm Permalink
I figured I'd try my hand at an actual tiki this time. He's 2 3/4" x 3/4"(6cm x 2cm). He's carved of Tongan influence. "Tangaloa", in Tonga, who was the ancient god of the sea. He is also believed to be the father of all mankind.
This was a challenge, especially the fine detail work in the head dress. The symmetry was off a li'. But I figured I still share. He took me about 3 hours(still no flexshaft).
I tried to get some progress shots but after the first hour into carving, I didn't know my camera needed recharging.
Closer image:
Side Profiles:
Don't know if I should stain the lil' guy or not. Also wondering if inlaid paua shells shaped like his eyes would match. Any suggestions?
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2010-02-07 5:21 pm Permalink
Really Nice tiki there Nuttzo, excellent detail for only 3 hours with hand tools. I'd Really love to see your tools.
Thanks.
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coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-02-15 11:45 pm Permalink
Malo 'e tau lava.
Thanx Benz for the compliments. Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I was busy checking out everybody else's great stuff.
Here are the tools I used for the 'Tangaloa' tiki.
The bur on the left & one in the dremel are the dental type burs, I like them for the detail work but the shafts are a bit too short to work with.
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coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-02-16 12:31 am Permalink
It's me again,
I was not planning on showing this because of an accident that occured at the end which has halted the project. But I put so much time & effort, I figured I might as well share my experience/trial.
Although it's non tiki themed, I've been wanting to do a project by carving whales out of bone for a while now & wanted to show some progress pics along the way. So here goes:
10 min. in... I forgot to take a before pic.
about 3 hrs. later. It was getting late so I had to continue the next mornin'.
1 hr. into the next day.
2 hrs. after
another 2 hrs later... man those bumps on the mother's mouth was a pain!!!
1 hr later... ready for sanding and final touch ups. Whew! I needed a break.
Okay, so after taking the last pic, I put the piece down to take a very long break. My lovely wife decides to pick it up to admire it & she accidentally drops it on our hard tiled floor. I was devastated. I wanted to cry & yell at her at the same time. But I knew she didn't intend to do it so I forgave her.
The flukes(is that what they call it?) of the tail broke off. I haven't had the energy to pick up the piece and try to salvage it. I don't want to throw it away either. Too much painstaking hard work to do that.
Maybe I'll post the broken piece. I haven't take a pic yet. It's too painful.
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TikiMango
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 17, 2008
Posts: 798
From: Satellite Beach, FL
| Posted: 2010-02-16 04:15 am Permalink
The whales were... are looking great! Sorry to hear about the little drop, whales should know to stay off dry land. I'd use super glue to glue the tail back on. You'll only see a small seam at the end of the day, that probably only you will ever notice. Your burrs are very similar to the only ones I use as well.
_________________
Pupule Tiki!
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TheBigT
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 1155
From: Fabulous Houston
| Posted: 2010-02-16 1:34 pm Permalink
Wow, great carves. Luv the whale!
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surfintiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 30, 2004
Posts: 1561
From: S. Chatham, MA
| Posted: 2010-02-16 2:49 pm Permalink
coconttzo! That Tongaloan is quite nice! I'd love to see a close up of your burrs...it's about time I bought some new burrs myself.
That whale was coming along soooooo nicely...oh well, that's the BREAKS.
I always try to salvage any mishaps...go for it.
_________________
s U r F i N t i k i
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Clarita
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 26, 2006
Posts: 1234
From: BA Arg
| Posted: 2010-02-17 3:46 pm Permalink
oh very nice carvings, sorry about the little accident, the tangaloa and the wale are perfect.
_________________
mundotiki
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2010-02-17 9:27 pm Permalink
Ya, Sorry to hear about the tail break up,, those things happen to all of us now and then, just more lessons learned. The piece was looking Great too. Oh Well now you'll have to do another, bigger better one!!?
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coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-03-02 11:37 am Permalink
Aloha,
I've been too busy working & not enough carvin'. I finally started another tiki pendant yesterday.
Question... how can I sand without losing the details? Should I sand, or not?
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6391
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2010-03-02 2:22 pm Permalink
Beautiful work Nuttzo. I had a friend drop one of my bone pieces and break it. I took some superglue to it and fixed it pretty well. Seems to be strong and only a little seam - better than throwing it way.
_________________
Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House
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TikiMango
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 17, 2008
Posts: 798
From: Satellite Beach, FL
| Posted: 2010-03-02 3:20 pm Permalink
Nice pendant! I say sand and polish... easier said than done though. You can use small strips of 200 grit sand paper to get the surfaces smooth, then some 1000 grit to get things really smooth. Follow that up with some polishing compound (I use white jeweler's rouge) and a buffing wheel for your Dremel and it'll shine like glass.
_________________
Pupule Tiki!
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seeksurf
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 27, 2007
Posts: 2144
From: Buckley, WA
| Posted: 2010-03-02 5:06 pm Permalink
Tight! Well done.
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coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-03-06 6:00 pm Permalink
Here's one I started on last nite. I had a dream about it the nite before, so this is my version of a Taniwha head, the sea monster of Maori legend. It took me about 3 1/2 hrs. without staining. I was anxious to see the stain this morning when I woke this mornin so I stained it without sanding.
I figured I could sand the imperfections & hightlights later. The staining really brings out all the carving flaws, huh.
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coconuttzo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2010
Posts: 143
From: Hilo, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-05-28 3:00 pm Permalink
Malo 'e tau lava mai he pongipongi faka'ofo'ofa ko eni.(Good beautiful mornin' to you all)
Everybody's been so busy doing what they love. I on the other hand have hardly done anything. It's been too long since I posted my last stuff I am actually embarassed to do so because so many of you have made more outstanding work. I've just been so busy with work & also added outrigger paddling to my regiment as a substitute for my lack of daily exercise. Doc says I need exercise but I can't afford exercise equipment, gym clubs are too expensive & runnin, walking around... boring. 'Nuff excuses though, here's what I've been doin' since last post...
I stained this Ku mask pendant in tea since the last pic, sanded it to bring out the high areas & restained it to give it that 'antiki' look. Buffed it up a bit & voila! 2"(51mm)L x 1 1/4"(32mm)W x 1/4"(6mm)thick.
My attempt at another one of my stylized manta rays, with carved eyes & a different tail design & stained in tea. I wasn't too happy with the tail look & the piece of bone I was working was too porous. I kept trying to carve it out but it just kept getting deeper & I was afraid it'd be too thin a piece. Then I stained it, big mistake, it just higlighted all the porous pits, it looked like it was a dirty piece. Oh what the heck, I might as well keep this for my personal use only unless somebody out there wants to buy it. Any takers? 1 3/4"(45mm)L x 1 7/8"(48mm)W straight line between each tip. 3/16"(5mm)thick.
This one I really like. It's 1 5/8"(42mm)L x 1 5/8"(42mm)W x 5/16"(8mm)thick. If you haven't guessed it yet, the hook is supposed to be the Taniwha's tongue lashing out.
This is my wife's favorite & I've received a lot of comments on it. Even little kids have walked up to me asking about it & where I got it from. They couln't believe that I had made it.
The only different thing that I did since last posting was that I inlaid it with Australian opal that I picked up at a swapmeet. It was already shaped perfectly so I didn't really do any shaping to it. It was like a match made in heaven. It was also pretty expensive though for it's size. It reflects some beautiful colors at every angle. Like specks of glitter were embedded within a crystal ball.
Then I buffed it up & strung it on an 8 plaited braid. The braid itself took me about a good 8 man hours total to create. I think that will be the last time I braid an 8 plait for a long while.
This here is a beautiful piece of Alaskan Woolly Mammoth bark ivory that I picked up from ebay. It was a pretty good bidding war, with $2 to spare, my highest bid was not beaten before the end. These pics are the pics from the ad itself(I forgot to take before pics when I received it). This is the hard outside bark layer of the extinct mammoth's tusk. It has mineralized ivory and brown colors mostly, with a layer of blue underneath and patches of blue closer to the surface. The patches of blue in the pics is what caught my eye. I just knew that this is a rare find in this type of material. This had a total length of 13 inches, with a thickness of 1/4th of an inch on most of the piece. This is at least 20,000 years old.
This is what it looked like after a whole days worth of sanding with an electric sander, 80 & 220 grit. Buffed it up a bit to see what other suprises I had. I liked the deeper valleys of the bark look so I didn't want to sand those out. I thought that that was a good call. What do you think?
My first piece out of the bark ivory, a toki. the toggle is also made of the same material(all my toggles are made of the same material as the pendant created). 3 11/16"(94mm)L x 1 3/16"(30mm)W x 1/4"(6mm)thick. I was stoked to see how the blue patches turned out. The contrast with the natural aged brown & the crevices of the bark came out perfectly. I couldn't ask mother nature for a more beautiful piece. Money well worth spent.
My wife wore this to work & told me how her co-workers were raving about it. They were amazed when shen told them I made it & what it was made from.
I wanted to make a makau(Hawaiian), matau(Maori), mata'u(Tongan), out of the same material but was torn at how much of the 'expensive' beautiful material would be wasted because of the negative space required for the traditional hook designs. My alternative was this simple koru design fit for a man yet elegant enough for a woman. 2 5/8"(68mm)L x 1 5/16"(33mm)W x 5/16"(8mm)thick.
Here's me sporting the hook the day I lashed it commemorating the day of our first outrigger paddling race in Kailua Kona. Received a few good comments from total strangers, now new friends with commissions.
another polished piece of fossil ivory.
Here's one that's not polished. It's just the outer layer, like a huge bone with about a 1/2"(12mm) thickness. It measures 6"(152mm) long x 4"(102mm) wide(semi-circle) I see a future tiki mask in this whole piece. I wonder how much that would fetch? Or just a bunch of pendants would fetch more. I think the latter, although a tiki mask would look so cool.
And finally, this is another koru designed matau of fossil ivory that I designed cut, sanded & polished this past Tue.(was my day off) & finished with the braiding & lashing yesterday. 2 1/8"(54mm)L x 1 7/16"(36mm)W x 7/16"(11mm)thick in the center.
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