Post #242867 by Paipo on Fri, Jul 14, 2006 4:30 AM

Thanks guys - carvers and afficionados alike. Benz, speaking of the carver's "right arm", stay tuned and all will be revealed! JohnnyP, I've been reading your thread today but the images don't seem to be working at the moment. I'm very keen to check out your canoe prow as I have a similar (although I'm sure smaller) project in mind.
Flounder, if you see anything you want in my thread let me know. I've got a spot reserved for one of your paintings! Pyrotiki, hewey and Tikiwahine, thanks to you all for your kind words too. I'm hoping to have many more projects posted here in future.

I've spent the last couple of days since I got back from my Rarotonga trip catching up on the new work here, as well as sorting through my photos and recollections of the trip, which was in a word AMAZING! I've been dreaming about doing a trip like this for some time, and I wasn't disappointed. Cook Islanders (Maori) are the friendliest and most laid back cats ever, and there is plenty of creative talent on show too.

Strictly speaking, this should probably be in the travel forum, but seeing as it's all carving related I thought I'd keep it here. This is only a fraction of what I saw, as most of the shops and museums wouldn't allow photos.

Some of the craft stores and market stalls. Lots of Fijian and Tongan stuff of pretty average quality that has nothing to do with the Cook Islands, and a small amount of good detailed local work:

Impostors!

I loved this one and so did my wife (which is rare, as she thinks I have way too much of "that tiki stuff"), about 4 feet high and a snip at NZ$800!

Rongo, Tangaroa's less famous brother. This guy almost became extinct thanks to the missionaries, and contemporary examples are based on a plaster cast of an original specimen in the British Museum. The cast was in one of two local museums, where pretty much everything on display was on loan from New Zealand museums or private collections from throughout the Pacific. The other museum was 90% modern reproductions and 10% loaned from a US museum. Sad to see so little of a country's artistic heritage in its own hands.

"Big Daddy" Tang, but I like the 12 foot staff god above his head much more.

Great cafe (the Blue Note), great carving. One of the very few contemporary interpretations of a Cook Islands god I saw, it had a cool Gigeresque vibe to it.

Strolling along the lagoon edge one day, I spied this traditional outrigger made from local mahogany. Upon closer inspection...

One of the highlights of our trip was the A-riki Arts Tour, hosted by local carver Te Aturangi Nepia-Clamp. Of NZ Maori descent, he has lived in the Cooks for about 20 years and is also heavily involved in maintaining and sailing traditional voyaging canoes. The tour started at Ngatangiia Harbour, where tradition holds that the 7 canoes that settled NZ set forth around 1350 AD. Ngatangiia is the only natural harbour on the island, with its reef passage (Avana) also providing some fun waves while I was there.
The tour was tailored to our small group and had a focus on carving:

Tokerau Jim, a very talented pearl and shell carver at Matavera. The amount of detail this guy can pack into a small space with his engraving skills was incredible. He uses a similar dental handpiece as I do for stone, but uses tungsten burrs as they leave a much better finish that doesn't require sanding, and has a nice chisel-like effect.

Next Te Aturangi showed us a boulder carving by local artist Mike Tavioni:



The inlaid figures are made with a mortar using sand from the lagoon beach - I saw this on some other pieces and it looked very effective. This type of sculpting is my long term creative goal.

Finally (for this post anyway!), Te Aturangi explains the meaning of a commissioned work he carved for a private home. A very impressive piece combining NZ and Cook Island Maori figures.

...and another piece he collaborated on with Mike Tavioni, based on the legend of Maui:

We also visited fabric artists, a painter and a traditional tattooist. More to come!