Post #315659 by Paipo on Fri, Jun 29, 2007 5:36 AM

Jen, any feedback is OK with me. You pretty much nailed the look/feel of this guy - the more "pop" aspect of tiki has been neglected in my work for a while, and done properly, the more cartoony tikis have just as much relevance as the ones based on artifacts. Speaking of which, I'm back onto a more trad piece again right now...one which may be familiar to you?

Benz, I don't think I'm quite on your level of humanity yet but I'm working on it. This guy turned out a little more naturalistic than I thought - I just wanna pinch those wee round cheeks! Tiny nostrils - yes! 1mm ball burr - the smallest there is - very delicate and so easy to break when rummaging around in the nose of a tiki. Rich and famous? I think there's probably better ways of achieving that than carving tikis, but I enjoy doing this too much to stop now....

G, What you've described is pretty much how I did my two moai - start at the nose and work back -way back! Unforunately the extra time that involves makes it hard to keep the price where I want it. Right now I'm trying to push the quality/value to the limit to compensate for the ridiculously strong kiwi $. Kinda sucks when you have to adjust your art for economic factors! I use a pretty narrow range of pebbles in terms of depth and shape for the regular stuff - 2-3 inches long and about 1/2" deep seems to be the norm. I do have some more "in-the-round" pieces in the pipeline when I get some play time again! Think Rapa Nui....