Carve a Tiki god to use as a decoration in your home or garden.
If you would like an exotic-looking decoration for your home or garden, you can try making your own Tiki god statue. Tiki gods are often carved from wood logs and were originally made as a way to appease the Hawaiian or Polynesian gods and as a way for the people to worship them. A few of the Tiki gods that you might choose to carve include Ku, the god of war; Kane, creator of the universe; Lono, god of fertility and peace; and/or Kanaloa, god of the sea.
Instructions
1. Download and print out a picture of a Tiki god that you would like carve, or find a picture in a book and copy the page. Use this picture as your reference when you are drawing and carving your Tiki god.
2. Cut a log that is at least 5 inches in width to about 1 foot to 2 feet long. Remove all of the bark from the log by scraping it off with a hammer and a wide, metal putty knife. Smooth out the rough spots slightly with 120-grit sandpaper.
3. Draw the outline of the image of the Tiki god on one side of the log, looking closely at the picture and drawing the features on the wood to the scale of the log. Once you have the outline drawn, determine the areas that you will need to remove and lightly color them so as to prevent you from accidentally removing any areas that you will need for your finished sculpture.
4. Remove the colored-in areas slowly and carefully with a chisel and mallet. Hold the tip of the chisel against the wood at a slight angle -- pointing in toward the areas that you marked. Start at the edges of the colored areas and tap the top of the handle of the chisel gently. Refer to the original picture to determine the depth of each area of wood you are removing.
5. Carefully cut away any protruding rough spots with a carving knife. Smooth the cut-out areas with a piece of 240-grit sandpaper, moving it in a circular motion. Use a piece of 280-grit sandpaper to finish the whole surface of the Tiki god to make it nice and smooth.
6. Brush on a few coats of clear protective varnish or use a stain so that you can put the Tiki god outside.
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