Tiki

Here's a Tiki that my buddy Kirk had made for me when he was visiting Fiji many years ago.

Secret mask?

Or Seacret Mask? This is a face I painted on a palm frond base that I obtained from Seacrets in Ocean City, Maryland. I used to go there way back when it truly was a secret, and the only ways in were for (locals) who walked or came in by boat. No highway signs, adverts, bus sponsorships, hotels, wet T-shirt contests, metal detectors, etc. like they have today (OK, there was the odd wet T-shirt contest).

Anyway, I noted that there is something suggestive of a face in these things, so I took a stab at decorating one. It's vaguely Maori looking, although my painting pattern started out pretty randomly...

Here's an odd thing

Despite its phallic appearance in this image, this is a hand carved wooden bottle. The top "bottle" part is hollow, and the base is either a burl or else roots. I can't tell the wood type, but I wonder is it's cypress?

An odd duck...

No really. It is.

This is a hand carved wooden duck, in flight, and is reportedly from the Philippines. He's well over a foot long from bill to tail, and is about the same width from wing tip to wing tip. He was called a "mold" at the weird old store where I found him, but I'm not sure what one would "mold" with this. As I understand it, a mold is a cavity into which something is pressed/cast, and this guy has no cavities that I can see. Anyway, the little fishing line visible in the image is so I can hang him up from the ceiling - he balances quite nicely and looks alive.

Hello Kitty...

This little bronze tiger is pretty cool. He's only about 6" long, and appears to have been part of a larger assemblage, or at least attached to a base since the bottoms of two of his feet have little holes in them. This guy reminds me very much of Oasis (or "Sis"), the resident Siberian tiger at the Plumpton Park Zoo. When you stand near her cage and she's purring, you can almost feel the low frequency vibrations in your chest. This is not a creature I'd want to run across in the wilds.

On the other hand, I woke up to my regular house cat's ass in my face this morning - he put his bung hole on my nose like someone chalking a pool cue. Maybe a tiger would be better.

This guy...

..sure has bad ass taste in head gear. He's bronze, and appears to be holding a drum of some sort. His costume looks decidedly non-American and his expression implies considerable - er - medicinal - influences. I don't know whether this 6" piece is 300 years old or made as some junior college art project 10 years ago.

Somehow, it seems like I should be swapping him for a bag of sand in a booby trapped temple somewhere in a South American jungle.