Where did they go?

My email inbox indicates that some of you have noticed that the number of available tampers at my web site (www.ming-kahuna.com) is much fewer in number that it has been in the past.  Well, that is true, but, the fact is that the number of pieces up now is more typical of the assortment that has been available at any one time in past years.  The current decrease back to more typical levels reflects the fact that a larger portion of my work is devoted to special orders.

If you have followed the course of my craft over the years you will know that I have had a love/hate relationship with special orders. And while I’m still not thrilled with custom orders (ie., make me a tamper the shape of my Aunt Edna’s nose) I love special orders (ie., make me a Pug in Panache).  There is a big difference.  One is someone else’s vision, the other is re-creating my own work.  So, having finally come to terms with this issue, a very, very large portion of my work product is special orders.  I try and display some of the special orders on my site, often as works in progress, so that my customers can keep tabs on what I’m doing and maybe have some ideas for what they themselves would like to order.  I hope to be able to do that more and more as right now it doesn’t happen nearly enough.

That said, as more of my time is devoted to special orders fewer pieces are offered for general sale.  This is unavoidable as there are only so many hours in a day.  Despite this, rest assured that I am making a conscious effort to maintain a portion of my production for general and show sales.  And while many tampers offered for general sale sell within minutes of going up on the site, that is not a reason to not consider the other fine tampers that are offered.  Some tampers sell quicker than others.  Some of my finest tamps have taken the longest to sell.  One never knows.

Ouch!

Unlike the early years of Ming-Kahuna, being nicked by any number of whirring sharp things is now a rarity (knock on wood).  In fact, for the first couple of years, before my hands learned the necessary moves and acquired the required coordination, my hands were like hamburger, hurting like a tooth ache all of the time.  Then, as the correct muscles developed, and my hands learned their task, the frequency of injuries bacame less and less down to the point of being a rarity. 

But, as you know, when it rains it pours, and there was old Murphy standing in my shop with umbrella and galoshes smugly watching me gash my hands not once but three times over the course of three days.  Had I thought it through I would have walked away from the shop for a day or so, but my hands were hot, carving as good as it gets, so I worked on.  As luck would have it the injuries were/are located where they don’t interfere with carving, but they make sanding a nightmare. So, I have carved a bunch, but sanded and buffed very, very little.

Today for the first time in a while my hands feel fine.  The wounds have healed (mostly) and I think I can resume sanding and buffing.  Carving is all fine and good, but a good part of the thrill of creating is to watch the true beauty of a piece come alive as it is sanded and then finally buffed.  The transformation from a rough dull lifeless piece of shaped material to a vibrant little sculpture is really something to witness.  That’s one reason why visitors are always welcome to visit my shop so that they can witness this transformation, an aspect of my work that is never seen.

So, if you are waiting on a piece I am back in the saddle and your piece is back in the pipeline.  I’ll get er’ done and out to you as soon as I can. I’ll try not to grind my finger against a 36 grit sanding disk  or a Dremel whirring at 35,000 rpms.   That’ll leave a mark.  Believe me, my hands are scarred enough as it is.

 Oh, and one other thing.  I was going back through my Photoshop archives and one thing became apparent to me.  Based on the numbers of peices photographed August is my most productive month of the year, and by a good bit.  Traditionally it is also the slowest month in sales.  Go figure.  Fortuantely this July and August have seen the highest sales since day one.  Just when you think that you have this business figured out….

And now: Antares

From the North any amateur astronomer who gazes at the Summer night sky is compelled to visit the constellation Scorpio in the southern most portion of the sky.  The rich star fields and globular clusters begin to suggest the magnificence of the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky that lies hidden below the horizon.  At the center of the scorpion, where it’s heart would beat, is Antares, a red supergiant star that dwarf’s our own Sol.  For so many years of my life the orangish red light of Antares has stood as a beacon on balmy Summer nights as a familiar friend as I explored the near universe with my modest scope.

Naming materials is very important to me.  I spend what is probably way too much effort to find a name that captures the essence of a material, one that I find to be of adequate merit to become part of my lineup.  In fact, on occasion I have delayed the introduction of a new material for  months until a proper name came to mind.  When I first looked at this one only one name came to mind: Antares.

Red materials are rather difficult to produce.  The man who produces many of my acrylics tells me that red is the most difficult color to do properly and that considerable extra effort is required to get them right.  Well, someone went way out of their way to get things right with Antares.  With a material in my line-up like Blood of Kings any red material will have a tough time competing, but Antares stands well on its own.  Those chips of red float in what looks to be a transparent deep red matrix with some chips seemingly clear themselves, or a lighter red.  The effect is stunning adding great depth to a material that could have been flat and lifeless.  This is one that you shouldn’t let your eyes pass over as further inspection will be well rewarded. 

By the way, that tamper shape is a modified Pocket Model.  The tamper is sold.

Introducing: The KazeTamp NorseWing

Back before Caneel was reserved solely for the use of KazeTamp there was a very, very popular shape called the “Ming Wing.”  It was always intended that the shape would go over to KazeTamp for use with Caneel (many of theMing Wings were in Caneel) and Bali.  Last week I decided that the time for the KazeTamp Wing was now.

Since the Wing is a Ming shape as well, I wanted a very distinct shape for the KazeTamp version.  So, I sat down and cut  a piece of Caneel very roughly shaped and started carving what I saw in my mind’s eye. Working with the newer thicker version of Caneel I was free to do more than ever before.  The piece that you see above, to the right, the one in Caneel, is the first KazeTamp NorseWing.  When I realized what I had done I carved a second one in Bali.  While it began with the Caneel piece as a pattern I allowed the Bali NorseWing to vary somewhat in shape.  Both pieces had been reserved by a customer to be sold as a pair, so I wanted some shape variance between the two.  In the end it is the subtle differences betwen a “matched” pair that adds so much interest.

To say that I’m pleased with the NorseWing is a grand understatement.  These aren’t small pieces at 4.3 inches long, and they make a bold statement.  The shape to my eye is decidedly Nordic and the name evidences the fact that the shape is a tribute to our Danish friends and their proud heritage.

Another exciting aspect of the NorseWing is the variations that I have in mind for it.  While I’m 100% satisfied with this initial shape, there will be great fun in doing different things with it, allowing it to go where it may, an evolution with great potential.  But, this first shape shall always be around, offering a strong starting point for what promises to be quite a show.

This weekend I will be carving a NorseWing in Simba (sorry, already reserved) and another one in Caneel.  The new one in Caneel will be offered for sale, inquiries are welcome.  FYI, the first two NorseWings above sold for $177 each.  Future pieces will be priced around that, some slightly less, some slightly to greatly more.  It just depends.  

And now…RaceDay!

(Shogun shown rough carved)

This one also caught me by surprise.  I had figured a white matrix, but as it turns out the matrix is a bright transparent yellow with chips of white and blue.  The blue chips are deeper navy blue than the photo shows.  You can see how different the raw bars look as opposed to the rough carved Shogun shown below.  I have to deal with this all of the time and is a great motivator to work a new material as soon as possible so that it can be accurately evaluated.

BTW, the Shogun is a shape that I haven’t done for a good while but really enjoy.  When the tamper is completed it will be available for acquisition at around $80, give or take.  Inquiries are welcome.  (Sorry, this tamper is sold)

Introducing…Europa!

This brand new material gave me quite a surpise.  To offer the first piece carved from it I decided to carve a Bluto (shown above rough carved) as it would show off the pattern wonderfully.  I had epxected a pattern more like what you see above, but I was fooled.  As it turns out this material is composed of chips of green and white suspended in a clear rich blue matrix.  The predominant colors are green and white with the blue filling in the tiny gaps in between and highlighting individual chips at the edges.  It was a very pleaseant suprise and is now a part of the Ming-Kahuna line-up. 

The aforementioned Bluto will be offered for sale and will be up on the Ming-Kahuna site in the next 24 hours.  I anticipate a price of $73.  Inquiries are welcome.

BTW, that Bluto is going to be one heck of a lot prettier when it’s finished as a lot of the pattern is delicate detail that is lost under the scratches of rough carving.

(Sorry, this tamper is now sold) 

KazeTamp “Sky Captain” nears completion.

When I began KazeTamp back in November of 2004 and had carved the first piece, Genesis, I then sat down and began to carve some very unusually shaped tamps that I felt would show the future path of the endeavor.   Then, early on, I decided to take an alternate path and to slowly introduce KazeTamp by offering some more identifiably Ming shapes by borrowing back and forth between Ming and Kaze.  The initial piece were set aside for the proper time down the road.  That time has now come.

Recently I have introduced shapes more unique to KazeTamp offering tamps that are full-blown Kaze shapes: Angry Beavers and Deco.  These tamps were begun early on in 2004 and 2005 and have sat incomplete since then.  Now, with Sky Captain, I am offering the first tamper begun back in November 2004 after the initial Genesis piece was completed.  Deco came along about the same time and Angry Beavers a good bit after that, but Sky Captain was really the first time I sat down and decided to have some fun disregarding the envelope.

The briar portion of the tamper has been added in the past year as I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with the bottom of the piece.  As it turns out the gnetleman who has the first option on the piece prefers that the bottom remain all briar.  As luck would have it the gentleman who has the second option on the piece (should the first gentleman pass on it) would like to see an aluminum or brass tamp surface added, so an aluminum tamp surfce will be added if things should get that far.  But in any event, this is quite a tamper, a real showpiece, currently at approximately 7.5 inches long.

 The shape of the tamp is a stylized wing with strong layering almost giving it an Art Deco feel.  I gave myself the freedom with this piece (what KazeTamp is all about) to do something rather unorthodox having a lot of fun.  the shape will become more refined as the sanding continues.  I figured I’d show the piece now after some initial sanding as the contours will be largely lost in any photo taken after the piece is finished.

While there are two gentlemen currenly in line for the piece a waiting list is not entirely a waste of time.  I anticipate the price of the tamp to be between $225 and $300, give or take.  It all depends.  That’s just a guess based on my current impressions. 

Welcome aboard….Jubilee.

As you may know I spend a significant amount of time in the hunt for new materials to bring the best of the best to Ming-Kahuna.  So many of the incredible materials that I have stockpiled away are no longer available, but the good news is that new materials are coming out almost daily at a pace that even I can’t keep up with!  Even better, the producers of these materials are making them on an ongoing basis.  While they could disappear at any time, and I will be stockpiling certain ones, you should see them for a good long time to come.  Or, maybe not, but, they sure are pretty.  I’m going to show you one new material just about every day for quite some time to come.

Today’s material I currently have in inventory and pieces are already in production, the first one already reserved.  You’ve got to see this stuff in person to really understand what is going on.  Those multi-colored chips are suspended in a crystal clear matrix.  Although they are packed pretty tight together the transparency offers depth that is wonderful.

 I was at a loss as to what to call it, but one email to my wife solved the problem: Jubilee.

Look for Jubilee soon at www.ming-kahuna.com.

(above you can see unworked bars of the material)

Catch as catch can.

A few weeks back we took our annual summer vacation, going to Destin on the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle.  For those of you from the Southeast looking for a great place to stay on the Gulf I can highly recommend Destin and most highly recommend the Sandestin Resort where we stayed.

The first night that we got there our beachside condo wasn’t yet available, so we rented another condo for the night, one  just back from the beach.  That night a great electrical storm came up and from the balcony of the 16th floor I so wished that I had brought my camera.  Then, as I sat there totally pissed at myself, watching nature’s wonder unfold before me, I remembered that my Dash PDA has a camera.  In fact, that camera was almost as good as the one that I used for years for the Ming web site.  So, I got the camera out and set about to photographing lightning.

Catching the lightning turned out to be incredibly more tricky than one might imagine. The delay of the shutter (somehting that wouldn’t have been much of an issue with my good camera) made catching a bolt, or even a flash, a  matter of luck.  It took dozens and dozens of photos to do it.  And then the memory would fill and I’d need to go back and dump the rejects, which was about 99.9% of them.  But then, right towards the tail end of the storm, when it was at it’s height (it had stalled for a good while and never rained where we were at) I came to realize that the storm had a certain rhythm, a cadence of sorts, that allowed me to anticipate the next flash.  This allowed me to press the trigger in anticpation of the flash, getting very, very close each time.  But, close is not good enough.  Knowing that a bolt on one side of the storm will usually be followed by a bolt directly on the opposite side of the storm heped as well.  I’ve watched electrical storms for my entire life learning to feel the rhythm of each one, but it took me a while to apply it to my photography, and even then a good amount of luck was still involved.

What you see above are the two best shots taken with the beachside condos and Gulf illuminated by nature’s pyrotechnics.  Mind you this was a digital phone camera at night, so the quality isn’t the best, but I do like the way that the bolt photo almost looks like a watercolor.  My photoshop actually has an effect to do that, but it wasn’t used here.  I did manage to take one incredible shot of a bolt zig-zagging from cloud to cloud across the entire sky, but when I went to get it from the memory it inexplicably wasn’t there.

Next time I will know to take my good camera, but, catch as catch can….

Angry Beavers

(shown rough carved)

Those of you who have seen the very funny cartoon “Angry Beavers”  will recognize the shape of this tamper.  The rest of you will have to take my word on that.  I can’t honestly say that I was thinking of the cartoon when I was carving it, but the name seemed rather obvious when the dust had settled.  I’m thinking Dag more than Norbert.

This has been a very difficult tamper to carve and finish.  This time tomorrow it will be finished after almost two years of picking on it from time to time.  I’m showing it in a photo rough carved prior to sanding as the contours become very difficult to photo once sanded and buffed.

FYI, a customer has a first option on it with a waiting list having formed should it become available.  (Now Sold)