Tiki Beat with Marcus Thorn...

Aloha blog readers... One of my "things" that I've been following while in Australia is Tiki Culture. If you're thinking "What on earth?" then you need to check out Tiki by Wayne Curtis. ....Right now that you're back ... last weekend I traveled down to Sydney for a two day carving workshop with Tiki Carver and all round nice guy Marcus Thorn.

"Tiki carver and painter, Marcus Thorn of Tiki Beat has been carving tikis for the last 15 years and painting and drawing since his early teens. Born in Papua New Guinea and then raised in Tropical Queensland in Australia Marcus has always been drawn to the Polynesian appeal of all things tiki. Marcus is fast becoming one of the most highly respected tiki carvers in the world and his carvings have featured in various Magazines and movies for NBC Studios New York and Warner Bros Movieworld Gold Coast, Australia and carving in Hawaii for hotels and developments."

It was great to spend a couple of days doing something creative and I hoped that with Marcus' help I could become a chip off the old block. I've really not done any art since leaving University so I was really excited when this opportunity came up. It was a four hour drive each day but well worth it.

We started out will half a log and our own set of tools started carving. It was about 35 degrees so it was tough going!

... don't try this at home kids!

It was amazing to watch him go at this piece of wood and make it do exactly what he wanted to to do. I'll never be that good but he seemed to think that my Tiki was a "good effort"  for the first one. It still needs to be finished up but I'm confident that one day it'll be good enough to hang with all the others I've collected from charity shops etc in the bar.

An awesome weekend, I learned a lot, came away with my own tool set, something closely resembling a Tiki and plenty of ideas to help me fill the summer holidays.

Nice article about Marcus.