I've been incredibly busy since returning from Boulder, but I've still had time to do a little scrounging in the local thrift stores and antique malls. Last night I stopped in at a vintage shop that exhibits a large private collection of authentic Island art that includes a number of gorgeous masks and tikis. Their owner won't sell any of this stuff (the bastard), but he will occasionally toss some of the pieces he doesn't want into a cast-off pile of African and Polynesian junque. It was in this pile that I found the beautifully carved ceremonial paddle you see above. Here are a couple of larger images of the paddle and the intricate carvings on its face. I'm unsure of the origin, but it appears to be authentic, and at least one person who should know about such things seems to think that it's of Tahitian/Marquesan origin. In any case, it looks just fab hanging on the door to my wine cellar!

In other tiki news, Sweet Daddy Tiki's Mugshot Gallery has been making the 'blog rounds lately, and it's definitely worth a look, but if you want the real dope on mug collecting, you need to have a gander at Ooga Mooga, another fine site brought to you through the auspices of HumuHumu (who seems to have a predilection for silly 4-syllable names...;-)

My Ooga Mooga mug collection can be viewed here.