Post #321124 by VanTiki on Wed, Jul 25, 2007 11:46 AM

Wow you guys, I just don't know what to say! teaKEY, AlohaStation, Babalu, little lost tiki, hewey, OceaOtica - your compliments are like creative rocket fuel! I wanna keep pushing the clay so I can get more happy posts :) I am so happy to hear the great comments on the octo-hat. Funny thing is I was agonizing over what to do for the tiki swap as the nautical theme was very intimidating! I have a second mug started, and I think based on everyone's kind words I am gonna do him as a submerged tiki as well. It is a much larger mug - well, same height with a larger diameter - so the proportions will be different. Hope it works out a second time!

Oh - and Babalu, yep, it is cone 5 calico clay by laguna, and I use porcelain for the teeth. I was using a cone 6 "frost" porcelain for a while, but I just switched back to a cone 5 (not so translucent) porcelain as I was having a lot of trouble with the different shrinking rates of the calico and cone 6 porcelain clays. Also - I've decided to stop applying a gloss clear coat to the teeth, as I really like the matte white frost teeth on the wedding mug set I did (see earlier posts). A very nice old bone look. Besides, I am a sucker for matte and semi-gloss - never really liked the glossy glazes.

Once again, a big Mahalo!

Henrik "VanTiki"