VanTiki Mugs: Octopus Time Lapse - Other Crafts

V VanTiki Member Hawaii Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 1046	V VanTiki Posted posted on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 4:56 PM On 2007-12-07 19:28, hewey wrote: they would look really cool as a fish tank ornament - as would the deep sea tiki - cant wait to see it in full colour! Hewey - your wish is granted! :) I just posted a thread in the marketplace with all the info about the new mugs. Soooooo stoked with the way they turned out. I thought I'd add a few "behind the scenes" shots of making the Iron Tiki here as this is the creating thread (most of this stuff is from the "studio notes" on my site - sorry if it is redundant). Above you see the original concept sketches from my sketchbook (with a color test done in photoshop). I made a bunch of custom stamps for adding detail to the sculptures using a bunch of nuts and screws from my shop an a bit of epoxy clay - but in the end I relied primarily on a socket wrench, an old nail, a chopstick, and a wood shim do do most of the finish detail. A highlight of the project was getting a new tool for the studio: a clay extruder. A clay extruder is like one of those Play-Doh presses you had when you were a kid that you fill with clay, squeeze, and a snake of clay squirts out shaped like a star (or a circle, square, etc..). I needed to get the extruder so I could make I-beams quickly and easily. Using one of the blank dies that came with the tool, I cut out an “H” shape that produced a nice, clean I-beam that wound up becoming the robot’s brows, ears, jawbone, etc... Applied a wonderful amount of rust and weathering to the two iron tiki mugs, and even did a bit of stenciling (see work-in-progress photo above) with some painter’s masking tape. The iron tiki are by far the most complex glaze application I've attempted to date. I could barely sleep last night with the anxiety of opening the kiln the next morning! Mahalo, Henrik "VanTiki"

On 2007-12-07 19:28, hewey wrote:
they would look really cool as a fish tank ornament - as would the deep sea tiki - cant wait to see it in full colour!

Hewey - your wish is granted! :)

I just posted a thread in the marketplace with all the info about the new mugs. Soooooo stoked with the way they turned out. I thought I'd add a few "behind the scenes" shots of making the Iron Tiki here as this is the creating thread (most of this stuff is from the "studio notes" on my site - sorry if it is redundant).

Above you see the original concept sketches from my sketchbook (with a color test done in photoshop).

I made a bunch of custom stamps for adding detail to the sculptures using a bunch of nuts and screws from my shop an a bit of epoxy clay - but in the end I relied primarily on a socket wrench, an old nail, a chopstick, and a wood shim do do most of the finish detail.

A highlight of the project was getting a new tool for the studio: a clay extruder. A clay extruder is like one of those Play-Doh presses you had when you were a kid that you fill with clay, squeeze, and a snake of clay squirts out shaped like a star (or a circle, square, etc..). I needed to get the extruder so I could make I-beams quickly and easily. Using one of the blank dies that came with the tool, I cut out an “H” shape that produced a nice, clean I-beam that wound up becoming the robot’s brows, ears, jawbone, etc...

Applied a wonderful amount of rust and weathering to the two iron tiki mugs, and even did a bit of stenciling (see work-in-progress photo above) with some painter’s masking tape. The iron tiki are by far the most complex glaze application I've attempted to date. I could barely sleep last night with the anxiety of opening the kiln the next morning!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Post #348606 by VanTiki on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 4:56 PM