Post #590508 by bigbrotiki on Tue, May 24, 2011 10:01 AM

That's a really good subject for a discussion here - and a difficult to answer one, because it is so subjective and dependent one one's personal taste. Trutiki's take is interesting. When I line up my mugs on a shelf for display, I certainly do not put brown next to brown, or yellow next to yellow. But would that influence the color I choose for a mug I design? Not really. Every mug should "find" the color that is best suited for it. For my Tiki Ti mug, I chose a CLASSICAL color because I wanted it to look like it could have come out in the 60s, when the bar was founded.

Another good point that Trutiki brought up is that it is not only a question of color, it's a question of complexity of the glaze. Sometimes a monochrome color is appropriate, but often a color with other color accents mixed in is the more interesting (I clearly don't know ceramicist vocabulary :) )

Granted, I am a traditionalist with my belief that Tikis should not be painted brightly, but with mugs, it's not as simple. For example, one of my faves in my collection is this Bosko one-off:

Check out those "exploding" lava particles!:

(this is one example where computer colors do NOT do justice to the real thing!)

Some of the Shag mugs look good in bright colors, because the mug design itself is so clearly modern. But in general, I like to quote foremost 20th century Maori scholar Terrence Barrow:

"Harsh color detracts so much from the sculptural quality of the carving that a sensitive eye is offended."

...meaning to me that a Tiki mug is first and foremost a piece of sculpture, and that the color should gently support the sculpture, not overwhelm it. I believe Munktiki are the masters of such tasteful glazes, and Johnny Velour's work has an almost monk-like austerity. But when the sculpt needs a little help, I would not be averse to bringing out the features with a little paint. as for example here:

I have come to the conclusion that there is a "best" color for each mug, but that what one sees as "best" is subjective, and other folks may like the same mug in some other outrageous color (case in point: The "Smurf" version of the Tiki Ti mug!)

I would think that when making mugs yourself, part of the fun would be EXPERIMENTING with the different glazes! Now how about some mug makers chiming in?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-05-24 15:30 ]