Post #654868 by Jürka on Mon, Oct 8, 2012 4:47 PM

Ahoy!
Few days ago I received message that I have two more weeks before work, so... what did I do? I felt relieved and bought 25 kg of clay! So... I tried to fix my mold... as much as I could with filler... Pointless job... I guess it's much better to just clean up the clay-man... because then I must only cut, but fixing mold means building up from emptiness... Only the upper edge was the one which needed to build up... It came out awful, but I guess it may work...
Anyway... I put those pieces of mold together with tape... In the bottom I put wooden ring and made it fast with glue... This is for hollow bottom...

Then I started to mix the clay with water... I didn't waste my money for plastificator nor formsil... I don't know how much they could have change things... Anyway... It was said that for 10 kg of powder must put 4 l of water... I thought that maybe 1 kg would be enough for my mold... So... 400 mg of water... Mmjah... Nope! No way... Must add water... and more... and more... and more... I put at least 1 additional litre of water in the bucket... before it started to change little bit like if you add some more water then it's getting possible to pour it... So I added some more water till it looked okay... I have no idea where those 10 kg and 4 l numbers has come from... At last I got more than two times of cubage of clay then I thought I needed... I wanted 1 litre, got almost 2,5 litre... I poured the clay in the mold and shaked it like hulagirls do it with their asses... It was a real long shaky song...

So I waited half hour, meanwhile I had to pour some more clay in it, because the level kept lowering in the mold... Now I was pretty happy that i had so much clay ready to pour... Oki, half hour was over, so I turned it around and tried to slip it out... I thought that it's all stuck and plans to stay there forever and I patted on the upside bottom... Well, really it wasn't necessary... Result of my work was catastrophic... This "mug" does not have destiny to carry some rum-coctail in it... ever... I also noticed some bubblehole's in the walls... and the wooden bottom came off and fell also out... and... you know... like them catastrophs are... everything is f*cked up in the end... That's my fallen out wooden bottom on the edge...

Times went by and I found out that wooden piece is really bad idea to have it inside... I had never seen wood in liquid condition before but now I did... It shrinked and... Picture says it...

But... Really... I didn't want to depress you by showing unlucky tiki-mug attempts... That was not my plan... So I try to finish this post with more positive way... I glued, shaped and drew Ku... Look, he's smiling to you here!

And then I carved him... I guess that before starting any mold of him I want to cut him little bit more... and sandpaper and stuff... But he is almost ready I think...

And here's my Kumuhonua who is come out from mold... He is really badass guy! Reminds me Rambo... or that striped guy from "Commando" movie... Anyway... You meet him, don't you mess with him...

So... Now... I guess I may try some more unlucky attempts in these two weeks... for just to learn what kind of problems is in that clay-business and stuff... but more serious mugging will continue in spring... There must come a day when those guys will hold coctails in them... Must come!