VanTiki Tiles - Ku Squared tile taking shape - 1/25 - Other Crafts

V VanTiki Member Hawaii Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 1046	V VanTiki Posted posted on Mon, May 27, 2013 12:11 PM This weekend was an epic marathon of tile and pendant pressing! To begin the press-a-thon, I first had to take care of poor little Marzipan Unfortunately to get the tiles and pendants out of the mold after pressing, I need to slam them down on my worktable. Marzipan hates this noise, and she spent the weekend curled up in the bathroom corner. Feeling terrible guilty about freaking her out, she gets an extra long beach walk in the morning Now it is time for clay! Before pressing tiles & pendants, the 25lb bags of clay need to be prepped. For tiles, I drop the bags on the ground till they have elongated from an extruded 6" square into a 4.75" square. I then cut the stretched out block into a bunch of "tile chip" blanks and stack them up for pressing For pendants, I quarter the 25lb bag, then roll out the sections into long 2" diameter coils. The coils are sliced into little round pendant blanks Then the pressing begins! Saturday was a tile day. I have some wire shelves from a closet storage system that I stack up to store the tiles & pendants as they dry. When I fill a shelf, I add some spacers then stack another shelf on top. Helps to save space and allows air to circulate around the tiles (to avoid warping) Sometimes I have a bit of downtime waiting for the molds to draw enough moisture out of the tiles for me to pop them out. I decided to fill this time by modifying some of the pressed tiles. I made some old stone idols, and then made some REALLY old cracked stone skulls (bad shot - these look much more spiffy in person) Sunday was pendant day. I had made 2 new molds of the Octo-Moai, so I was able to press twice as many of these little guys I also did the round pendants And in-between pressings I modified some of the skulls into ancient stone repositories of powerful spirits Here is the top shelf of the drying stack on Sunday afternoon. 5 racks in total! I need to pick up another 100lbs of clay for next weekend. Marzipan gets 5 days off till the tile slamming resumes :) Mahalo for looking! Henrik "VanTiki"

This weekend was an epic marathon of tile and pendant pressing!

To begin the press-a-thon, I first had to take care of poor little Marzipan

Unfortunately to get the tiles and pendants out of the mold after pressing, I need to slam them down on my worktable. Marzipan hates this noise, and she spent the weekend curled up in the bathroom corner. Feeling terrible guilty about freaking her out, she gets an extra long beach walk in the morning

Now it is time for clay! Before pressing tiles & pendants, the 25lb bags of clay need to be prepped. For tiles, I drop the bags on the ground till they have elongated from an extruded 6" square into a 4.75" square. I then cut the stretched out block into a bunch of "tile chip" blanks and stack them up for pressing

For pendants, I quarter the 25lb bag, then roll out the sections into long 2" diameter coils. The coils are sliced into little round pendant blanks

Then the pressing begins!
Saturday was a tile day. I have some wire shelves from a closet storage system that I stack up to store the tiles & pendants as they dry. When I fill a shelf, I add some spacers then stack another shelf on top. Helps to save space and allows air to circulate around the tiles (to avoid warping)

Sometimes I have a bit of downtime waiting for the molds to draw enough moisture out of the tiles for me to pop them out. I decided to fill this time by modifying some of the pressed tiles. I made some old stone idols, and then made some REALLY old cracked stone skulls (bad shot - these look much more spiffy in person)

Sunday was pendant day. I had made 2 new molds of the Octo-Moai, so I was able to press twice as many of these little guys

I also did the round pendants

And in-between pressings I modified some of the skulls into ancient stone repositories of powerful spirits

Here is the top shelf of the drying stack on Sunday afternoon. 5 racks in total! I need to pick up another 100lbs of clay for next weekend. Marzipan gets 5 days off till the tile slamming resumes :)

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Post #679687 by VanTiki on Mon, May 27, 2013 12:11 PM