Post #732054 by RVICTOR on Mon, Nov 24, 2014 8:54 AM

Just getting started in ceramics, and in making tiki mugs, I don't have allot of work...I appreciate your visits and kind words as I post the work to date. Having shared this with my family, friends and others in the sculptors workshop, I have received allot of great comments and feedback. Please feel free to leave your comments if you so choose. Any advice, guidance, tips, etc. that I can get will only help me progress faster.

Today I am posting a mug that I am planning on making a mold of. It's one that I promised to make as a gift for the owner of a local tiki bar. I took pictures of the interior of the bar and used a photo of one of the tikis in the bar to do a one-off. The mugs name is Taki Tiki 1. My ceramics instructor saw the mug when I brought it in for firing and she said I should leave it green so that I could make a mold of it. So the plan is to make a mold in January and do 10 artists proofs in different colors. I am really looking forward to it.

First a couple progress photos...the first one is while drying after I hand molded the barrel mug using the picture as a guide. I did a small build up for the frame of the mouth.

After drying I started carving...I have a long way to go to be able to carve with good symmetry. I struggled with this a bit on this one. Of course I didn't want to do an exact replica so I shortened the head and body, elongated the mouth and eyes, and changed the wanky, dinosaur arms. I also wanted the leaves to look more like a skirt. I like the way it came out after making the modifications.

And here are the front and back views after I was done with carving.

Once we get closer to the time we will make the mold, I plan on doing some more finish work. For the time being it is being stored in a plastic bag with a small basin of water in it. Hopefully it doesn't dry out too much. Otherwise I will have to moisten it up and work on it some more to restore the detail.