Post #737952 by RVICTOR on Sun, Feb 22, 2015 9:41 AM

"Ack, Ack, A-Dak"

Onemoresean guessed it! My next project was to make a custom Royal Order of the Water Buffalo mug.

Being new at this, it was challenging to figure out how to pull it off. I remember Wendy Cevola saying that she liked the challenge that her requests presented for her...so I took a request on when a certain Tiki Ali'i approached me with the idea.

For reference, the barrel of the hat is about 6"x5" right now. It's not fired yet so it will shrink a bit during firing. I built it larger than I wanted it to be to account for shrinkage initially...so I think it's going to work out fine as far as size.

Before I started, I did some brief sketches...and developed a set of build criteria (like the mug interior volume, making it possible to set it down during drinking, the size of the horns and how any hand size would fit under them, alternate holding methods, drinking vs. storage modes, how it will be glazed, how it will be dried, shrinkage, etc.). What I found out really quickly that it wasn't going to be as easy as I initially thought. But I recalled Wendy saying how much she liked the challenge of her custom projects and I remembered her Homer mug...I figured why not.

The hardest part so far was to figure out how to support the piece while it was drying and becoming more cohesive. After it was done, my instructor informed me that I could have used slip to join the pieces once they dried a bit. That would have been allot easier than what I did...

Kinda funny in hindsight but it worked...so I moved on. I had some grandiose dreams for this mug but ended up having to reign it in a bit to be able to pull it off. I just got more nervous as I went along, so when I figured out i reached a point that met the intent of the assignment I felt it was better to stop and finish it rather than take a risk of breaking it. I kind of like how it came out...

I was going to wait to post photos until after firing...but I figured that I was committed to finishing this project anyway. Hope you all like it. Not that I have plans to make any more of these...it's a one time project done in barter (no monetary compensation involved).

So one final question...can any of the tiki ohana out there guess who this mug was made for???