Post #776305 by danlovestikis on Fri, May 26, 2017 7:44 AM

LoriLovesTiki thank you. I'm so grateful that anyone spends time to look at my posts. We don't have snow in my area but it's Southern California with all the unending great weather. We had a fun trip. It was very different from any others. In fact when we went to Alaska it was much warmer and sunny too.

hang10tiki HA! you are the same but with wood which is much harder. That reminds me to go check up your bar and carving threads. So many fun things to do and so little time.

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More steps on making lids for my Maori Lamps and the new Rapa Nui mug.

Here is a repeated photo to show the Rapa Nui alphabet I copied for this mug.

The molds have dried for weeks and now it is time to do the first casts.

I put the Rapa Nui mug together and then

the lid mold. I strapped them. Will they leak or be fine?

No leaks. I don't like coming out to top off molds so for the molds that don't have excess depth at the top I put a funnel in place. I seal it with clay and then fill it to the top. That way as the mold removes water it pulls more slip into the mold. NO BABYSITTING and top offs.

We dump out as much left over slip as possible and then remove the funnel.

The next morning we opened the molds.

Are these lids cursed? Its not even out of the mold, still soft clay and there is already a huge crack!

I tipped the mold over and the lid came out onto the plastic covered board.

Once this cone top is firmer I will cut it off.

I dug out the cracked area and used clay of the same consistency so that it will shrink at the same rate and

I filled and smooth the crack.

I made a mistake that will cost me extra time when I finish each mug. I made the opening extra big for pouring out the slip.

That would have been fine but I should have made it the same size of the mug for at least at 1/2 inch first so that cutting off the excess clay at the top wasn't so close to the designs. Now I add clay to built it up. That takes time.

The backside of the mug cast better than the front. But with clay anything can be done to fine tune the project.

Out of the mold I cut the top off.

I can see all the designs and I will use a tool to re-carve each one.

All cleaned up.

Here is a second mug where I left the top edge rocky in shape.

Here are two styles of the backside. On the second one I raised the Nui and put a fish underneath.

There's more to come tomorrow, cheers, Wendy