The Sacramento Crawl mug 2018 . This year the idea for making it a volcano was offered by Jeremy Sherlock. I've done them in bowls and free standing but never as a mug. This is the year and it's going to be HUGE.

Here is my volcano inspiration from Australia. Tall and skinny, perfect for a mug.

I looked at all my past sculpts and chose last years crawl mug to bury in clay. So the volcano will be larger than the mug from last time.

I use all kinds of tools to place the clay. It is too hard to do with thumbs and fingers.

I needed a lot of clay so I broke down my sculpt for the Maori Lamp and started adding pieces.

Little by little I build the volcano.

I found that this massage tool worked to pound in the clay.

A good texture.

The mug is slowly evolving while I think about what to do next.

Four side are roughed out.

I started this back in October right after the last crawl.

More steps for the Sacramento Crawl mug 2018

We went to the state library to look through old phone books for tiki places. We started at 1912. I found my great grandfathers name in that book. He said he had one of the first 99 phones in Sacramento. The phone books prior to this date were for phone numbers of three states not a city. I think he told the truth.

We found this place and then looked and didn't find it mentioned here in Tiki Central. Does anyone have any information about this place to share? It didn't last long it wasn't in the next phone book.

We drove to the address and all we found was a foundation.

I started by cutting off the front of one side of the volcano. Using a carved and sanded chop stick I copied the style of the name.

Done.

I began to add clay to the front.

Not a door, similar, but more of a monument.

Next I copied the tiki from the phone book ad.

I put him on the front and then decided that he didn't look impressive enough.

So I chose a place on the side of the volcano and dug a hole and

pressed him into place. Historically he's there but the front needs to be better.

More steps to the sculpting of the mug.

Wherever I add clay I have to attach it so that there are no undercuts or molding it will not work. The plaster breaks off if it is trapped.

I cleaned it up and added decorations around the raised part.

Close up.

At this point I was still thinking about what I would put in the center so I just moved on to fine tuning the surface.

I also thought about how is would look when the top was trimmed and that caused me to add more clay

and to form it and to add to the detail.

I also decided that this tiki was sticking out too far from the volcano's surface so

I added clay around him and then

did the detailing.

This just shows how things evolve over time. Cheers, Wendy

Sacramento Crawl mug for 2018 more steps.

I wandered around the house looking for the tiki that would look good on the front of the volcano. I found it. Freddie Coester made this cast and gave it to us as a gift many years ago. I think it's impressive and it has a great feel. Thank you Freddie.

So first I cut out a piece of clay just the right size to fit in the arch.

Then I began to add clay.

I think it is now ready to put on the volcano.

Just right.

When I do the mold I can't let any plaster get behind the pieces so I'll have to seal this tiki in place.

I made little snakes and pressed them into place.

Then I begin to clean it all up.

Done and ready for more detail.

I wasn't looking straight on as I carved the side. It became slanted. This will not work for a mold that has to be pulled straight off.

PART FIVE: the finished sculpt for the Sacramento Crawl mug 2018. Jeremy Sherlock asked for a volcano. Dan and I located an old closed tiki restaurant the Waikiki to commemorate and I used Freddie Coester's tiki on the front. Here's the outcome. Next up will be how to mold this huge mug.

Here is the sculpt for the 2018 Sacramento Crawl mug.

This link will take you to the step by steps for the making of the mold.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=38423&forum=18&start=9030

If you don't know how to go to the next page on Tiki Central just click here to continue.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=38423&forum=18&start=last&

The final version (prior to drying and glazing) of the Sacramento Crawl mug for October 2018.

My mug's inspiration for shape.

The inspiration for the tiki came from Freddie Coester. He made this tiki and gave it to us as a gift.

The Sacramento tiki place for the name. Only the foundation still exists.

A cleaned up mug.

The first of two pockets for dry ice/ rum sugar cube at the top.

Oops! I took this photo before adding the volcanic surface to the dry ice/rum sugar cube cup on the left.

The tiki at the bottom comes from the phone book ad from an old telephone book.

Here it has been done.

I will do many glaze tests until I find just the right way to glaze this mug.

With one mold it will be one mug cast each day possible and cleaned up. Cheers, Wendy

Progress Report 3/1/18

This is how I keep track of how many I pour from a mold.

I can do one volcano a day as long as we are home long enough to wait to pour out the slip 3 hours after pouring it in. We try to do this at 6:00am. Today it was at 8:00am so we have to be here at 11:00 am to pour it out.

Now I have more space to hold projects.

As the clay dries it becomes a lighter shade of grey.

The tables are filling up again!

One more month of pouring to have enough to cover the list.

The first few crawl mugs have fired.

After coming out of the kiln they have been scrubbed. When my schedule permits I will begin the glaze tests.

March 14th 2018 Progress Report on making the mug.

We brought this many dry mugs to the kiln shed.

It's freezing out so I had a heater behind me and gloves on. I sanded and fine tuned the mugs.

Dan blew off the dust and loaded the kiln.

We kept on going until

the next level was full. We started the kiln to fire.

We didn't stop. I kept sanding and he kept blowing off the dust until

the shed was full again but this time they are already to fire. We pushed ourselves so that we could use up all the sunshine.

The rain has started again but we have enough mugs ready to keep firing for this whole week! It's going very well.

More progress on the Sacramento Crawl mug. The photos look like others because the steps are all the same steps just different batches.

Unload those that are fired.

Re-load the kiln and set to fire.

Wash those that are unloaded.

Protect the art from dust.

Another load out of the kiln.

More brought from the garage to the back yard for sanding.

They stack up in the shed until the kiln is ready to load.

Only some of them make it in along with Wish List projects.

Set to fire and two days later out they come.

ADDED on 4/7/18

After unloading the kiln it

was time to wash the art in 40 degree water.

Yep I've got tables filling up back in the house. I have to keep them dust free.

After sanding it was time to

fill the kiln.

Two days later it was time to

unload the kiln.

Then back to washing and taking it all back into the house.

We have been lucky. Each work day we find tasks that work with the weather conditions. I sanded in the shed with a heater behind me. I'm wearing ear guards because Dan is outside dusting with the air compressor.

Another load of Sacramento crawl mugs into the kiln

for firing.

ADDED PHOTOS ON 4/9/18
The work on the Sacramento Crawl mug for October 2010 continues step by step and day by day. It's really adding up now.

Each time we fire we wait until the kiln is room temperature to open it. This prevents cracking.

Also we are going to wash these mugs in very cold weather because it's still winter outside.

They are lining up one by one in the hallway inside our home. We keep them dust free with a plastic cover.

The mold is beginning to leak. Not so much that I have to plug it.

Once they are dry in the garage they come to the shed to further dry.

Then they go outside to be sanded.

Dan dusts them. Washing off dust once they are fired is way harder than dusting them first and washing off the residual.

Dan loads each one after

he dusts it.

Another batch is fired and

removed from the kiln for washing.

Outside they go and then

into the scrub water and then rinsed in the next tub.

See how far I've leaped ahead now.

That's 78 mugs so far.

I've never been this far ahead before. Looks like I can have a few days off!

April and May 2018 the work continues with Sanding, Dusting, Firing, Washing and bringing them into the house.

Back to work. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-05-07 09:13 ]