VanTiki Mugs: Octopus Time Lapse

That's one surly looking heptapus! You'll have to provide some backstory to the missing limb - hungry shark? Pirate cutlass? This mug looks like a real exercise in problem-solving and is going to make some swapper mighty happy (hopefully me!)...
Eagerly awaiting the glazing!

On 2007-07-24 14:23, Paipo wrote:
You'll have to provide some backstory to the missing limb - hungry shark? Pirate cutlass?

Totally! Perhaps the critter is a spirit who grows a limb for every century spent in the murky depths guarding the submerged tiki... (thunderclap) Good thing I didn't sculpt the 100 year old version - he looked rather silly :)

Finished up the sculpt today - lid is now removable and has a straw hole in the middle:

I am gonna dry this guy veeeeeeeery slowly!

Henrik "VanTiki"

I really think this is one of your best mugs.

Wow. The sculpt iteself is excellent - the fact that its a mug!!!

Van...I agree with teaKEY. This could be my favorite of yours as well. You hit a major long ball with this one Captain.

Is this the cone 04 low fire clay? Are you using white slip on the teeth, or is that a different clay body?

PS - Well, I just went to your first page and answer my questions...cone 6 - teeth porcelain.

Schooled by the finest.....Capt. K and Master G

[ Edited by: Babalu 2007-07-24 22:32 ]

In-freakin-credible!
you're like Beastmaster,but with clay!

Yep, definitely your best clay art to date - it's awesome! :D

beautiful sculpture, looking forward to seeing your underglaze and/or glaze choice

Wow you guys, I just don't know what to say! teaKEY, AlohaStation, Babalu, little lost tiki, hewey, OceaOtica - your compliments are like creative rocket fuel! I wanna keep pushing the clay so I can get more happy posts :) I am so happy to hear the great comments on the octo-hat. Funny thing is I was agonizing over what to do for the tiki swap as the nautical theme was very intimidating! I have a second mug started, and I think based on everyone's kind words I am gonna do him as a submerged tiki as well. It is a much larger mug - well, same height with a larger diameter - so the proportions will be different. Hope it works out a second time!

Oh - and Babalu, yep, it is cone 5 calico clay by laguna, and I use porcelain for the teeth. I was using a cone 6 "frost" porcelain for a while, but I just switched back to a cone 5 (not so translucent) porcelain as I was having a lot of trouble with the different shrinking rates of the calico and cone 6 porcelain clays. Also - I've decided to stop applying a gloss clear coat to the teeth, as I really like the matte white frost teeth on the wedding mug set I did (see earlier posts). A very nice old bone look. Besides, I am a sucker for matte and semi-gloss - never really liked the glossy glazes.

Once again, a big Mahalo!

Henrik "VanTiki"

On 2007-07-25 11:46, VanTiki wrote:
I wanna keep pushing the clay so I can get more happy posts :) I am so happy to hear the great comments on the octo-hat. Funny thing is I was agonizing over what to do for the tiki swap as the nautical theme was very intimidating! I have a second mug started, and I think based on everyone's kind words I am gonna do him as a submerged tiki as well.

Yes - more submerged tikis! :D :D

This is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The damn thing looks like it's actually crawling as I stare at it. Truley talented you are!

Wow...that is super wicked. Can't wait to see the final. :tiki:

Killer man, killer. The detail is amazing! Keep up the good work!

On 2007-07-25 20:26, hewey wrote:
Yes - more submerged tikis! :D :D

You got it brah!

Here is submerged Tiki #2 - a very big denizen of the deep! More of a "rum bucket" than a "mug". I added some "ears" to the tiki that interlock with the lid to help things line up. And I've included a view of my bare feet as an added bonus! :)

Ms. Tiki thinks I'm nuts for sculpting this guy so big - I keep telling her that it just kinda happened. Perhaps he can find a home guarding the corner of a bar where he can be seen from all angles. I'm especially proud of the coral texture on the branch growing up the back of the "mug"

Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

You do in clay like Tiki Shark does on canvas, only faster.

You're taking it to a new level with these latest two mugs. I am totally digging the mood of them! Not just a tiki, but a little undersea vignette. It's always good to see how a theme can develop when you run with it by doing consecutive versions. I'd love to see an underwater version of your stone gods or a moai...
Now could you put Mr Bali Hai next to it for scale - that perspective shot with the feet is messin' with my head! Makes it look as big as a trashcan!

Awesome work mate :D Can't wait to see these guys with some colour

best yet

Yeah, yeah, yeah....go big brother!

These are excellent. I just love the idea of under water tikis. here.s an idea - put a spicket in there and make it a "rum bucket"? Can't wait to see more.

Aloha all!

TeaKEY - I'm not even close to the speed and coolness of TikiShark! Remember, I still gotta fire, glaze and fire these guys - they are a long way from done. Besides - painting is way harder if you ask me :)

Paipo - I did enjoy visiting this theme a second time - and I think it would work GREAT with a stone tiki! He could be partially collapsed with coral growths all over! As far as scale goes - I dusted off the Official Mug Of Scale and took some blurry indoor shots:

This guy is gonna be freaking heavy!

Hewey - I can't wait to get some glaze on these guys also! I dunno what I'm going to do - bright corals and starfish, dark lava rocks - but what color for the tiki? Wood? A blue underwater hue? And how about the Octo guy? Dilemma!

HipHipaHula and Babalu - mucho Mahalo for the compliments! :)

AlohaStation - hmmm... spigot.... not a bad idea! Dunno how I'd attach it and keep everything food safe. I'll have to research that for a future mug.

Mahalo everyone -

Henrik "VanTiki"

What's been cooking in the VanT studio?

On 2007-08-10 05:40, Paipo wrote:
What's been cooking in the VanT studio?

Welp I got a nasty cold last week, and I'm just getting over it. Therefore I kinda skipped Tiki Thursday for a spell - sorry for the lack of posts! Things are slowly drying in the studio - and it looks like I may be bisque firing a slew of Tiki Tiles (for my bathroom project) along with the two octo-hat mug sculptures Monday. I've got some plans for next Wednesday's studio session - I am gonna either do a slightly different Octo mug (Smaller and taller) or finally get around to doing some of these wall hanging masks I've been sketching. I'm meeting with Mr. VanTiki senior (an electrical engineer) to go over wiring my LED flicker circuits so I can get Mt. MonkeyBusiness and the Stone Fire God up and running. Lots to do - stupid cold!

Mahalo for checking in!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha folks - remember me? :)

Wanted to give everyone an update as to what is cooking at VanTiki studio. As some of you know I've been up to my eyeballs with our bathroom renovation project - today I'm pressing the last of the 160+ tiki tiles we are putting up (thank god!). I have a mug ready for sale (stone god #1) - but my main computer is in the shop fro a few more days so I can't post pics (or update the VanTiki.com site) just yet - sorry! I do have a slew of mugs ready to glaze, and I hope to get them painted and fired next week (now that the bathroom is winding down). On top of all that I am happy to say I've signed up for another session with the Hawaii Potter's Guild - and that means more Pickled Heads! Lots of folks expressed interest in the pickled heads I made last time I had access to a pottery wheel. I made one last night (it is sooooooo spiffy - I may not be able to part with him) and plan on making 5 or more for sale in the next 8 sessions. Hope to have a few ready for Halloween :) I'm also getting a very dark clay body for throwing some of the heads - a bit of an experiment. I'll post photos once I get my main computer up and running.

Mahalo for your patience!

Henrik "VanTiki"

OK! Got some shots of the newest Pickled Head sculpt. He's a tad larger than a softball - sorry for the lack of scale reference! Enjoy his pickle-y-ness:

I'll me making more next week - Just purchased some black clay - can't wait! cursed burned heads! :)

Mahalo -

Henrik "VanTiki"

Woooooooooo! clay again! You need to make one of these pickled heads into a full on shrunken head, with the lips and eyes tied shut etc etc :D

Cant wait to see the finished octo-mugs!

VanTiki~ WOW! The sunken tiki is SOOOOOOOO cool! really great stuff! Your work is so expressive! Now, are you actually going to be able to do a run of the giant sunken tiki mugs? I thought I would be too complicated to create a mold out of?
And the pickled head is amazing! Almost alive looking! (in a pickled sort of way)
And here I thought your skull tiles were the best thing I'd ever seen! You've surpassed your self!

On 2007-09-30 11:50, Tiki Shark Art wrote:
VanTiki~ WOW! The sunken tiki is SOOOOOOOO cool! really great stuff! Your work is so expressive! Now, are you actually going to be able to do a run of the giant sunken tiki mugs? I thought I would be too complicated to create a mold out of?
And the pickled head is amazing! Almost alive looking! (in a pickled sort of way)
And here I thought your skull tiles were the best thing I'd ever seen! You've surpassed your self!

Mahalo Tiki Shark!

We were on the big island the weekend before last and I realized too late that I forgot to e-mail you and find out if we could get an up close peek at your recent work! Next time - perhaps if the Super Ferry starts heading to Hilo! :)

As far as the Octo-Mug goes - it is a one-of-a-kind sculpt. I may do a few more in that style, but there is no way I could ever mold it! I finally got into town today and re-stocked my glaze cabinet, so you will see the octo guys finished shortly!

Hewey - I hear you on the shrunken head thing! I was toying with the idea of adding string to they eyes/mouth - but I thought a pickled head would put a different spin on things. Those VanTiki natives are an odd bunch! :)

Mahalo for the compliments! THey keep me pushing the clay!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha everyone!

Lots of new photos - got the Stone God #1 out of the kiln last week - but first off I shot a multi-angle photo-set of the pickled head I did last week:

Next up we have the massive Stone God #1!

How massive? Welp, I took some scale shots for you guys - It is a hare under 12 inches tall:

I am updating the vantiki.com site now (it is gonna take a while to upload) - and I'll post the ebay info in the marketplace when the auction starts this Saturday.

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Is that a mug, or an actual chimnea?! Its HUGE! :lol: Nice work mate :D

Aloha Folks -

Time for a VanTiki Studio update! I've finally had A chance to wire up the "Tiki Fire" for the 2 light-up mugs that I'll be glazing this week. I'm no electrical whiz - but VanTiki senior sure is, and he helped me out with the power needs for properly wiring a neat and simple LED flicker set up developed here:

http://www.spookyblue.com/halloween/flickerlight/spookyfire/

and improved upon here:

http://homepage.mac.com/nephilim/imagineerieing/spookyfire.html

I wired up three neat flickering doo-dads, which I dub the Tiki Fire Mark 1, 2, and 3. Here is the "brains" of the Mark 2 model during construction (and yes, your eyes do not deceive, this switch was apparently made in "Taiway"):

Next up we have a side-by-side shot of the completed Mark 2 and Mark 3 Tiki Fire devices:

And finally a look at the oh-so-retro Tiki Fire Mk. 3 in the palm of my hand. You know Goldfinger had one of these in his desk drawer. :)

They look really neat flickering away - even in the bottom of a normal tiki mug (though you wouldn't want to add rum)! I'll get a movie on the VanTiki site as the mugs progress. Mahalo for peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

P.S. If you wanna make a few of these for halloween (and I highly suggest you do!) be sure to follow the note about adding a 150 ohm resistor to the non-blinking yellow LED on the spookyfire web site.

Aloha All -

Took some shots of the "batch o' pickled heads" I have shaping up at my weekly pottery gathering! All are a bit cell-phone camera fuzzy - sorry!

Here you see a "before-and-after" of three bisque fired heads getting a wash of iron oxide. Interestingly, two of these heads are the black mountain clay, and one is a light clay body. When high fired, I'm told the black mountain clay will be quite dark. In the bisque state the two clay bodies are nearly identical. Is is just me of does the middle head have a hint of Brando-a-la-godfather?

Here you see a large freshly sculpted pickled head in black mountain clay. This is a BIG pickled head! I really like this guy (I am totally keeping one of the large heads!). Ended up sculpting a head in the lighter clay body last night in the same scale. I've put the first three heads on the "fire me" shelf - but there is no telling when the next major kilnload/firing will occur. Soon I hope!

Mahalo for peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Nice work Van. One of these would look cool with a nice mutant green glaze, like it's been pickled in radioactive liquid :D

Where are the sunken tiki mugs at?

On 2007-10-18 20:05, hewey wrote:
Where are the sunken tiki mugs at?

Funny you should ask! SneakyTiki will be happy to hear I just spent all afternoon glazing his small sunken tiki. I'm firing it tomorrow morning, along with the light-up stone god and the light-up Mt. Monkey Business mugs. Sneaky's mug is WAY overdue (sorry!) - and he has been super patient. I've used it as a glaze tester before I glaze the large Sunken Tiki (no worries sneaky - it is a really good test!).

I'll post photos when I crack open the kiln Saturday morning!

As for a green glaze on the heads - I totally agree! Unfortunately they fire at cone 10 over there and most of the green glazes they use are on the ultra-thick side. Someday I'll get access to a wheel where I can throw with my own cone 6 clay and I can then glaze and fire the heads in my studio where I can be a happy little control freak :)

Mahalo,
Henrik

Love the heads Van! Nice work. I can't wait to see the light up mugs! Good job on those little housings for the LED's too.

Mahalo Babalu!

Fired up the kiln this morning - it is all done firing and I now get to wait the Long Wait till things have cooled down enough for me to open it up and see how things turned out. This is the HARDEST part of ceramics for me - I hate the suspense and the unknown. I know lots of ceramic artist thrive on it - but I go nuts! :)

The glazed bisque ware before turning on the kiln (Fire God, Mt. MonkyBusiness, and Sneaky Tiki's sunken tiki a.k.a. "octohat"):

I'll get the photos of the finished mugs up tomorrow (if all goes well)!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Even though you posted a crappy pic of it ( :lol: ), from what I can see the octo-hat looks awesome, sooo colourful! :D ooooooohhh the suspense!

WOW - Pickled Heads! I really need one (or should I say "another one"). Please let me know when you have some available. Great work.

Aloha All -

The firing went well! Allow me to present the Stone God #4: Fire God!

A huge mug with flickering LED fire goodness! Here he is flickering away in the dark (tough to photograph)

and a scale shot:

I'll posted the auction info in the marketplace. There is a video of the flickering flame at my site (as well as more photos):

http://www.vantiki.com/VanTiki/Fire_God.html

we also have SneakyTiki's miniSunken Tiki mug! Nothing like getting something done months after the tiki-swap ended. My sincere apologies to Sneaky:

Mahalo for peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Tell you what, if I was sneaky, I'd be VERY happy :D

Yeah, I'd wait 6 months for one of those! I imagine sneaky will be a very happy man regardless of the time this took. Man I like that a lot. Now how can I get a custom-made sunken moai with an octopus encrusted top-hat?
Ditto on the LED powered stone god - DIY ingenuity and problem solving at its finest. I hope you get a bomb for it on ebay!
Last but not least, the latest bunch o' pickled heads remind me of former PM of NZ, Robert "Piggy" Muldoon:

I love octotikihat! The stone god looks like some bizarre mating of Ankor wat stone head and Easter Isle Moai, I likee!

PS
I saw this Astonishing new plastic Vantiki original on the floor of the Goodwill (unboxed).

I present to you "Mt. Tikisoki" have a tiki sake in it...

Talofa!
S
T

"When he erupts, everyone gets soaked".... that's not phallic or anything... somebody save the children!

Great work all around VT!
Sneaky is one lucky bassard!
The detail on the octopus and the encrusted tiki and sea life...and the glaze....
MASTERWORK!!!!!

When I saw the finished pix my eyes rolled open and I was ready to Blow aqua squirtz all over! 8===D -------
Seriously it was uncanny how much that big Mt. Tiki with big teeth looked like a Vantiki.

Wow! A huge mahalo for the tiki mug love! :) Paipo - I can't believe you guys had a PM with the nickname "Piggy"! Did folks call him that to his face? And Sneaky - I'm taking those guys to court! :) Seriously, though, I can't believe you didn't buy the little plastic guy.

Just put the finished touches on a "jumbo" pickled head I started last Wednesday (this is possibly the last pickled head of the season):

This guy is BIG! (this seems to be a re-occurring theme with my mugs....) the black dots on his face are bits of my ancient disintegrating sponge.

Thanks again - it is really wonderful to get encouragement from Tiki connoisseurs like you!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Octopus!! I love it VT! I could dig it! :D

Ahhh - the power of glazes. They can utterly destroy a mug or make it grand! I just got off the glaze roller coaster with my Mt. Monkeybusiness mug. I wanted to do a deep blue with light blue velvet highlights (to set off a vivid red interior) and set to work with my trusty Amaco velvet under glazes. Little did I know that the deep blue "fluxes out" (a term I just learned after a panicked bout of research) at cone 5 temperatures and envelopes everything with a dark blue glossy coat (totally erasing the light blue highlights). I was devastated when I opened the kiln. I spent some time wiring it up with my TikiFire Mark 3 flicker box - and it looked GREAT flaming away on our living room shelf - as long as the lights were dim and you couldn't see the glaze! What to do. After staring at it glumly for a week I called the good folks at Amaco to see if a second coat of glaze and a lower temp firing (cone 05) would be salvation or disaster. Their fab support gave me the green light, and I re-applied the teal blue highlights and sent Mt. Monkeybussiness once more into the breech. I can't tell you how stoked I was when I looked thru the peephole this morning! Wondrous velvet blue! Deep satin clefts! Ahh - thank you Spirits Of The Glaze!

I'll post pics tomorrow - gotta get back to work!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"