Makiki Tiki's Mugs

Well here's my story. Just started working with clay last September when I signed up for Vantiki's class at the Hawaii Potter's Guild. I was hooked and have been making mugs ever since. Vantiki encouraged me to post pictures so here they are... Mahalo to Vantiki for sharing his craft and techniques! Enjoy...

Fantastic looking mugs! You've definitely been paying attention :D

Straight outta the Van Tiki school. Looks great, that would be a fun class to attend.

Excellent work!

Awww VanTiki has a mini-him now!

You picked up his style fast!

Great stuff.

Great looking mugs!

Makiki Tiki is a clay MACHINE!

He has set up a near permanent residence at the Hawaii Potters guild :) Glad you finally posted your work!

His little stone mugs are uber-cool, and wait till you guys see the 2 foot mug he has in the drying cabinet. Truly epic!

Henrik

That has Vantiki Style all over it

Looking very sharp!!!

Unreal... true talent. Where can I get one?

Thanks for the encouragement. I've been viewing the TC forums for several of months now and TC folks are the best. Since Vantiki brought up the double mug (more like a pitcher or vase) I'll try to take some pictures later this week. My day job get in the way of tiki mugs, :D. MT

On 2010-04-14 13:45, VanTiki wrote:

Makiki Tiki is a clay MACHINE!

He has set up a near permanent residence at the Hawaii Potters guild :)

Very cool indeed :up:

Nice work Makiki, and welcome to TC.

Killer, Makiki! Welcome to TC... looking good!

Peace,
Jason <

My day job get in the way of tiki mugs :D

Isn't that the truth!!! Love #2 with the tusks

Spend five hours at the potter's guild today and here's what's going into the bisque kiln. I call it my double stacker. It's a smidge taller than 14 inches and it's heavy! ...and that's me!

Because it's so big, it probably will be a while before it's dry enough to bisque and I'll also have to wait for more large pieces to fill the kiln. So far I've got more than 13 hours into this piece.

The double tiki is still sitting on the shelf waiting for bisque. The guild has a couple of workshops so those pieces got priority. Here's a piece that came out of bisque earlier that I got around to glazing. It took almost two hours to glaze cause there's a bunch of porcelain bits added on that can break off if you're not careful. The teeth and eyes should come out a shiny white even without any glaze. It probably going to be a couple of weeks before it gets fired, there's a lot of other pieces in front of mine.

VanTiki taught you well, good job. Cute photo of yourself too. Wendy

Thanks Wendy, All credit goes to Vantiki. He's a really great instuctor. Super fun and very willing to share his skill. I just wish I had nearly the vision and artistic talent as him. Three mugs went into the kiln this yesterday, should be ready by Thursday :). Made a tiki shot set this week, 4 stacking cups, hope it works, will take some picts soon.

All I can say is, these are truly amazing. I wish I could take Van's class... Obviously genius is contagious!

[ Edited by: ZeroTiki 2010-04-30 20:27 ]

Thanks Zero. Here's some picts of a stacking set I'm working on. The four should be able to stacking in any order. Each one was individually hand built, hopefully I left enough room for glaze. I'll either use magnesium dioxide or chromium oxide to finish the outside. Have to do a test with CrO, if it works, it should look like they were carved from lava rocks. Each mug is about 3" tall.

Those stackers are cool. I look forward to seeing them glazed.

Love your mugs :) !

Stackers have been glazed with Cobalt Oxide, not CrO, and are waiting for the next firing. Guild members must be scared to handle the giant double mug because it is still waiting to be bisqued. Worked all night at the guild (to 1:00 am) and here's the latest work in progress...


Probably got a few more sessions to finish this guy up. Right now it's about 10" tall.

Been pretty busy at the clay studio. Been closing that place out, it usually closes at 10 pm but they gave me a key so I've been there past midnight on several occasions this week. Time flies when I'm making mugs. Here's some updated picts of my latest mug. I've carved in all the detail and will hit it with some underglaze highlights once it dries out a bit.

The double mug and the 4 stackers are in the gloss kiln right now and should be finished by Sunday...Can't wait!!! Also, here a pict of the completed reptile looking mug. Enjoy!

I'll have to start selling my mugs soon. First I gotta pay for studio time and clay. Second I have about 30 mugs all over the house. I love to make them but now they are starting to take up too much space. We'll see, there's still a few more nooks and crannies...

That big fella above is fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing him finished.

Great work!

Thanks Swizzle and Zero, glad you like them.

Here's the finished Double Tiki. This guy is 13.5 inches tall and weighs almost 7 pounds. He leans a little forward but is still stable on a hard surface. Will have to make some modifications to the base, a 1/16" widget should do.

The Stacker. The stackers were crafted from the depths of a blue volcano (Cobalt oxide) so they have a blue ting. It's most noticeable on the porcelain teeth. The mugs are actually a super dark blue, nearly black. Mugs will stack in any order.

Finally, here's an update of the latest mug. I'll call it the Ali'i because of the royal colors... He's off to bisque. I'll finish it with a good dose of red iron oxide so the colors shouldn't be so bold. It should look like it was sitting in the forest for while.

*On 2010-05-12 04:37, Makiki Tiki wrote:*I'll have to start selling my mugs soon.

I don't think you'll have any difficulty selling your mugs here (or anywhere)...your work is awesome! Looking forward to seeing more.

I don't think you'll have any difficulty selling your mugs here (or anywhere)...your work is awesome! Looking forward to seeing more.

I agree, your mega-mugs are breathtaking in person! :)

And, may I add, the stackers turned out GREAT!

Makiki Tiki, you ROCK!!!

Those finished items are great, but I do have one compaint...

...the pics are too small to see the details. :wink:

Great job!

Thanks for encouragement, glad you like them cause I sure enjoy making them.
Littlegiles...you asked for them so here they are, more detail.

Nasty teeth, my favorite!

Top and Back view

Side view, stable but its leaning forward a smidge

Finally, the front.

I'll post close ups of the stackers in a bit, gotta take better pictures.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the larger images. The detailing you have added to these items is great!

Awesome job!

Your scupts are excellent! I enjoy seeing people finding their tiki-ness.

I personally do have an issue... Learning a new skill is always a challenge and finding someone to encourage and advise you is always a bonus. However your skills have grown but your creativity may be stagnant. Emulating an artist is fine but the more you do the more your stuff is starting to look like knock-offs of Vantiki. I challenge you to find the tikis inside of YOU. If you continue to repeat someone else's style the less you will be rewarded personally and publicly. I'm not attacking or wanting to be nasty, just trying to get you to expand your art. Your mugs really are exceptional examples of Vantiki's style - I want to see your style. Keep pushing the mud.

Things have been busy around the office and I've enrolled in another ceramics class so tiki time has been drastically cut back. Here's a couple of tikis in the works.

This is a short guy. The cylinder was left over from another project and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I turned into a tiki.

Here's the evolution of the latest mug...

1. Prep cylinder - have leather hard porcelain teeth ready to go.
2. Stick teeth into cylinder
3. Add lips
4. Add details
   
   Next step (not shown) is to carve details once construction is complete.

Lost my camera for a while but I'll post picts of the completed Ali'i mug soon. It came out awesome.

Here's some picts of the Ali'i mug. Outside is just velvet underglazes and red iron oxide.

One more mug should be coming out the kiln on Wed...Sooo exciting, just like Christmas!

Nice mugs, really dig them.

They say "If you drink this BEWARE"

Very cool mugs...
Henrik has taught you well young Jedi!!
I really dig Ali'i...
He turned out fabulous...
great subtle colors really ad to the design!!
I do agree with alohastation...
Time to find the tiki within...
Judging from what you've done so far...
Your "inner self" work will be GREAT!!
Keep up the fantastic work!!

[ Edited by: Meheadhunter 2010-06-20 10:00 ]

Way sweeeeeet!

Wooooo!!!! love your colors effect! really great work! :)

Casualty of the Kiln!!!

It all started off looking ok...

But then this...Shrapnel!

Someones piece did not have an airhole and exploded in the kiln. Some bits fell inside my mug and now there are clay shards permanently glazed in. At least my piece still looks ok on the shelf, there were many other beautiful pieces that did not fare as well. The hazards of a community kiln.

It's been awhile since I posted but I've been admiring all the great stuff being produced and finally got inspired. I've still been making mugs but here's something new...

Take this...

add this...

and get this...

A Tiki mug display stand! This stand should work with most of the mugs I've made. It's still needs to be glazed and fired but you get the picture. This is only the prototype, if it works out, I'll make one that is more "tiki".

and here the lastest mug to come out of the kiln...

The new one is a MONSTER!!! Very cool. I had missed the kiln accident mug in July. You can make that mug usable (but still not perfect) by adding more glaze to the bottom and re-firing. Because of the dark color inside the mug it won't be very noticable.

Nice work...they are really loooking great but I have to agree with AlohaStation....these are rips and clones of VanTiki's work. It's ok to learn from somebody but now you are just pumping out watered down versions. Find your own style and run with it!

MDM - Thanks for the re-glazing tip, I'll have to remember that next time. The shrapnel mug has a happy home, someone who has no intention of ever using it to drink out of.

Glazed the mug stand today, hopefully it will get into the kiln this weekend.

I look at these and all I can see is Vantiki.

Love that Totem

I guess its good to start a style movement but at the same time

Mug stand is finally finished, works with a bunch of mugs.

Ha, makes me laugh. Hand can hold a spear/torch/voodoo stick. Now that the prototype is done I'll put a little more time and effort into version 2.

Great Idea!