VanTiki Tiles - Ku Squared tile taking shape - 1/25

awesome Henrik!

Looking great!

Your unique, cool style flows through everything. Love it!

Can't wait to see the whole set! Knowing Vantiki, it's gonna be good.

Mahalo everyone! I think these 4 new fellows are going to look swell together. I want to press up a slew to ring my office with!

Here is #2 nearly done. Still need to tweak and smooth a bit, but you get the idea. He's an angry elf! Moving on to #3...

Aloha!
Henrik

SO AWESOME!! and inspiring :) !!

As some of you Creating Tiki thread regulars may have noticed, I'm taking part in the current TC art swap. The theme is "headhunter", and it gave me the push I needed to finally make some of the framed faces that were dancing around in my head. I envision these being found in a mysterious crate shipped back to a museum from a lost expedition. Or something like that. Here are the first three - each is entirely hand-build ceramic (unlike my other tiles - these are all one-of-a-kind). I made them to HOPEFULLY fit in a standard picture frame, and tomorrow I'll find out if my clay calculations were correct. The fellow with the solid yellow eye will get some lashing thru the holes in his lips. Mr. TwoClosedEyes is going in the art swap. I'll post more when I get them framed.

Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Awesome!

Cant wait to see them completely finished!

Henrik,

Those have turned out incredibly... what an honor it would be to receive one in the art swap. You rock!

peace,
Jason <

Looking great mate :D

Finished up Framed Face #2 - this fellow is quite creep-tastic!

Have you fallen in love with him despite his crooked gaze? Well, he can be yours! Head on over to the marketplace :)

Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik

Wow! that is really nice work and even better looking in those frames! I want to learn to sculpt, I have been wanting to do some molds of my tiki's, but don't really have any spare time to take classes.

So... I felt I should post these under my tile thread, as they are produced the same way. As some of you may recall, I am a big fan of geocaching, and enjoy making my own geo-coins to leave in geocaches. If all of that made no sense to you whatsoever, take a peek at geocaching.com for the inside scoop. My geocaching name? Tiki, of course!

In the past, I made my coins out of bronze (you can see them at http://www.geotiki.com ), but I felt that is was time for a change. My newest line of 4 coins are clay, and they are trackable! This means that each coin has a special # on the back that you can track on geocaching.com - very painstaking to produce, but the trackable coins are very sought-after by collectors.

Anyways, wanted to share some shots of the coins taking shape in the studio. I'm doing an edition of 100 of each design - so 400 coins in all. Needless to say, it has been a very involved process! :)

Mahalo for peeking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Very cool Henrik. I made several hundred plaster coins for an event give-aways (before I started doing ceramics), these look much more permanent

I'm blow away Henrik (Tiki)...It is a really, really a wonderful thing when something that you love to do works out so well for you and others. You are a winner my friend...anything is possible. Life is good.

On 2010-04-17 19:24, VanTiki wrote:
Finished up Framed Face #2 - this fellow is quite creep-tastic!

Whoa. Gnarly, dude.

Bowie

Stuff looks cool. Everytime you post I get excited to see where you'll be taking the art. Yep, I'm a fan.

Quick update on studio activities -

SInce getting back from Alaska I've been wrapping up the Trackable Clay TikiCOin project. Looks like we will have all 400 coins glazed and fired by Friday - it has been a HUGE effort! I also managed to press a bunch of my Tiki Tiles to take to Oasis this year. And what about the mugs? No worries - I have not forgotten them! The Oasis mugs are all bisqued, and I'll begin glazing this weekend.

A quick shot of the first finished TikiCOins fresh out of the kiln:

A super day of tile pressing (hard to tell, but there are 58 tiles stacked on the drying rack):

Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

yummy!! :)

since I dont geocache I am hoping you will list the skull tiles on your Etsy??

So i can buy....please?

On 2010-07-14 12:25, leleliz wrote:
since I dont geocache I am hoping you will list the skull tiles on your Etsy??

So i can buy....please?

No worries Liz! The big square tiles are for Oasis, and any remainders after Oasis (as well as the tiles I press after the event) will go to my etsy page. Only the small round TikiCoins are for us geocaching fanatics :wink:

Henrik

Those new tile designs are COOL! I might have to make another table :)

Oh great to hear! Where are the mysterious swizzles at that you have briefly mentioned? Are we going to get a sneak peek on those too?(demanding aren't I??)

On 2010-07-14 18:56, leleliz wrote:
Oh great to hear! Where are the mysterious swizzles at that you have briefly mentioned? Are we going to get a sneak peek on those too?(demanding aren't I??)

So demanding! :) The swizzles have been an EPIC undertaking for us, and we are doing our darndest to get them ready in time for Oasis. I'll be sure to post photos when (and if) they are done. Thanks for remembering them!

Henrik

Quick look at what came out of the kiln this morning:

The Van is a rockin'! (pardon the off-color 70s reference)

On 2010-07-15 14:11, MadDogMike wrote:
The Van is a rockin'! (pardon the off-color 70s reference)

To which I say "Far Out Man!"

TikiCoins are done! You can read the announcement and sale info here, as well as peruse images of the finished coins:

http://www.geotiki.com/geotiki/Read_all_about_it%21.html

As I said earlier - these little tiki-themed geocoins are really for geocaching fanatics (like myself), but you are more than welcome to pick one up if you'd like :wink:

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Henrik's coins are up on Etsy now, I just nabbed a couple. They look way cool in the pics, nice work Henrik! :)

[ Edited by: TikiTres 2010-07-23 12:39 ]

Mahalo TikiTres!

Just uploaded a "studio peek" of the coins getting pressed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0fdluwsA2Q

Henrik "VanTiki"

Great job on the time lapse photography! Is that the Frank Giorgini tile press? Is that Mrs. VanTiki? So many questions, so little answers :D

Mahalo Mike! It is indeed the Georgini press - with a few modifications. Made mine a bit beefier, and built it into a mobile stand with shelves for molds. And yes, that is the wonderful Ms. VanTiki sharing the tile-pressing fun with me :)

After Oasis I plan on adding a counterweight system to the arm on the tile press. Should make epic tile-pressing days go even smoother.

Kiln has been running non-stop over here! Getting all the tiles for Tiki Oasis fired, then moving onto the mugs. Here is a peek at what came out of the kiln yesterday. Will have another kilnload of photos tomorrow afternoon!

Mahalo,
Henrik

Wow!
so many great tiles!
Lovin the illuminati pyramid with the eye!
Go Henrik!

Mahalo LLT! I also dig the all-seeing-eye-of-mystery :)

A quick peek at some new glazes that made their way out of the kiln yesterday:

Oasis is alarmingly close! Yikes!

I aggre with Kenny.. I love the pyramid one.. wait.. no I love the left one.. no, no the middle one... hum... in fact... I love all of them! beautiful!!!

This just in: New Tiki Tiles are in the works on VanTiki Island! It appears that these are TWICE the height of the standard VanTiki Tile, and that there are no less than THREE new designs! More news on this story as things develop...

VanTiki Island Coconut Newsroom

You are INCROYABLE!!!
I have no word...
all the step are a big lesson for me :wink:

BRAVO!!!!

Sweeeeet! I love my VanTiki Tiles. I have all of them mounted on my hall of awesomeness. Hope to snag any new additions to the VanTiki Tile family. :) Another round of swizzles would be cool too! hint hint nudge nudge :wink:

Gosh, these are just incredible... beautiful and scary, just like I like my gods! Well done!

Whats that? VanTiki is back in the studio?! It can't be true!

Welp, believe it or not, the studio has been cleaned from top to bottom, and projects are GO! Last week I fired a batch of tiles and a mug that had been sitting in the greenware state on the drying shelf for 7 months (that has to be some kinda record). I hadn't used my kiln in so long that the vent had seised up with corrosion, and the elements were painfully slow to heat up! Good news is new elements are on their way to me from across the ocean, and I was able to clean and lube the vent to get it back in working order. Annnnnnnd....

The big tiles have begun to take shape! These are the size of 2 of the "standard" VanTiki Tiles - 10"x5" (this is the master sculpt size - they will shrink a bit). I've got 3 designs that I am starting with, and they will be pressed in a limited edition (I'm thinking either 75 or 100 each). Here is the very beginning of BigTile #1

On the right is the sculpting form. The spread of screws in the middle are for the clay to grab onto as I build up the tile sculpt. The wood edges give me a base depth guide for the tile, and I will remove them once the sculpture is nearing completion. On the left you can see the clay prep. I'm using Chavant NSP (Non-Sulphur Plasticine) soft. That "soft" part of the label is relative, as it is actually quite firm (you should see the "hard" clay!). In order to make blocking out the general form of the tile go faster, I cut the clay into cubes with a sturdy clay knife and lots of elbow grease, and then place all the cubes into a bowl under a heat lamp. After an hour or 2, the clay is truly "soft" and ready for sculpting.

Will update soon with pics as the tile takes shape -

Mahalo for peeking -
Henrik "VanTIki"

Maaaaaan, I can't believe I missed getting some of these. They look awesome. I can't wait to see the new designs.

Good to have you back Henrik!

Sketch for BigTikiTile #1!

Sculpt is humming along nicely. It is BIG - and I'm going to go through A LOT of clay pressing these things! Keep in mind, the sketch is the concept. There are a few small changes on the final sculpt, and the entire piece will have a stone texture (complete with cracks). In fact, I think I'm going to snap a couple of molds off the sculpt, fill the cracks, sculpt a new crack pattern, and snap 2 more molds. This way you can line up a set of the pressed tiles and the cracks won't all be identical. Pics of the sculpt soon -

Mahalo for peeking
Henrik "VanTiki"

Henrik, if I remember right you have a manual press. You better pack on the pork and lay off the running if you're going to have enough mass to press those tiles! :lol:

The design looks too cool!

Very cool design! Can't wait to see one of the finished tiles. Great thinking about the cracks also. It is that kind of planning and forthought that make your work special.

• Dale

Mahalo Mike and littlegiles!

Mike, I am actually a tad concerned about my ability to press such a large tile. If I'm too scrawny to press them, I'll switch to plan B: old-school rubber mallet. For extra large tiles, folks sometimes press the slab of clay into the mold by hand, cover it with canvas, then pound it in with a rubber mallet (being EXTRA careful not to hit the mold edges). I hope the press can handle it, as the mallet method takes a LOT of time (I used to do that for my smaller tiles before building the press)

Sculpt update! Looks like I am just about ready to begin stone texturing and aging. My favorite part!

Mahalo for looking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Wow, I can't wait to see how they turn out. They look great.