Bowana's Other Crafts

SSIIIIICCCKKKK!!!!

Haha cool self portrait!

Thanks for visiting, everyone!
4WD-See ya at Oasis??
MadDogMike- Few and far between because they take so freakin' long to make!
Babalu- Thanks for your generosity with your kiln and studio!
Congatiki- :lol:
Benz- but monkeying around is my business!
GROG- Hmm...so is it a portrait of me or of you? We look so much alike it's hard to tell!
seeksurf- thanks bro!
ebtiki- thanks bro ll!
tikigodz- thanksssssssssss!
Clarita- I broke my mirror!

On to the next:
Meet Leela. She's an 11" hand built ceramic mug.

She's wearing a traditional Tahitian style dance headdress with an alteration of the back to keep the mug shape.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bowie

BTW, I'll have this piece and more at Oasis so be sure to stop by Artist's Alley and see all the incredibly cool works everyone has come up with!

GORGEOUS! Another one out of the ballpark. The sculpt is just beatiful, but your glazing is AWESOME!!!

[ Edited by: GROG 2010-08-07 10:10 ]

Very Nice Work! How can I get one?

WOW! Great stuff Bowana!

Incredible stuff as Usual Bowz and she Even has her own bone pendant. COOL!

[ Edited by: Benzart 2010-08-14 16:46 ]

Not Babs, Bowie.

Leela is gorgeous! Another Bowana masterpiece that's off the chart. Thanks Bowie for posting your latest. G

Bowana, your sculpting skills blow my mind! That last one is a true beauty! I love all of your work, and it's all fun, but the last is a work of art! I expect your work will be in many books in 50 years as "one of the great mug makers of the early 21st century!

Thanks for visiting ever-body!

GROG-Thanks, glazing hardest part of project. Bowana not like glazing.
TORKERTIKI- If you are going to Oasis, you can get one there!
Jungle Trader- Thanks!
Benz- Yeah I gave her a Tiki pendant to make sure the piece would still be considered "Tiki". (she collects them too) :)
TikiG- Thanks Greg. Hope to see you at Oasis!
pennjones- Wow! What a great compliment! We'll see if that happens! Thanks very much!

On 2010-08-08 05:23, Benzart wrote:
Incredible stuff as Usual babbs and she Even has her own bone pendant. COOL!

On 2010-08-08 15:07, GROG wrote:
Not Babs, Bowie.

That's okay if Benz calls me Babs. Babalu is not such a bad guy to be confused with.
And besides, it's funnier that way! :lol:

I'm thinking about abandoning this thread and jumping over into the "Other Crafts" forum. I'm posting much more other crafts than carvings any more.
Hmmm...should I....?

Bowie

"I'm thinking about abandoning this thread and jumping over into the "Other Crafts" forum. I'm posting much more other crafts than carvings any more.
Hmmm...should I....? "

Come away from the dark side! You don't belong over here B'wana, these hammer-swinging people are not like you. Come over to "Other Crafts" with the civilized people where you belong. But don't abandon your work thread for the pounders to destroy, have it moved with you :lol: :D :lol:

Beautiful work as usual Dave! :) See you at Oasis

Thanks Grog/grag/grig, sorry Dave/bowie/bows,, Still Awesome stuff.

Bump!

Time to rock boss - see ya in a few!

WHAT......ARE.....YOU?

Thanks for the bumpities, guys. Yep, I did it Mike. In the Other Crafts now with a little help from Bora Boris.

So anyways...

She who once looked like this...

Spent some time looking like this...

DON'T LOOK AT ME! I'M HEEEDIOUS!

This appeared to be a successful glaze firing until one day a huge flake of glaze just fell off her face. I tried to touch up the glaze and re-fire several times, but it just kept getting worse. The glaze crawled in some spots right down to the bare ceramic. Note to self: clear gloss over fired clear gloss does not always work.

Where's my ball-peen hammer?

It almost came to that several times, but I was encouraged by Babalu to keep trying to reglaze. I managed to successfully reglaze the David Bowie eye, but the Phantom of the Opera cheek was a losing battle. Then the lip happened. This is not a good look for a girl.

Ah, an idea,

I mixed up some enamel paint. A little red, a little yellow, a little brown.
A little more red, a liittle more yellow....a drop of blue.

My first attempt on the right (after adding the drop of blue) ended up looking like baby poop green.
Next attempt on the left, brown, red, yellow...and NO blue! I was able to match the original color of the glaze very close. Not perfect, but very close.

First I flicked off all the loose glaze and ground down the trouble spot with a diamond bit to even out the surface. Then painted on several coats of the enamel until it was as smooth as I could get it. I made the lips a bit darker so they would show up better. Finally I sprayed on several coats of clear gloss Krylon until it smoothed out even more.

GROG have similar trouble with glaze I remember. GROG able to repair?
Babalu, we gotta find the solution for what causes this. Thanks for firing her so many umpteen times, Boss.

Smile, Leela. You've been given a second chance.

On 2010-09-20 08:17, little lost tiki wrote:
WHAT......ARE.....YOU?

I.....AM......FINE......WHAT......ARE......YOU?

:)

Later,

Bowie

Sponge sanding pads are the bomb. Use in between coats of paint for serious smoothing before final clear coat.
Auto and paint stores carry them. Here's a nice variety in one pack:

http://www.aftosa.com/3mspsapaset.html

Smile, Leela! Lookin good.

She looks awesome Dave! So glad she didn't end up shattered out of frustration. At the very least I am sure you could of just made her into a zombie if you needed to try a different route.

BTW after over a month I FINALLY got the Aloha Sisters mug back from MP who has been keeping it hostage since Oasis. Even though you claim your love affair with them is over they are here for you if you ever change your mind xoxoox

Excellent save Bowana Dav. GROG not refire bowls with glaze problems yet, so GROG not know if problem fixed until the next glaze fire. (Hopefully soon)

Thanks for holding on to GROG' Aloha Sisters Mug, Leleliz.

BEFORE

AFTER

Great save B'wana, amazing eye for color matching!

On 2010-09-29 02:02, GROG wrote:
Thanks for holding on to GROG' Aloha Sisters Mug, Leleliz.

You are welcome. See...the ladies are hanging out with your work so they get comfortable around yet another amazing ceramic artist's wares :wink:

Good Save,Bowie!
resourceful you ARE!

YAY!! Great save Sir B.

If we test to re-create the problem, we can figure out how to avoid it in the future. :)

amybean-thanks, and an excellent tip!
leleliz and GROG- you two should wrassle for it! bahahah!
Maddogmike, LLT, and Babalu-yep, it was a good save, but a difficult one! Hope I won't have to ever do THAT again!

I just finished this here bowl:

It's hand built with castings of a sculpture I made on the sides.
I like the coconut look the brown and white glazes give it.

Thanks for visiting!

Bowie

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[ Edited by: bowana 2010-10-26 18:33 ]

For some reason, I just came up with the idea that I want to carve a tiki chess set...

I wonder what I should use for pawns?
Buzzy Out!

Good job Bowlwana.

On 2010-10-26 17:20, Bowana wrote:
leleliz and GROG- you two should wrassle for it! bahahah!

Unless that little Caveman can find out where I live there is no way hes getting his grubby mitt on my mug!

I agree BOWLana great job!

It looks similiar to a Treasure Craft type of glaze with the brown/white combo but that is one of the things I love about it-the new/old look.

How big is it ?

I love how you just breeze in and post something amazing every once in awhile like its nothing but an after thought for you :)

Awesome work!

[ Edited by: leleliz 2010-10-26 19:20 ]

You're right B'wana; very coconutesque - NICE!!!

Understated elegance with that "this here bowl" Bowana -

very "Hawaiian" IMHO and very "clean"

Thumbs up!

Buzzy- Oh shoot! Busted!
GROG-Thanks and Bowana like new name.
leleliz- The dimensions are 9" across by 7 1/2" high so it's rather small. I would post more often but I don't have much to post!
MadDogMike- Thanks from one nut to another!
TikiG-Thanks Bro, yes very Hawaiian!

Bowie

now that is ONE GREAT LOOKIN Bowl,Bowie!

A wonderful bowl. Your eBay auctions with dabigpuka are going well, everyone should check those out too. Wendy

Thanks Kenny and Wendy. Yes, the Bowana/Gecko mugs are going well on ebay! :)

I didn't want to post this bowl until after it was fired in case something went horribly wrong. Nothing went horribly wrong, so here 'tis:

In the greenware stage. The Moai were cast from a press mold of a sculpture I had made previously. They're very thick so the concern was that they may crack off or something. The bowl is hand built from a slab.

It was difficult for me to chose a color for the inside. I finally decided on this green. Gives it a retro feel methinks.
The dimensions are about 9"W x 5"H.

Thanks for visiting! :)

Bowie
AKA Bowl-wana

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[ Edited by: bowana 2010-11-02 21:57 ]

The pictures turned out real nice Sir B! Folks these babies show waaaay over the top when your looking at them face to face...

Bowls!!! bring on the BOWLS!!

Excellent texture, Dave!

2 pieces in one week, B'wana's on a ROLL! That green interior worked out very well.

Now a MOAI!?!?!?!
excellent!
Glad the GeckBo's are going well!

love the green glaze on the inside of this new one!
you're upping it and upping it,Bowie!
Way to go,Tiger!

Thanks Babalu, Madogmike, 4WD, and LLT! I'll be doing some more bowls in the future I'm sure. Plenty 'O possibilities there.

In the meantime, I have another project I'm finishing up currently. Here's a sneaky peeky:

8 1/2" Wahine bust. Haven't named her yet. Probably Sunshine or something like that.
Babalu, you are going to get introduced to her this weekend!

Thanks for visiting! :)

Bowie

Dave, you seem to have a thing for pretty wahines. Good thing you do them so well.

You're hired.

Bowana is creating a woman from clay.

It's called "Pygmalion Syndrome" Teaks.

4WD- Yep, guilty as charged!
GROG-Thanks. How much is the pay?!
teaKEY- Only got as far as the top 1/3!
GROG- What's all this philosophical mumbo-jumbo?

Sunshine made it out of the kiln okay. Glaze next. In the mean time I've got two more hand built mugs.
First up- Space Monkey!

The hat is removable and has a straw sized hole on top. Not really visible in the picture.
Is this mug Tiki? Probably not, but eh.

Now this one is Tiki! The Mighty Ku!

Thanks for visiting! :)

Bowie

BEAUTIFUL WORK MAN!

SPACE MONKEY- AWESOME!!! Just don't name him Albert 'cuz that's an unlucky space monkey name;
Albert I suffocated to death 6/11/48
Albert II died on impact 6/14/49
Albert III died in an explosion 9/16/49
Albert IV died on impact 12/8/49
Albert V died after a parachute failure 4/18/51
Albert VI was the first animal to survive a space flight, but died 2 hours later on 9/20/51

I think Space Monkey will need some white gold luster :D

Hahaaa! Love that monkey!

On 2010-12-19 22:05, MadDogMike wrote:
SPACE MONKEY- AWESOME!!! Just don't name him Albert 'cuz that's an unlucky space monkey name;
Albert I suffocated to death 6/11/48
Albert II died on impact 6/14/49
Albert III died in an explosion 9/16/49
Albert IV died on impact 12/8/49
Albert V died after a parachute failure 4/18/51
Albert VI was the first animal to survive a space flight, but died 2 hours later on 9/20/51

I think Space Monkey will need some white gold luster :D

Albert (Edward VII) died in a can; evidently no one let him out...

awesome as always Dave!!