The shelves look great. Uh Dan...that level doesn't look level!!!

Vamp, No Way! I'm always on the level, Dan

OMG...post number 3 from Mr. Clean and he did seem very level headed. UDAMANDAN!!!

Dan wanted a Hawaiian Eye painting. I had a canvas with water and sky that had been sitting around for awhile so I thought why not just put the rest on top. Here's the process for making Dan's painting. Cheers, Wendy

Please forgive the glare.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2010-12-21 18:19 ]

Gorgeous Wendy, love the beautiful sunset colors

Excellent as always Wendy. I am so jealous of the Hawaiian Eye DVD you guys have. I never watched that show...I'm ready for a Hawaiian Eye marathon!!! I have the CD. :wink:

edited for typos (so what's new!!!)

[ Edited by: VampiressRN 2010-12-20 18:28 ]

Wendy and Dan,

You guys are a force of nature! Glad to see those FI crates are humming along.

that is great!

Nice one Wendy!
Looks Great..
Dan your a lucky man...

Well done!

Wendy did I miss where you said how many of these FI Crates you are making?

Can't wait to see how they come out of the glaze.

Thank you MadDogMike, VampiressRN, Rugbymatt, ZeroTiki and Sneakytiki for checking out Dan's Hawaiian Eye Christmas card. Beachbumz, Dan said he is lucky!
Really I'm lucky he helps with all my projects. Ceramic production is a very heavy work. Lots of lifting gallon jugs and big molds. We are a good team. We met Louie B in Hawaii years ago. They started their mom and pop ceramics in 1978 the year Dan and I married. Now they are retired and we are having fun making tikis.

leleliz, I'm making 50 Tiki Crate mugs and 50 statues. They will be glazed differently to encourage everyone to want both. Today I fine tune carved 6 and loaded one level of the kiln. When the kiln is full I will bisque fire them and start on the glaze tests. When I find those I like best I'll start on the runs.

When the party at Forbidden Island 4/22/11 has come and gone I will sell some of the glaze tests on TC or eBay. That's part of my deal with Mike.

Thank you for the fun of reading your comments, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-08 21:20 ]

the children were nestled
all snug in their kiln....

Thanks for sharing this adventure with us Wendy!
These are gonna kick Butt! :)
Merry Christmas Beautiful!
May the new Year bring you even more artistic adventures....

Lookin' great, Wendy!

It's all happening Wendy, looking good. I'm interested to see the glazing you do on them.

Who needs Crate & Barrel...we shop at Crate & Tiki!!! GO WENDY GO WENDY GO WENDY :wink:

Hi Kenny you are a doll. ebTiki and Swizzle you are half way around the world apart and you keep posting side by side do you plan that? Vamp I sure hope to see you at the Hideaway soon, only shopping for a good drink there. Wendy

Today was the last day to pour. The molds will be strapped and put away after they dry out.

I have also cleaned up the glaze test mugs and statues and I've even started on the regular run. Now the fun will start, tonight I will do my first bisque fire on a full load. These are the size of a half gallon milk carton so I can just fit 24 into the kiln in three layers.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-08 21:21 ]

Let the glazing begin!!! Congrats on the successful casting :drink: Here's to successful firing!

Thanks MadDogMike, all 24 came out of the kiln successfully except...
I thought I could take a short cut. I decided to skip the use of the compressor to blow off the dust before doing the bisque fire. I thought I would just do it once as I took them out of the kiln and then vacuum the inside of the kiln. That would have worked well if the compressor could have blown off all the dust from sanding and carving to fine tune them. But it didn't. I could tell by touch that there was still dust. So I used a brush to take off most of the residual. On the Zombie/Coral Reef mug I used the compressor before and after firing and didn't have this problem. So with the first 24 I will also have to wash them to make sure the dust inside the mug version is gone too. So one more step before I can start on my test glazing. Here are the photos taken today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM WENDY AND DAN

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-08 21:22 ]

It's been so hard to get the dust off these mugs. From now on I'll always use the air-compressor to blow off the dust before the first bisque fire. We have washed the dust off these three times finally they are ready for test glazes.

These are the first selections I've made with Dan. The box and the tiki will be the same color. The packing material another color. I'll paint each of these glaze test mugs by hand and I'll do three coats.
What do you think of the color choices so far. Happy New Year, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-08 21:23 ]

The Jungle Gems 'Firecracker" is interesting, but probably needs to go on a simpler design.
I like the richness of the dark green Duncan (#34), particularly in the recesses.
Are you airbrushing the glazes on? It looks like 1D shows a lot of brush strokes.
I love seeing your progress, btw!

You are both to be applauded for your hard work and dedication...thanks Dan & Wendy!!!

It's Doctor Wendy, caring for newborn Tikis!

Hi EB, I've only airbrushed the Zombie/Coral Reef mugs with glaze. I'll be experimenting in brushing.The glazes that I have picked will have the solid colors on the tiki and crate. I like the green too, I have another dark green that I need to test strip and then try on a test mug. 1D is a naturally mottled color not from brush stokes.

The speckled colors will just be for the packing material. These are tests so I'll be looking for votes as to what looks best for the final products. I will be hand painting the test glazes because the weather is so cold and rainy here. I hope to do some spray gun for the final products. I want to spray then clean it off the packing material and to add a different glaze there. But for now it's all by hand. The best part is that an old wooden box doesn't have to be uniform.

I will be doing the statues and the mugs in different colors. It's more fun that way.

Thank you Vamp you always give me encouragement to keep working. Your terrific bread pudding is all gone and we will bring the pan to you tomorrow.

ZeroTiki, Now it's time to work on those other patients.
Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-03 09:01 ]

Wow, that crash knocked out a lot of my photos. I think I'll post them here without hooking them to the prior pages. I'm still working on glazing the Tiki Crate and the ED&M mugs. It's a long process when it all done by hand.

I've paired up glazes to use together and I've made a huge mess of our home setting out all the supplies. Dan has been sanding the 100 mugs/statues out in the cold shed. He does the edges and I do the face as the before and after show here.

On this last image the packing material and the three tikis on the other mug have not yet been painted with the second color. I'm trying different techniques as I go. I have a lot to learn. I hope to fire by Tuesday. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-01-08 18:54 ]

You might have a lot to learn but you are also learning very quickly. You also have a lot of work in front of you. Cant wait to see the results.

Wow ... you've been busy!

Thanks swizzle and ebTiki, I've finished all 18 glaze tests for the Tiki Crate I've fired 12. In the morning I will be able to open the kiln. Finger crossed. I have six tests left to fire but I need to finish all of my Eat Drink and Be Merry mugs to go into the kiln with them. So each day is a 10 hour day. Yep we have been busy. While I paint Dan has been sanding the 100 crates for Forbidden Island. I'll do all the carving to remove the mold lines and perfect the tiki face then we will start on the bisque fire portion of production.
Here are some photos so far, Wendy

Three layers of each color. Two colors for each one.

I HAD A HUGE SENIOR MOMENT. I measured the Eat Drink and Be Merry mug which is shorter than the crate when I selected the posts. So of course all the crates fused to the bottom of the shelves. I had kiln wash on the tops of the shelves but not the bottoms.

Here's what it looked like this morning.

Here's two that made it just fine.

Overall I learned a lot from these glaze tests. I found that several greens look the same. I have another load to fire tonight that will finish the glaze tests for the Crate. I have 16 more E,D & B M mugs to glaze. Each one is a different artists proof. Cheers, Wendy

Oh, no! If it's any consolation, the fired pieces look beautiful.

Wendy & Dan, the finished pieces look awesome, I love that tiki staring out of the crate...
Bummer on the few that didn't make it, sure the other ones are going to be great as well though..
Aloha

Sorry about the misshap Wendy, they are looking good. Sometimes I kiln wash the top and bottom of my (only) shelf, if one side starts to look nasty I can just flip it over :D

Mike

Sorry for your plot-complicator...but looks like you are in full production mode...AWESOME!!!

Torbor64, Thank you. Makes me feel better already.

ebTiki, Thank you for the PM glad you like the red one.

MadDogMike, I think I will kiln wash both sides next time.

VampiresRN, thank you, we will just keep up the fast pace.

The second load came out fine, now I have even more to choose from for the event. Photos soon. Hugs, Wendy

They look great! mistakes like this only happen once. You are still in the learning phase (as am I). Learn from it an move on. Looks like you have plenty more to fire. See how much you learned about the glazes. keep them coming! and keep posting photos!

Oops...I've glazed stuff to the bottoms of shelves too. It's kinda like driving away with a gas pump nozzle still lodged in the the gas tank of your car....you pretty much figure out not to do that any more after the first time. :)

Man, you two are going for it! Keep it up. Keep it coming.

Good job kids!

Great job D&W, keep on keepin' on!

Thank you Babalu and rugbymatt. That was my first big mistake so I thought I'd follow it up with another. I was shaking the bottle and Dan came in to ask me a question...just as I undid the cap. As he started to leave I gave it one more shake.

My poor glaze tests. Better than messing up one of the mugs. Each one takes a couple of hours to paint. So many nooks and crannies. Three layers on each tiki and then three layers on the background. Yesterday I painted from 8am until 8pm so I just have 5 left and then I'll fire them. Thank you all for following this thread, I look forward to reading your comments. Wendy

GROG been there, done that too. Glazing stuff, phone rings, placed a lid on the glaze to keep it from drying, didn't screw on tight, talked on the phone, came back to glaze, shook the glaze without tightening the lid, went to the kitchen to grab water and towels to clean up all the glaze that went everywhere.

Did that yesterday :lol: Fortunately it was a 2 ounce bottle of underglaze, not a quart bottle!

Gecko said he did it twice in December. I guess we all have our senior moments even if I'm the only senior! Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone, Wendy

I Senior That about the Second Moments. Wait... uh...

I hope Dan cleaned it up, after all, it was his fault. :)

On 2011-01-18 23:25, swizzle wrote:
I hope Dan cleaned it up, after all, it was his fault. :)

Spoken like a true married man! :lol: