MadDog Mike's Platterful of Pupule - El Tiki/Ben Wilson Wall Finished

Ok, that has to be one of the most creative things I have ever seen! Awesome idea. I wish I had a brain like yours (well, when it is being creative that is). HAHA

Great job on that prototype. Here is an idea for you that might make things easier in the finishing. Instead of wrapping the cording all the way around, what if you cut a slot into the side of the tiles so you could thread it through, tie it off and tuck in the knot with bit of glue to hold it. That would keep you from having to shellac the cording. It would also make the bottom flat so possibly easier to glue on the cork bottom? Just a thought.

Monkey mug. A+

Coaster. A+++

The coasters are brilliant!!!!!!!

Yeah it's all about the coasters for me.
Great job.
Always wanted to make small ones for a light.
Very cool.

Dang! It still looks good - especially since I'm at work and could use a little fun drink right about now! Beautiful tile work. Love it.

On 2011-06-27 19:35, MadDogMike wrote:
Thanks Robert
littlegiles, I will admit I looked like that once - but only once and I swore that I would never do that again!
Wendy, OK - here's what's next;

I have always been fascinated with the Vintage Jade Tiles and come up with a few ideas to use that image. This is a prototype jade tile drink coaster.

It's about 4 3/4 inches square. The jute twine wrapped around the sides is to keep the drink from sliding off the glazed tile surface and the cork on the bottom protect the table and absorbs any condensation. This one was just a quickie, it's not really symetrical. I put shellac on the twine, hoping to protect it and keep it tied. Experimenting to see how to cut the cork and what glue will stick the best. If I can get it all worked out I might make a mold so I can make a few sets.

PS - BeadTiki, don't get excited - it's mango soda with a little Maraschino cherry juice :lol:

That's beautiful Mike, Wendy

Good Job Matey!

That tile coaster is fantastic. What a great idea!

If you're only here for the clay secret, skip to the bottom :D

Thank you all for the Jade Tile comments, that ideas has been slumming in my sketchbook for a few years and I finally gave it a shot. LittleGiles gave me some tips that I have taken to heart and I am working on a mold. If I can make these at a reasonable price I will probably try to sell some. ZeroStreet & BeadTiki, that mango soda is El Jarito brand. Made in Mexico and available in the Hispanic markets here on the border. It's looks better than it tastes, it's OK but I'm sure it's artificially flavored :lol:

I finished my "Want Coffe NOW!" mug

Nothing spectacular but it was just an excuse to make a slab formed mug for a tutorial. I did have a bit of serendipity with the glaze - I had fired the mug last week and didn't get complete coverage on the inside, also the grey glaze I chose was a little darker than I wanted. I touched up the inside and when I refired it, my kiln over-fired (as it is prone to do) Most lowfire glazes get washed out when they are overfired, this is usually bad. But in this case it lightened my too dark glaze and gave it a cool slightly runny texture. Looks like some hoity toity high fired ash art glaze :lol:

OK, here's the big clay secret - "Calcined Clay" (of course it's not such a big secret if you already know!)
Make little clay clay patties and let them dry out completely, crush them good with a rolling pin, sift them with a fine screen, and bisque fire the powder in an UNGLAZED clay container. Put your calcined clay into a labeled container and save it for a rainy day. When I made my mug above, I made the handle hollow and had to leave a vent hole. I could have made a smaller hole, but I wanted the inside to dry faster (patience Young Grasshopper :) ) Now when you wash the mug, water will run into the handle.

I took a little of my calcined clay and mixed it with a drop or two of the glaze I used on my mug and made a paste. I pushed the paste into the hole and put another coat of glaze over the top. When I glaze fired the mug, it sealed the hole.

In this case, it was important to have bisque fired the mug first so that any moisture had already vented out of the inside of the handle. This trick can also be used sometimes to repair cracks that have developed in drying but it won't fix cracks caused by dunting

Great finale on the monkey mug! The look on his face is priceless.

Well done!

brilliant, mike!
you based this on a photo of me before my morning coffee, din'cha?

[ Edited by: ZeroTiki 2011-07-05 21:27 ]

I'm going to beg Dan to stop coffee to see if he looks like your mugs mug. Loved the helpful hint. It was a good reminder that I need to do that. He's got great personality. You and zerostreet have monkeys down pat. Wendy

Thank you LittleGiles, Robert and Wendy. Maybe I DID model the ape on Robert or Dan without coffee :D Wendy, what a compliment to be compared with Robert's art!

I posted "Melvin the Drunken Moai" on GROG's Moai Madness thread. I just couldn't help myself, those topknots look too much like lampshades. Somebody needed to do it, might as well be me! :lol:

Had some trouble with my glaze firing this piece. 1st firing had several glaze skips inside, 2nd firing had just a couple of small glaze skips, 3rd firing had 2 pinholes, 4th firing had just one tiny pinhole - I'm making progress. I will fire it again and hopefully it will be all good :)

That's one happy Moai, Mike! Another great, whimsical piece.

That is too funny! Now I know I have seen that look before. After years of bartending, it was all too common a look at the end of the night. WONDERFUL!

Tobor & LittleGiles, thank you.

The Pikorua or Maori Infinity Twist is usually made of New Zealand Greenstone but I made this one out of amber

OK, I'm a liar and a LIAR!!! DanLovesTikis send me some Ginger Chews, a taffy-like candy. She said they were not only good to eat but that it was perfectly acceptable to play with them and mold them like clay - so I did. And I ate it when I was done :lol: Thank you Wendy!

Very good candy BTW, sweet, yet hot and spicy

PS - Melvin the Drunken Moai is on eBay now, a big thank you to those who have placed a bid
http://cgi.ebay.com/Drunken-Moai-Tiki-Mug-/140581150923?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20bb4a20cb

Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear?

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2011-07-23 14:52 ]

Oh,Mike!

Is wish I had half your imagination.

At first I thought you had copied my flame for my new decanter. Yummy and fun. You are so cute! Wendy

I love Melvin!

MDM,

Melvin RULES!!! I think Grog needs to do a Melvin the Drunken Moai comic strip...

Paul

Henrik and Paul, thank you. Melvin sold to one of our great TC Ohana, I get to deliver him at Oasis.

Chuck, Wendy, Robb - sorry to pull your leg with the fake amber but I was feeling mischievous :wink:

This next one is not really Tiki but I'll add a tip and a little technical info and maybe I'll be forgiven.

I made a Cobra Mug a few years back and decided to do another version for a friend. I didn't really improve on the cobra much but the basket is better (and holds more rum too!)

The left is the original and the right is the "New and Improved!" version. They are about the same overall height so you can see the volume is significantly increased. Like the original, the cobra serves as a straw, you suck on the head to get the drink :D

The basket was done by making 2 identical bowls. joining them together and cutting the top off. Then I cut strips of clay and wove them around the bowl. Since the inner bowl was already sealed, the woven strips are purely decorative and don't need to seal together. In fact, they are only slipped to the bowl at the top and bottom - this creates little crevices under the strips for more texture.

If you are making several pieces of one shape, you would make a plaster mold but I often want just one of something. I find interesting objects that I can wrap clay around to make something. But it can be difficult to remove the clay from the form. If you are using something simple like a PVC pipe, you just wrap it in newspaper before you put the clay on but that won't work for more complex shapes. Here are a couple of found objects; a Captain Morgan tin that held a pair of pajamas and a $1 plastic pilsner glass from WalMart.

I took a sheet of gift wrapping tissue and cut it into wide strips (I used white because the dye can bleed out of colored tissue, ask Kinny). I wrapped the strips around the can and sprayed them with water, kinda like paper-machie without the machie. Be sure to cover everything with at least 2 layers and smooth it down well. Minimize the wrinkles as much as possible - there will still be some wrinkles in the paper which will show up as wrinkles on the inside of your clay, but these can be smoothed out later.

Put it out in the sun to dry and it will be ready to use shortly. I'll wrap a slab of clay around this form, let it dry for a while to firm up, cut the clay down both sides to remove it from the form and join the 2 pieces back together. Some of the paper will probably stick to the clay but it will peel off as the clay dries. This will show up soon as a deep sea rum barrel inspired by this commercial.

I know I'm over my allotted time, anyone still with me? :lol: My little kiln has a manual control and no pyrometer (thermometer) so I recently got an inexpensive digital pyrometer. When I glaze fired my Cobra Mug yesterday, I tracked and graphed the temperatures.

The red line is Orton's 270 degree/hour maximum ramp recommendation. The blue line shows my kiln temps. I have been firing for 2 hours on low, 1 hour medium, and then to high until the kiln setter shuts it off. I have had pretty good luck with that firing schedule but it looks like I'm firing a little too quickly. I was following the red line pretty closely until I switched to high, then the temp went up a little too quick. Next time I'll try 2 hours on medium to see if that's better.

Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear?

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2011-08-07 14:56 ]

Hi Mike, I have a whole shelf of things to mold to use as bases but I didn't think about covering them with more that mold soap. I think mold soap will work much better with your tissue paper cover thank you for the help.

I'll love to see a photo of you drinking through the cobra. That's a very special idea. You have so many of those that I really missed you at the swap this year. I'm getting a really great plate from the United Kingdom.

See you two soon, Wendy

EXCELLENT!

Sweet basket Mike.

Bear

New Cobra is just KILLER!! Thanks for posting MDM!!

The new cobra is VERY cool, you did too improve on the snake: he doesn't have back problems and have to lean over like the first one. :wink: The idea is so awesome, but I bet it looks odd in use; like someone giving mouth to mouth CPR to a cobra. :lol:

Here ya go Wendy :lol:

DOH! I never thought of mold soap! The paper works real well though, that barrel popped off without the slightest hesitation.

Yes Tigertail, it does look like I'm giving mouth-to-mouth to that cobra :D The first cobra was made of porcelain and high fired in a community kiln - he got a little hotter than planned and sagged a little. My plan was that cone 10 porcelain wouldn't require glaze inside the cobra to be foodsafe. This latest was low fired, I just glazed the inside - no problem.

Greg, Bear, and Chuck thank you very much!

Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear?

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2011-08-07 18:08 ]

Mad Dog, I am deeply moved by your bold display of cobra love. No longer do we need to hide our feelings for our serpent friends - be proud! Kiss a snake today! :)

Seriously, what a terrific improvement from cobra 1 (which was already a way-cool mug). Love the basket weave, and the scale detailing on the snake is superb! I didn't realize Cobra 1 was porcelain - tricky stuff! I'm going to do some experiments after oasis with the porcelain body offered by these guys: http://www.mattanddavesclays.com/

I've heard good things - and would love to find a porcelain that handbuilds and fires well (at cone 6)

See you soon!

Henrik

[ Edited by: VanTiki 2011-08-08 12:10 ]

Nice work Mike! That cobra is awesome! Surprised you didn't opt to add some fangs! :D

Mike, that snake is incredible!! Any mug with a built-in crazy straw gets extra points in my book.Great job on it and the basket. The details on the basket rock!!

Nice job Mike, the basket and snake look great. :)

Sorry Mike I had to do it the evil little voices in my head said to. :wink:

What an honor to have a cartoon of yourself Mike. Now you have made it big time. What's next out of your basket? Hugs, Wendy

oh.......
my...........
GOD.

Please excuse me while I retrieve my jaw.
~Zero

What a Cobra Kisser!

I love it Mike and Your not Alone!! :wink:

I know this is not really tiki but sometimes it's easier to get forgiveness than permission :)

I haven't came up with a clever name for this yet - it was kind of a quickie made for a friend at work, but I like his concept and I'll probably make some more variations on this one, maybe some barnacles, slimy seaweed, who knows what else. Of course I'll have to make one with a tentacle straw like the cobras. :lol: 5x7 inches, holds about 24 ounces. I wanted it to look like driftwood,with the handpainted lettering aged and flaking off.

Good Job Mike, the wood is so realistic. Love the aging and the suction cups. Wendy

I like it!

What a barrel full of fun Mike! I can't wait to see what you do with the barnacles and seaweed version. I grew up by the ocean and constantly saw all kinds of well worn flotsam and jetsam with decorations of the sea attached. I never saw a full barrel, but I can imagine how awesome it would look. Very nice job on the wood detail. Is one of the barrels going to have Bilbo in it and be stamped from Laketown? :wink: (yeah okay I know... my nerdiness is showing). :D

Cool idea! Dig. Now you need to invent a rum barrel drink that has Kraken in it!

I like it! Upon seeing it, I immediately pictured a second tentacle on the opposite side, pointing straight up, which would serve as a straw....and would keep the "sucking on animal parts" motif going! :D

Way cool. I can see the whisky commercial's inspiration coming through, only this time it looks like the cephalopod won.

Bear

105,023 hits! Wow you have a lot of fans and I'm one too. I'm looking forward to your next post. Wendy

I forgot to thank you all for the your kind comments on the Cobra Basket, I guess I've been a little preoccupied. Glad you enjoyed my little rum barrel too, thank you so much. I did come up with a clever name for my barrel (at least I think it's clever :D ) - "Barrel Overboard!" as inspired by the Jamison's commercial. Wendy, I've got a project lined up for the Chop on Sunday - nothing spectacular, mostly just something to keep my hands busy while I gab and eat.

Wow Mike - you've been busy! Love the snake mug (the basket is awesome!) but that Barrel 'o 'puss is super cool! That tentacle is VERY life-like, and those suckers are amazing! Looking forward to your next invention!

The Octo-Keg mug has more imagination than I have ever displayed.

If there were more mugs like this, I'd start collecting mugs.