Wendy Cevola - Zombie Hut movie and Sven's new book on display.

HA HA! Look at them abs! Dan's been working out hoisting molds and buckets of slip!

The pufferfish and Dan both look really cute :D

Oh my gosh so many super fun comments. You all just made my day.

Professor G I just visited http://www.docs-atomic-diner.com/process/CreateJournalEntryComment?moduleId=11115116&entryId=12056785&finalize=true
Your site of recipes and photography. My goal is
to have one of my tikis show up with your food one
day.

Tiki G that's quite a compliment, thank you.
hang10tiki who knew you were so good at mixing photography. I've printed Dan's mug for our wall, thank you so much. Should I send you photos so I can be on the other side? I've always wanted a body like that one!
WestADad, that photo has inspired us both to work out.
MadDogMike, Dan the puffer and you are cute.
Chuck Tatum is Tiki, the first two are certainly easier for me so I'm very happy they sound good to you.

Progress report:
I've started work on an anchor.

The molds put together so we could pour #11 and #12.

1.5 hours later we pumped out the slip.

We turn one mold on it's side until the slip starts to come out. Only the slip is thick and doesn't want to move. So while still maintaining an air hole I use the stick end of a large paint brush to get it to slowly pour out.

I run the stick back and forth while Dan slowly inverts the mold.

We have found that slip is thick enough that it doesn't splash. We used to put the bowl on a table. But now we have removed that step and leave it on the floor.

Guess who does all the dishes after each time we fill the molds?

Hope you all have a wonderful day. I need to find a frame for Dan's mug! Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-01-27 13:53 ]

On 2012-01-27 10:08, danlovestikis wrote:

Professor G I just visited http://www.docs-atomic-diner.com/process/CreateJournalEntryComment?moduleId=11115116&entryId=12056785&finalize=true
Your site of recipes and photography. My goal is
to have one of my tikis show up with your food one
day.

Wendy, I have that same exact goal. Thanks as always for the play-by-play: you and Dan are one amazing team.

Well guess what. An email from bavtech who lives near us triggered a whole different weekend for us. We are going to vend at Don the Beacomer's this Sunday. I can't hardly believe we are doing this. We decided to make the trip at 4 PM today. The car is packed with my art and our suitcases.
I am looking forward to seeing friends and fans and making new ones too.

I'm so happy that my very first sale as a vendor will be someplace so cool. We have never been there since it changed over to Don's. Sam's was wonderful too.

So I hope to see as many of you as possible.

Professor G, that made my day!

Cheers, Wendy

We shall stop by and say hello!

Aw MAN!
Wendy's comin down?!?!?!
Might just have to push aside some paintin time
and hit this instead!

Love Love Love your pufferfish,Wendy!
sooooo sweeet,like you!
:)

On 2012-01-27 22:14, little lost tiki wrote:
Aw MAN!
Wendy's comin down?!?!?!
Might just have to push aside some paintin time
and hit this instead!

Love Love Love your pufferfish,Wendy!
sooooo sweeet,like you!
:)

aww man! really!?
Make sure you give Wendy an extra squeezin hug from me! :)
It feels like forever since I've seen any of the tiki folks!
Lookin awesome Wendy, wish I could see'em in person! :D

I can't wait to meet everyone one down there and especially Wendy. I am glad I motivated you :)

I have been so busy this week at my DAY job that I have not had a chance to get over to your place.

You're kidding! Well I'll be... I can see it now: The vendors are gonna be TRADING everything amongst each other before the show opens! :wink:
That's what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum...

Hi friends, I'm too excited to sleep. I'm going to have to let Dan drive. I'll answer each one of you when I'm back or if I'm lucky in person! I'm glad I did sneak out of bed to read these, thank you one and all, hugs, Wendy

PS now after reading all those notes I'm even more excited I guess I'll just watch the clock and in four hours we are otta here

TA-DA

Great talking to you Wendy today at Don's, Hope you two had a great trip down here.

Hey Wendy.... How is it going after that long road trip? Great meeting you down there and I hope to get by your place soon!

Me and my wife got home about 9:30pm and still had work to do. I am still tired today!

Wendy, great seeing you and Dan at Don's on Sunday!

Hope you did well...your art is amazing...should sell out!!!

hang10tiki if I could photoshop as good as you do I'd look great like that in all my photos. Thank you for the upgrade! Wendy

At Don the Beachcomer's. Check out the event thread for more photos.

Chuck Tatum is Tiki and bavtech it was great to meet you both at such a fun event.
Doug it's always fun to see you and your art.
Vamp I'd do it again in a heartbeat, see you at Matt's

Thank you Chris and Karen for all of your hard work. You pulled off a great event. We had a blast. Cheers, Wendy

I am still amazed at your reclaimed paint art, Wendy!

Wow Wendy!
Sure am bummed i missed seeing you at Don's!
Would've loved to view those paintings up close...
i was foolhardy and got only about 6-7 hours of sleep since
that thursday night,paintin like a maniac
and by the time Sunday came around
7 paintings were finished and
i was delerious
and in no condition to drive..
I'll plan ahead
OR actually vend there next time YOU do
and we can get booths next to each other!
:)

Hi Chuck Tatum is Tiki, thank you they were fun to do and they are once again storage.

little lost tiki I did miss you but those paintings you finished were so wonderful it was worth not seeing you this time. I'll look forward to next event.

Progress Report on the Zombie Torch

Just before we left for Don the Beachcomer's I opened the molds that held #11 and #12 mugs. One had the largest air bubble at the top that I had seen so far. I wrapped them in plastic so that they wouldn't dry so I could clean them up when we were back home.

The whole time we were gone I thought about this problem. Here is what I did when we poured Torch number #12 and #13 yesterday. I now have one mug so the numbers backed up by one.

This is what I figured out to do. I don't know yet if it worked. I put a plug into the top opening into the mug.

I poured in some strained slip.

I let it sit for five minutes.

I poured out the remaining slip.

I wiped off the excess so the mold pieces could come together.

I pulled out the plug.

I put the mold together. We poured the two mugs as usual and they are sitting upside down in the garage. Later today I will see if they are OK.

I cut off the top of the mug with the huge air bubble.

I cleaned it up.

So in the garage drying are 11 Torch mugs and 1 regular mug.

Later today I'll find out if this worked or if I've made buried air bubbles that will explode in the kiln later on!

Thanks for (as little lost tiki would say) popping in, Wendy

My fingers are crossed! I do like the regular mug too.

Best,
Chris

Nice save on that last mug, it actually looks good as a standard mug too.

I also think these look great as a regular mug. Looks like you are gonna need to do a mug run, after the torches. I'm kind of hoping that after you test the glazes, you "can't decide" and have to do a few runs of different mugs. seriously, these are works of art.

[ Edited by: dartharnie 2012-02-02 11:58 ]

So now I have to add resourceful to the long list of glowing adjectives I have for you? That there's some nice problem solving, Wendy.

Looks like that should work out perfectly, good save!

Wow what great timing for me! I was just getting ready to search for your instruction on making a mold. I'm finally getting down to getting it done. I had made myself a nice little book to follow, but of course now I can't find it. Anyway, thanks again and I hope you get a chance to take a peek at my mugs. I just posted them to see what people thought and I'd really value your opinion.

Thanks again for all your help!

Tonie

You should write a manual!

Hi Tiki Tonie I have thought about writing a mold making book. I had to read many and also have instruction from mold makers before I could do it on my own with Dan.
I'd love to see what you come up with. There are always surprises to deal with.

WestADad you crossed fingers gave me perfect tops. I'll continue this new technique and hope they don't explode in the kiln.

Chuck Tatum is Tiki, this is fun I can see you in my minds eye as I write, great to have met you. I like the looks of the mug too.

dartharnie thank you so much. We love tiki art and I'm happy you included mine.

Professor G glitches allow me to post more photos. When on happens its, "Oh got to get a good photos of that one".

MadDogMike it seems I have to save something every day.

Progress Report on Torches #12 and #13.
For 24 hours I had a fan blow inside the molds to firm op the clay.

Nice and dry on the outside.

Nicely dry on the inside.

Top one looks good.

Top two looks good.

Next up the sea-life for the Bumatay Chunk Lamp. I think I've finished all the sculps.

The molds that Roge makes are extremely expensive. So to make it work he needs four of my Bumatay. So yesterday we molded the Bumatay so that I can cast four and bisque fire them for him. Then he'll make one mold of all the small sculpts and one mold with four Bumatay heads. That will make enough for one lamp with his chunks.

I had problems making this simple one sided mold. So here goes with the problems and the solutions.

This mold was small and one sided so I decided to see if I could make it in a sturdy box.

I covered the bottom with a layer of clay.

I pressed my sculpt of the Bumatay into the clay to anchor it.

Always wear a mask when working plaster or sanding clay.

We got out everything we would need.

We mixed the plaster and filled the mold. I lifted and dropped the box and tapped the sides to cause the air bubble to rise to the top. In retrospect I should only have thumped the sides.

As soon as the plaster became hot we cut away the box.

We turned over the mold.

We removed the clay to find that the Bumatay had come loose and floated up in the plaster.

I felt lucky that I could see the Bumatay, or so I thought.

I began my archaeological dig with chisel and mallet. First with a V chisel I outlined the Bumatay.

Then I thought I was whacking a thin layer over the clay. Instead I broke out a huge chunk of the mold. What I had outlined was not where the Bumatay was located.

Much more carefully I removed the top layer to expose the clay.

Finally I was able to extract the fish.

At the International Marketplace at Don the Beachcomer's this past weekend my booth was next to GoTiki's. I happened to talk to GoGo about repairing molds. He said he glues the pieces in with Elmer's wood glue.

I just happened to have some so I put it on the large piece.

I pressed it into place and held it until it stuck.

Once it was done I mixed some plaster and filled in some of the gaps.

Now it will dry for a week or two.

Today we plan to make a second Bumatay mold and to also mold a bowl I sculpted years ago that I will use to make tiki bowls, including a Bumatay bowl. If we have energy we will pour Torch mugs #14 and #15.

Thanks for checking this out and thank you for your comments they make the time posting worth it. Cheers, Wendy

PS thank you GoTiki

U rock

Well, you took me back to Miss Pat's Playroom when you pulled out the Elmer's glue (yes I know Miss Pat used Elmer's 'white' glue, but . . . ) . . . "hold for a count of ten . . . one, two, three, four . . . ten :)

I can't wait to see what this chunk lamp is going to look like, cool for sure!

Thanks Wendy for the stroll down amnesia lane!

hang10tiki you rock 2

The Blue Kahuna those early memories are the very best.

We just got back from Monterrey and Santa Cruz. We had fun going to Hula's for meals in both cities. We also visited Felton to see Tiki King's shop. The ukulele's he has are so fun and or beautiful. Here are some photos of our trip. Then back to art.

Hula's Monterrey

The King of Felton, California!

Hula's Santa Cruz

OK even after making a dozen molds I still make mistakes. The box worked well last time so I forgot that the clay served two purposes. One to hold the sculpt and the other to close up any open seams that could leak. The second part I forgot.

The floor also looked like this.

While I pinched the corners I had Dan get me some clay which I pushed against where it was leaking. I was lucky it was only one side.

We wear masks when using plaster or sanding clay. Since cat litter is also clay full of bacteria its good to wear a mask when scooping or changing the litter.

Dan is so good at clean up. He is rewarded with tikis.

Last time I did this one piece mold the sculpt floated up in the plaster and I had to chisel it out.

This time I held it in place with my hand in the wet plaster until all the plaster was poured into the box. Yes while it leaked all over the floor. But I only had one small leak under the sculpt so that did help.

Then I knew that I should have made the sculpt thicker so I had something to grab hold of to pull it out of the mold. But no problem I'm now done with this sculpt and it's back in the clay bag.

So now I have two good molds that are drying. I hope to use them next week.

Progress Report on the Zombie Torch

We poured 2 today when we got home from Santa Cruz. So we have 17 Torch mugs and 1 regular mug. Of course that depends on the two in the molds coming out OK.

Thanks for checking in. Now it's time for The Bachelor! Wendy

As always Wendy, love the art, love the detailed posts on the making of, and love the goofy pictures of Dan. :wink:

:D

Sorry Dan, I couldn't resist!

Never get Tazed on a full bladder.
Life is short, smile while you still have your teeth.

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2012-02-06 21:04 ]

Thanks tigertail7777, Dan's a good sport and makes this fun.
MadDogMike, Dan loved his alter ted photo. It is so true.

Here's my progress report. First up the Bumatay lamp parts being made.
For Roge other available lamps check it out here.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtLampDesignByRoger?page=1

Here's the next step by steps for the next project the Bumatay lamp. I need to deliver four Bumatay's to along with all the other sea life sculpts.

The molds were dry enough to pour.

Pouring very slowly to prevent air bubbles from being trapped.

Even with these one sided molds I hit the sides with a hammer to dislodge air bubbles.

I over poured the sides so I'll have something to hold onto to pull the Bumatay out of the molds.

When the slip had shrunk from water being pulled out by the mold I added some more. I wanted the fins to be filled up because they are not very thick.

After 1 hour I poured out what was left and then rubbed some additional clay into the fin areas.

Progress Report for the Zombie Torch mugs.

Out of the mold and wrapped in plastic until I can get to them.

Mold seam lines.

Removing the excess clay.

Cleaning it up with water and a sponge.

Adding detail. 1.5 hours on this one mug.

19 Zombie Torch mugs and 1 regular mug now drying on the shelf. Two of these still need to come out of the molds and be cleaned.

It is so much faster in the summer heat. Cheers, Wendy

I'm just happy my favorite program is back on: The Wendy and Dan Make Stuff Show. I had to go a few days without seeing it and I got all moody and I felt bereft.

Ah Professor G you warm my heart.

Yesterday went well. I cleaned those two mugs and put them out to dry. Then I went to work on the two Bumatay's. The molds worked really well. It was a good day.

The clay in the mold felt firm enough to lift.

They each came out of their molds easily.

In the middle is my favorite clay tool the label scraper.

I used the scraper to cut away the excess clay.

I added detail to the sides. Two down two to go.

I've had the fan on the molds over night. I hope we will be able to pour again today. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-02-10 08:14 ]

Sven sent me photos of how he displays my Tiki Bob decanter. The flowers are from his garden. Also are photos showing Roge's lamp. Thank you Sven. Are the flowers being fed water or rum? Wendy

That's a nice picture!

Happy Friday Wendy and have a great weekend!

Chris

Hi WestADad-Chris, I should have sent you that photo since you gifted Sven with the lamp. That was the nicest gesture of friendship ever. I hope your weekend is fun and special. Cheers, Wendy

Hi Friends, I'm bringing forward from page 46 the list of those who want the Zombie Torch. I'll be closing the number I'll be making soon. I think this is close to enough without putting it on Marketplace. I just need to see if any of my Sacramento Ohana still want to add on. No more orders after midnight Sunday 2/12/12.

wendylovestikis (this is my husband) and danlovestikis (this is me)
We will keep the rejects and prototypes rather than one of the numbered run. I reserve the right to make 1/1's specials in the future.

1. Mikeytiki
2. The Blue Kahuna
3. The Big Kahuna
4. TikiTomD
5. Loki-Tiki Jeffrey
6. ebtiki
7. rugbymatt
8. Liddle Lola
9. Marone Tiki
10. WestADad
11. CDTiki
12. Diana
13. blacksandz
14. Tiki-Tonga
15. Kahaka
16. Steve Soto
17. Chuck Tatum is Tiki
18. Joe Banks
19. Psycho Tiki D
20. bavtech
21. WaikikianMoekele
22. tikiskip
23. hang10tiki
24. dartharnie
25. Aquatic Safarinaut
26. Joanne K.
27. Swizzle = owns the flame-less mug as per his request
28. ChopTop
29. whoseyrtiki
30. Holler Waller

New list of people wanting a mug if someone backs out. The above run is 30 mugs.
Tikiwahini
littlegiles

You number will move up if someone drops off.

So last call for the Zombie Torch. Done the run is 30 mugs.

Straw hole in the flame. These photos are of raw clay. I've not gotten to the point of glazing.

Progress Report:

Some of the dry mugs and the first two Bumatay have made it out of the garage and into the kiln shed. I do all of my sanding there. It's good to be working on the next step while still pouring new ones. Cheers, Wendy

I poured a some Tiki Bobs to work on too. Today will be super busy with so many molds to open.

I bought a few new glazes - not for this project. These are the glaze tests that will fire and go on the wall. 1 layer of glaze, 2 layers and 3 layers.

Wishing you all a great weekend, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-02-12 20:18 ]

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-02-13 17:19 ]

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-02-13 22:35 ]

I am getting excited! Look at all those beauties!

So exciting!

Hi WestADad and Chuck Tatum is Tiki. I'm so happy to see that you two are excited.
Your comments give me energy to keep going.

Since I decided to only sell this run to those who look at these pages and my Sacramento tiki friends the number I will make of this run will be known by midnight tonight. I am not putting this run on Marketplace.

Other answers. I will not make a run as a regular mug but I may do some special orders that are made that way in the future. We made two molds and that means they each have been used only a small number of times. So far only 11 times each. I hope to pour again later today.

I decided to do a few more Tiki Bob's. Someone asked me if I had any available and I forgot who asked. I'm so sorry. I will customize these or do super carved. Here are some examples of my past Tiki Bobs.

I poured and cleaned two on Friday as I did the Torches. They are waiting to know their fate. Anyone want a special made Bob? Cheers, Wendy

Wendy,

Would you be game for another Fu-Manchu styled Bob for me to toast Dr. Funk?

-Tom

I'd love to have something akin to the blue, Wendy, if that option is to your liking.

I would be interested in getting a blue one like this too.

I could go for a fez wearin' Tiki Bob if you were so inclined, or a 'stache . . . it would be my first Tiki Bob mug!

Cheers!

Hi Guys, we went antiquing this morning and had some fun. I picked out my valentines present from Dan. I'll post a photo later. We are about to go out and pour some more mugs.

Tiki Tom D - Fu-Manchu. Question - a face like my jail house Bob shown above? How would you like the body, classic in brown or something else like black with Chinese rolled buttons that look like a sideways 8?

Proffessor G and WestADad, each super carved Bob I do is completely different. Would you like your name here on TC carved into the design? Blue it is.

The Blue Kahuna, Is a stache short for mustache with what color mug? Or if you want a Fez and mug what name on the front above the Shriner logo?

Here's an idea of the cost. The single piece mug example the Super Carved Bob's or those that are altered on the face are $75. I love to carve them while watching TV. A two piece example with the Fez would be $110. The hats are harder than the mugs and must fit the mug.

Send me any and all your thoughts, answers or drawings of what you would like on your mug or leave it to me. I'll be posting as I work on them along with the Zombie Torches.

Shipping will be whatever it costs to get it to you.

Since each one is unique they will be marked on the bottom as 1/1. I look forward to talking with you all again. Cheers, Wendy

Prgress Report:

I told Dan I needed to have my picture taken to prove that he wasn't the only one working. Of course I combed my hair and posed and then I got back to business.

This is me out in the shed sanding the Zombie Torch mugs.

I hose off the wire mess sand "paper" when it clogs with clay dust. I let it dry before it is used again.

I got this many finished yesterday. They require fine tuning on the carve as well as sanding.

There is so much clean up every day. Yep I kicked the bucket!

In the early morning we went to an antique marketplace under the freeway. I was searching for my own Valentines gift. After mesh nylons and a bust developer gadget I don't let Dan pick out presents for me.

I found what I wanted. This is perfect. Dan's happy that I love my present "from him"

You can never have too many supplies for making molds. Cheers, Wendy