Horror In Clay - Cthulhu ceramic drinking vessel kickstarter

The Horror In Clay is a drinking vessel from the mythic nautical/tiki bar Pickman's Cove. Sculpted by the incomparable Kristina Lucas Francis, with supporting ephemera (matchbooks, coasters, and an entire back story) designed by Jonathan "Tiki Atari" Chaffin.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jchaffin/the-horror-in-clay-cthulhu-tiki-mug-production-run

Pickman's Cove is a fictional bar was located in Boston, Mass in the early 1950's, and run by amateur pin up photographer Ben Upton.

I'm assuming this is ok to post in the marketplace, but the link to the "Please read the rules before posting here" is broken, so I'm not 100% certain. If it needs to move to bilge or be deleted, so be it, but I assure you, I love tiki culture enough to take on this type of project, and have a fairly massive collection of mugs, carvings, and ephemera myself, and thought other tikiphiles might like to see this project.

The hypothetical backstory for the idol the mug is based on incorporates artisans and dreamers exiled from other oceanic cultures; hence the blending of hawaiian, maori, and other styles of adornment. The general form references my favorite of the cannibal trio, the eater (appropriate for dread Cthulhu, I think).

The nice thing about kickstarter is that if you pledge money but the funding drive isn't successful, you've lost nothing. I hope you all love this thing as much as I do, or at least enjoy looking at the images and ephemera we worked hard to design.

Questions, comments, thoughts, opinions?

Thanks! Jonathan
Thanks for looking!

looks cool... but how do you buy one?

The way kickstarter works is you follow the link above and chose a reward level at which to pledge. If the project is successful, you are sent the rewards associated with that level.

In this case, pledging at the $40 dollar level gets you a production run mug (including continental us shipping) and pledging at any higher level gets you the mug plus various ephemera (listed in the different reward levels). $200 or more can get you a limited edition mug.

Gotta say, Love the Lovecraft......

That is so cool looking! I'll see how many we need, but I'm probably in for at least $40.

Interesting mug and concept. I will see of I can steal $40 from my monthly allowance to get one. I would love to help more but kids college tuition is coming up and Mrs Chippy has the checkbook.

Tiki-Atari, I just saw your kickstarter the other day, glad to see your post here about it as well!

I'm sure you'll make the goal, which is great for me since I want one of the mugs. Its a great idea with a fun little background mythos thrown in for kicks. Very Cool!

Again I fail to see the Tiki connection here, other than that it is a sculpted mug. I know if you look hard, you can find some Polynesian details in it, but the overwhelming horror/monster look of this certainly well-crafted vessel would keep me from calling it a TIKI mug. Sometimes I feel that the nouveaux "Tiki" mug craze has taken on the form of the Cabbage Patch Kids fad of the 1980s. Anything goes to keep on feeding the collectors and fans market.

What Sven says is indisputable from the Polynesian perspective, but the image posted shows far more balance of proportion and artistic accomplishment than anything ever churned out by Witco, for example. I'm of the tiki conservative bent as well, for the most part, but I find this vessel to be far preferable to the surf/BEM influenced product...purely subjectively. I'll be pledging.

This is one of the extremely rare times that i agree with Sven 100%. Personally the imagery is not to my taste at all but i do appreciate the workmanship. However just because it is a 'ceramic mug' you can fill with a 'tropical cocktail' does not make this a tiki mug in any way whatsoever.

I know Jonathan, as he worked on my Tiki Daze calendar project, and I know Kristina and all involved in this project. Quality people all. My comments are on a more philosophical level here.

I think you could just as easily call it a Toby mug. It just needs a handle :wink:. That is a more old school name for a mug that has a face. It is the generalization of the word "tiki" to mean, in carving, any log you carve a face onto and in ceramics, any cylindrical drinking vessel that is shaped like some "thing", and in decor, as anything remotely tropical.

But then, that has been the trend for the last 5 or so years with more and more designs coming out that have less and less to do with the genesis of Tiki or even the genesis of Poly Pop and then even less and less to do with the resurection of Tiki Pop of the early 2000s. More and more designs are a melange of Kar Kulture and tiki, or Atomic culture and tiki and "X culture" and tiki. The results meant to appeal to the "X culture" more than the Tiki culture. The casual Tiki collector or appreciator.

I'd say this project shows there is more support for Cthulu stuff than Tiki stuff, and may signal a bunch of similar themed items coming our way. I am sure Steam Punk tiki mugs will sell fantastically! Where is the Dalek tiki mug? Katamari Damacy mug? I see them coming down the pike...

[ Edited by: Swanky 2012-06-07 07:26 ]

One only needs to look at Ooga Mooga to see the diversity that Tiki has become. While I really only like to collect vintage tiki mugs, even restaurants like Trader Vic's used trolleys, seahorses and pirate heads as mugs. Look at modern restaurants like Frankies, they push the limits as well, but I could easily see this as a mug in any modern tiki restaurant.

At what will surely be a 1000 piece + run and well over $50,000 this may be the most successful mug ever produced by a private individual.

Congrats to Jonathan and Kristina, even if I am a little biased. These guys have set the bar and shown that kickstarter can be a powerful tool if you have the right idea.

Paul

[ Edited by: blacklagoon 2012-06-09 15:50 ]

As a fan of both horror and Tiki, I love this Mug. I already pledged my money a while back when a friend of mine showed me this. Congratulations on such a successful run on Kickstarter!

Tiki Central, Nautical Central, what's the difference between friends. Right?

I'm on board. Saw this today...(sorry, don't know how to include the sound file so linking to it).

Check out the sound file. http://www.mandatory.com/2012/06/13/10-unexplained-ocean-mysteries/#photo=2

Underwater microphones off the southern coast of South America have recorded a number of creepy sounds. While nearly all of the noises can be attributed to volcanic activity or shifting icebergs, two instances have scientists totally baffled. The first, known as “The Bloop,” occurred in 1997 and lasted just over a minute. Two years later, what sounded like a watery voice saying “Julia” was picked up in the same region of the ocean.

An investigation of each sound ruled out seismic or human activity. While scientists agree that an animal is responsible for “Julia,” no creature currently known to man is large enough to produce such a noise. Science-fiction fans have posited that Cthulhu, a winged, tentacled, badass monster created by writer H.P. Lovecraft, is the source of the underwater eeriness. Though unlikely, the Cthulhu hypothesis would certainly make for a great summer blockbuster.

On 2012-06-07 06:45, Swanky wrote:
I know Jonathan, as he worked on my Tiki Daze calendar project, and I know Kristina and all involved in this project. Quality people all. My comments are on a more philosophical level here.

I think you could just as easily call it a Toby mug. It just needs a handle :wink:. That is a more old school name for a mug that has a face. It is the generalization of the word "tiki" to mean, in carving, any log you carve a face onto and in ceramics, any cylindrical drinking vessel that is shaped like some "thing", and in decor, as anything remotely tropical.

But then, that has been the trend for the last 5 or so years with more and more designs coming out that have less and less to do with the genesis of Tiki or even the genesis of Poly Pop and then even less and less to do with the resurection of Tiki Pop of the early 2000s. More and more designs are a melange of Kar Kulture and tiki, or Atomic culture and tiki and "X culture" and tiki. The results meant to appeal to the "X culture" more than the Tiki culture. The casual Tiki collector or appreciator.

I'd say this project shows there is more support for Cthulu stuff than Tiki stuff, and may signal a bunch of similar themed items coming our way. I am sure Steam Punk tiki mugs will sell fantastically! Where is the Dalek tiki mug? Katamari Damacy mug? I see them coming down the pike...

[ Edited by: Swanky 2012-06-07 07:26 ]

Can I tell the future or what? Tiki Farm hasn't said they are making this, but, there is a sculpt of a Steampunk "Tiki" mug.

I am sure it will sell 1000 times more than my Mini Mai-Kai Mystery Bowl ever thought about.

Can I tell the future or what? Tiki Farm hasn't said they are making this, but, there is a sculpt of a Steampunk "Tiki" mug.

I am sure it will sell 1000 times more than my Mini Mai-Kai Mystery Bowl ever thought about.

I think if we could see the designs they passed over in favor of the #1 and #2, it would be absolutely infuriating. I've only seen the one I submitted, and I'm already infuriated.

Regardless of whether the Tiki connection is there or if they're just Lovecraftian-kitsch, they've shipped and ours have arrived, along with swag including a map of the South Seas (where dead Cthulhu waits dreaming in R'lyeh), some coasters, "Pickman's Cove" matchbooks and appropriately tentacled swizzle sticks.

Iä! Iä! by inexorabletash, on Flickr

Bonus Material by inexorabletash, on Flickr

Are these 'drinking vessels' still available?

On 2013-01-03 05:38, Kon-Hemsby wrote:
Are these 'drinking vessels' still available?

http://shop.horrorinclay.com/

Was in New Orleans the other week. great little joint called Cane & Table rumored to have a good rum collection. Some great crafty cocktails, but the thing that caught my attention was a specialty drink that came in this Cthulu mug. $47 for the mug and drink- so I didn't try it- but now at least I know where I can buy the mug. Tiki or not, the sculpt is very cool...especially for us Lovecraft lovers.

Cheers!
:drink:

AWESOME!!!!!!

On 2014-10-26 23:01, finky099 wrote:
Was in New Orleans the other week. great little joint called Cane & Table rumored to have a good rum collection. Some great crafty cocktails, but the thing that caught my attention was a specialty drink that came in this Cthulu mug. $47 for the mug and drink- so I didn't try it- but now at least I know where I can buy the mug. Tiki or not, the sculpt is very cool...especially for us Lovecraft lovers.

Cane and Table has some awesome libations! I try not to shill too much, but the Cthulhu tiki mug and the open edition Innmouth Fogcutter mug (that Wendy Cevola did limited editions of) are both available at http://www.horrorinclay.com, and are both featured in gift sets right now.

C&T were serving Zombie's using one of the Bum's recipes in them (not sure which). I think they have something original in there now.

What'd you end up drinking?

Cheers!

Tried the Holy Money (Stiggins Pineapple rum, gin, white vermouth) and a delicious Boss Colada (recipe below). Both were intriguing uncommon drinks, that seemed to be carefully made, but what really caught my eye were their "YOLO-Tiki" drinks, which included a Beachcomber inspired zombie made with Appleton 21 year, Lemonhart, and Ron del Barralito 3 star. $32, so I didn't try it, but I was tempted. Owner knows what he's doing rum-wise. I was told he bought a big shipment of Lemonhart when it was last available b/c he already knew it wouldn't be available "forever." Wish I had done the same! :wink:

Boss Colada
1-1/2 ounces fresh pineapple juice
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 orgeat syrup
1/2 Angostura 7 year rum
1 ounce Baska Snaps
21 drops Peychauds bitters

:drink:
Cheers!