Wendy Cevola - I've finished a Wish List Black Velvet. Time to post the steps. More each day.

The tiki farm mug is Kool
And it came with a Wendy hand, awesome

The kiln exploded with a great mix of
Colors and great creations

Love da show...

The Tiki Farm entry was wild Wendy...certainly stiff competition amongst the many talents.

I am ABSOLUTELY in love with the blue and taupe/brown inside of the Bumatay bowl...breath-taking. I love how you pay Dan off in mugs. :lol: :lol: :lol:

littlegiles that glaze is something special. I have a minor in Chemistry and it took a chemist to invent that glaze. My sister used to buy huge bags of chemicals to mix her own. I don't think I'll ever do that. However I am asked to try new techniques. I received this today from one of my Wish List customers.

I'll list it here to keep my thoughts streamlined on this so I don't drive you batty with my requests ---
3Tikis around the bowl done with Duncan Grey Spice IN1028 (or Mocha Spice IN1040) hoping they'll look like stone and somewhat simple next to the dynamic glazed bowl
Outside of bowl done with Mayco Jungle Gem ALLIGATOR CG973NT
Inside the bottom of the bowl and the upper portion of the inner rim with Mayco FIRECRACKER CG756 & inner walls of bowl with Mayco WILDFIRE CG954NT ( I think these together will be a very cool look)
From what I see I'm sure the Wargod with the Red & Black specks looks awesome !!!
I like the Aged Wargod -but it seems too clean and even if that makes sense. Almost like exaggerated makeup. Can it be hit with some glaze and re-fired to work some patina onto it?
I have some ideas for that if you can do it.
Overall a light brushing of Duncan INDIAN SUMMER IN1950 will add a yellowish smoke filled bar type stain and it looks like this glaze has some random grainy bits too,
and maybe some touches and rubs in highlight & recessed areas using dabs & streaks (I'm thinking of how mineral deposits occur or copper patinas) could use Duncan OCEAN MIST IN1068, LEMON IN1071, and hit with some Brown & Red, Grey or greens.
If it ups the cost to re-glaze & refire let me know, but I think you will understand the look I'm trying to describe here. Old and crusty - a knocked on the chin but still strong kinda artifact piece.

I'm going to try to fill his Wishes!!! Stay tuned.

hang10tiki my hand is pretty scary. I got my dad's hands and feet I'm just lucky he had small feet. I may mold my entry into the Tiki Farm contest and use it for projects. I'll remove their name of course.

VampiressRN thank you. Dan places his orders every few days but he has to be patient. I ordered boxes for the crawl mugs and they arrive tomorrow.

Progress Report:

Dan took the wire brush to the Eric October bowl and the repair patch popped off. Hummm what will I do next?

Dan was outside sanding but first he insured that I would stay and glaze.

Professor G requested a War God in Mocha Spice with blue specks. These crystals have lead. Since these are not mugs its ok.

Three layers with the crystals.

Next I did an experiment. I covered the War God with slate grey, then I put a clear glaze on top that should crack (that doesn't always happen).

Next I added some lava. It is moves too much I'll have a mess.

This is my kitchen nook/glazing room. Poor Dan, he has his coffee in the garage mans cave.

This bowl is for Joanne.

The kiln was loaded with each item far from the next. Crystals like to expload and stick on other tikis.

I hope these were far enough apart.

This load opens tomorrow.

I appreciate your visits and comments. Thank you always, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-09-30 08:00 ]

I'm really looking forward to seeing the statue, Wendy, just to find out what color mocha spice actually is. I will, of course, keep my promise to you not to taste the lead paint chips, even though it would have brought back such memories of my childhood. It's always fun to see the beautiful work you do.

Those new glazes look like they will be a lot of fun! Can't wait to see how it all looks.

I think your new anklet looks a bit heavy. HAHA! Dan is a caring but brutal master. LOL

Sorry to see that repair pop off the Eric bowl again. Just leave the dent and glaze over it. Is that possible?

• Dale

Love the ball n chain

Man I just love that rough rocky texture on the Moai/lava one, and the swirly "rootbeer" glaze on the interior of the Bumatay. Those both just look breath taking. As usual you guys have done a fantastic job. :)

I love the color choices on the bumtay bowl!
The tan & blue have a nice contrast to really make the fish pop out. And the interior colors with the swirls match up perfectly.

Professor G, littlegiles, hang10tiki, tigertail7777 and philot thank you for comments on my art and ball and chain. The crawl is 11 days away. After it finishes I'll be able to work much harder on the Wish List.

I need to share a wonderful website with you all. This is ligglegiles/Dale's miniatures. They are jaw dropping. Please stop by his pages and enjoy his art.

http://www.dalesdollhousedesigns.com/index.html

I'll be back in the morning but right now I've got to find someone to remove the ball and chain so I can get some sleep. Enjoy you night, Wendy

Well Miss Wendy, aren't you sneaky? You really didn't have to do that, but thanks. Yes folks, it is true...I'm a grown man who enjoys playing with dollhouses. :) I'm hoping to work on some tiki miniatures as soon as I can get into my new home and have the work space.

Thanks Wendy.

• Dale

Hi Friends, life got in the way and I didn't do a lot yesterday. We visited friends and didn't start on tiki work until the afternoon.

Progress Report:

I put the items that needed the enamel set into the oven for 45 minutes.

I sat down with a flashlight and went over all the Sacramento Crawl mugs. We also choose a box size and I ordered them.

I found 30 of the mugs that were without a glaze or palm frond imperfection. I painted on the numbers for the run on these. Since only 23 were made from each mold what matters most is that the glazing turned out well. Molds retain their sharpness for far more than this number.

Of the remaining two I found one with a flattened palm frond and eleven with a glaze bump next to the palm trunk.

All with these imperfections were marked IMP on the bottoms.

Dan found more of the boxes in the garage and put them together. When our order comes today we'll have more than enough for the rest.

Next I worked on 30 signature cards for the crawl run.

Today I'll be baking all the mugs in the home oven. 45 minutes a load and today it will be 101 degrees here.

Later today I get to open the kiln. Photos tomorrow! Cheers, Wendy

Maybe I don't know what to look for, but you see imperfections and I see beautiful mugs.

YEA for another kiln opening. I love that part of the show. :)

• Dale

Hey Wendy!

You guys are nuts. I hope to spend my retirement years with whomever I'm with doing something half as awesome as you and Dan do. I hope you'll excuse me for assuming that you're retired. I can't imagine doing as much as you guys do and having a full time job!

Anyway, the mugs all look great! I dig the tall carved Bob. I'll have to add a pair to the wishlist, maybe as a Christmas gift for myself! Maybe a Moai Bob. I'll have to give that a good think.

The red/orange looks great! Let's get that wonderful little statue out here to the east coast!

PS - It's good to see that you're so discerning with your mugs when it comes to quality. Really shows pride in your work, and rightfully so!

Oh, and I can't wait to see the blue crystal cracked war god!

Everything looks great Wendy and I'm glad that everyone liked the plain mug as much as I do. Save you guys work to boot!
Your meticulousness is amazing! I wouldn't see the imperfections at all....

Wish you guys were closer to SF so I could meet you when I am there. One day I hope to meet you & Dan and get/give hugs!

Keep the show going. We love it!

littlegiles I'm glad you can't see what I do. I use a flash light and you are far away.
Hale Tiki good guess we could never do this with our day jobs. I'll contact you soon about shipping. The horrors of experimenting with glaze will be shown below!
LoriLovesTiki thank you Lori, we would love those hugs like you love tikis.

Remember how I forgot to clean out the glaze from the necklace holes before firing? Well it took Dan and hour to find a drill that would work but it did.

The necklace for littlegiles.

The necklace for tigertail7777.

The heat caused a crack in the glaze. It was stable so I

filled it with enamel paint turning Bob into a Tiger Bob. If this ever falls apart I'll make you another one tigertail7777. This needs to sit for 24 hours and then be baked to set.

The necklace for littlegiles is finished. One of these days I've got to start shipping.

Progress Report:

I opened the kiln and immediately saw that the slate grey with lava was a failure. It ran over the spikes and onto the kiln shelf.

Kiln wash prevents the stick from being permanent. When you pull something loose you just re-paint the shelf for next time.

Without it the self and tiki would have been a loss. The lava just ran and the cracking was very slight. There were glaze slips on the top that need to be repaired.

Bottom shelf. It sure is fun to see but Professor G's statue didn't turn out as ordered. Bottom right the spots turned light blue green. The larger crystals ran. It's a nice mug but it doesn't fulfill the wish.

The small tiki Frankoma bowl for Joanne.

The experiment with two glazes. Too much galze will make it run. Another lesson learned.

The choras line.

Another angle.

These had glaze skips and I'll re-glaze them.

Now for another day of tiki, cheers, Wendy

__PS littlegiles suggested I give up trying to repair the Eric October bowl and just glaze the area that had popped out. So I did. There was also a pop out on the inner portion of the bowl. I hope this will end the story.
_

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-10-02 07:22 ]

Even if things didn't turn out the way you planned, the experiments were a success. You learned some things.

I love what you did with Tigers necklace and mine looks awesome! WOOHOO!!

I can remember china painting a doll one time and she looked amazing. The dolls faces were always done with 3-4 different firings so you slowly built up color. I pulled out the doll after the last firing and her face looked like she had been in a fight. I learned that many times, less is more when it comes to china painting. I know it isn't the same as glazing, but thought you might be amused. I was lucky and able to remove the paint with WINK and start over.

I love the fact that you are playing around and trying new things because that means that in the future you will be able to provide us with cooler and original finishes. Keep those experiments coming Dr. Wendy. :)

• Dale

I learn something new from you each episode Wendy!

Yipes . . . so close. The statue had some cool-looking areas, though. Ah, well, back to the lab-O-ratory.

On the other hand, you are great at turning experiments into successes; when my restaurant experiments go awry, I have to eat them.

What imperfections?? :wink: Wendy you have such a great variety of glazes going on, Love it.. I was wondering about that lava flow thickness on that War God when you were putting it on, Looked like a few of mine lately I've been playing with.. The Moai Lava bowl came out beautiful too!

Oh Wendy, I LOVE the tiger stripes. It really puts a finishing touch on something that was already beautiful. :)
THANK YOU.

I really like how you are experimenting with the new glazes and such, it's really fun to follow along on your progress/mistakes and triumphs. Once I get some money saved up I have a special project I want you to do, but I am not sure how it can be done. Is it possible to make air tight screw top containers out of clay?

Love the tiger print. WILD!!!!

Great colors...
I need an IMP tattoo because my eyes didn't see anything wrong.
Except...........
That drill 3 cm from Dans thumb
Careful Dan, we don't want to see any bloody Bob necklaces
(Sorry, to much time in the ER) :)
Jon

On 2012-10-02 18:58, tigertail777 wrote:
Oh Wendy, I LOVE the tiger stripes. It really puts a finishing touch on something that was already beautiful. :)
THANK YOU.

I really like how you are experimenting with the new glazes and such, it's really fun to follow along on your progress/mistakes and triumphs. Once I get some money saved up I have a special project I want you to do, but I am not sure how it can be done. Is it possible to make air tight screw top containers out of clay?

Plastic inserts for the threads are your best option. See many a glass jar.

This is a week full of chores and tiki baking. I have crawl mugs in the oven with tigertail7777's necklace. I plan to start shipping some finished things soon. I'm collecting addresses. Hale Tiki this means you!

littlegiles I enjoyed reading about your messed up doll and that it could be fixed. I love tiger's necklace too.
LoriLovesTiki I try to share all I can. It would be wonderful to never make mistakes but if mine can stop others then terrific.
Professor G I was all set to paint the eyes dark blue to match and what happens the blue faded. However I love this mug and I'll let it go on to someone else who will too. Right now I'm out of ideas for the color scheme for you but that could change in the future and I'll let you know.
Beachbumz thank you but I just hate little errors. They bug me. The War God Lava glaze was not supposed to run but it won the Olympics.
tigertail7777 lids are the hardest part of ceramics. Hale Tiki mentioned an insert. The problem is that guessing how much the clay will shrink or the space glaze will occupy is not an exact science.
Hale Tiki that was a good suggestion. Horrors I hate lids!!!
VampiressRN thank you I like that look too. The crawl is almost here and we are excited.
hang10tiki that drill was too close but it made an exciting photo and that's what we like to share.

Thank you all for the wonderful messages. Wendy

Progress Report:

I keep refering to my orders binder for Wish List #3. I counted 12 custom Bob's and 2 bowls that I needed to start. So we got the molds back out. I had forgotten where all the leaks were located and the felt pen arrows were hidden by dried on clay. So....


We poured the sea life creature mold for the very first time.

It sat for 1 hour and then was emptied. This is the test to see if they come out of the mold and retain their detail. We'll see tomorrow if I have puffers and turtles.

I need to fire a bisque load with Beachbumz Moai Bowl so I started carving the dried out tikis that I did ahead. Here are four small Tiki Bob statues that are super carved.

I carried on the design to the top of the Bob's.

Next up I carved the PacMan Bob for Atomic Chick. SM Bacon designed it for her and sent me a full size map. It's not perfect but I did the best I could do. It's also ready to bisque. I have the bottom shelf loaded now and need to make enough for the top shelf.

Here are the step by steps. It took four hours which was far faster than the first one I made.

Eleven to go. I love making Bob's and every thing else too. But not lids! Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-10-03 13:03 ]

Hey, I love that Pac Man mug! I guess it is one of a kind? If you made a mold, which it doesn't seem like you did, I would take one of those off your hands. But if it is just a one of a kind special order, I wouldn't want to rain on anyones parade who wanted the only one, so no problem either way.

All of your mugs are very stylish and unique. I will have to get one for my collection someday! Keep up the great work!!!

I love the Pacman mugs. Soooooo cool. I'm going to go show my boss at work now. He loves Pacman. And no, I'm not on Tiki Central at work. (That's a lie, I am.)

lunavideogames and Hale Tiki thank you. I'm becoming fond of Pac Man based on just doing this mug.

Progress Report:

Yesterday I did four 45 minute loads of mugs in my home oven. Now the enamel is set and I can box the crawl mugs. One week to spare. Hurray! I can also send tigertail7777 his necklace as well as some other finished tikis.

All but one of the sea life creatures came out of the mold. There is a lot of clean up but I'm very happy with how they turned out. Soon I'll make another strange mug.

I'm casting Bob's and bowls and misc. to be ready for more of the Wish List to be made.

This time I'm storing the damp casts inside plastic baggies and so far they do not show any signs of drying. Yippee.

I set up my work station to begin on Philot's Mayan Temple Jaguar bowl. The bowl has been wrapped in a couple of plastic garbage bags. In the weeks its been wrapped it didn't dry out either a double yippee!

He sent me diagrams for the bowl but recently requested the jaguars be larger. I used the bowl to decided what would work out.

Using a huge knife and a chopper I made three bricks.

I'm not as precise as the Mayans but they are close. I left them ticker so that I can carve from the top down and then cut off the excess.

Using his diagram I worked on the Mayan Temple.

I added clay where I needed it.

I copied photos from Google Images. To add the room at the top.

Next up will be all the steps to the top.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it so much, Wendy

YEA on the finished mugs.
YEA on the sea creatures working and their future as a fun mug
YEA on the stored stuff not drying out in their baggies

Guess I'm just full of YEA this morning. Love the beginnings of the Jaguar bowl also. You love a good challenge don't you Wendy. :)

• Dale

So cool to see your process--thanks for posting so many photos. I LOVE the pacman mug! And the sea creatures are so fun.

That Mayan Temple Bowl is going to be one major project, but I'm SO looking forward to seeing your exquisite execution of it!
~kele

On 2012-10-04 06:31, danlovestikis wrote:

Next up will be all the steps to the top.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it so much, Wendy

Wow.
Impressive already.
I've had plenty of real-life distractions that have kept my attention occupied lately. I can't believe how excited I'm getting seeing this start to come together.
I hope this project doesn't drive you crazy Wendy.

[ Edited by: Philot 2012-10-04 20:23 ]

GENIUS!!!!

littlegiles
Quinn Tiki
Philot
Kele
vampiressRN

I do love a challenge. I'm just so happy that Philot sent diagrams for me to follow. I once took the entrance exam for dental school. Part of it required that you carve a tooth from instructions like these. I aced the tooth and flunked reading. I had just taken a speed reading course and when I tried it during the test I blew it. I ended up with a negative score meaning I didn't read anything I just guessed at the answers and guessed wrong!

Thank you all for your comments on the little sea creatures and Philots wonderful challenge for me. You all rock!

Progress Report:

Dan worked really hard yesterday. He boxed and numbered all the crawl mugs.

It's good to see them ready for the trip along the crawl. Someday I'll uncover my furniture and have a normal house!

I worked on Alii Tikis small Frankoma bowl. Now it needs to dry.

I also cast and cleaned another Frankoma statue for Professor G. I'll try again to make his wish come true.

I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and just play. I made a crazy sea life tiki vase with the recent casts from my new mold. This taught me a lot about how I need to cast them.

As I made this I dropped the Frankoma tiki on its face so I have to re-carve it into a different tiki.

The major problem was to keep air pockets from forming. This will probably explode.

I had to fill the backs of the creatures with clay or cut an air exit hole.



I'll go back and add some seaweed or other details. When it dries more I'll carve more detail into the floats and other creatures.

It will be fun to decide how to glaze it.

Chores today I hope I get to play with clay too. Cheers, Wendy

Front & back of the Frankoma tiki - hilarious! :lol: I love the Mayan mug. I saw Chichen Itza this summer, magnificent ~ you are doing an awesome job of recreating it.

Jon, you don't have to worry about Dan's blood on the mugs ~ that glowing hot drill bit would be self-cauterizing! That color of orange-yellow is about 2200 degrees :)

Wendy, I haven't looked through every page of your wonderful creations, but have you made a bowl that looks like a convex Tiki Bob?

Is that a ceramic bit on the Dremel?
Aren't you suppose to apply water when drilling with it?
Who invented liquid soap & why?

Thinking of these things, "Boggle's" (by Hasbro) my mind! :)

Hi Friends, this has been a week full of non-tiki chores. I did manage to do a few tikis this week but yesterday I just touched up one that I'll show below.

MadDogMike I had to use the front and back you just can't waste any part of a good tiki.
tikilongbeach nope I have never done any convex tikis. I have this Parrot wall plaque made that way. It's hard to tell in the photo but it is really cool to look at.


Atomic Tiki Punk it is a ceramic bit but I didn't know about the water. I know the ceramic dust melted around the hole. The person who invented liquid soap was the person who got tired of using soapstone to bathe with.

Progress Report:
I decided to make the tiki a diver on my sea creature mug/vase.


Now I'll let it dry to leather hard so I can fine tune and carve the seaweed better.

Today we need to ship some tikis but I still hope to work some clay. Cheers, Wendy

PS Under Collecting Tiki Pittsburgh pauly is running a Halloween mug swap to replace the Christmas Swap since Sandra Dee is not able to do that one this year. If you are interested you need to sign up by October 15th and ship by the end of October. This is always a fun event._______________
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43972&forum=5&hilite=halloween swap

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-10-06 07:48 ]

Love the diver :lol: Wendy, I have a pint of Aztec Gold glaze by Western Ceramic Color that might make a good helmet for the diver. It's the one I used for this

If you want I can send you a some.

LOVE the diver mug. Too cute. That metallic glaze would make an awesome helmet Mike.

• Dale

MadDogMike I have the glaze, I'm going to be using under-glazes. I'll have to think that through. Good suggestion.
littlegiles thank you too.

WE SHIPPED!
On the way a box for littlegiles, tigertail7777, hang10tiki, WaikikianMoeKele and Hale Tiki. If you owe me money I'll send you a PM. Thank you all for entering the contests or ordering a tiki. Very slow shipping on the freebies and Priority mail for the others.

Progress Report:
Yesterday was a Saturday full of home chores but in the afternoon I got tiki busy. I am trying to fill my kiln with items to bisque fire. Because of that I worked on some of the dry Bob's that I made ahead but couldn't use for the Wish List. I'll be really happy when I've used them and cleared shelf space for the real projects.

Here's what I got done yesterday day from noon to night.

I only had one person who liked the taller version of Bob. So I beheaded Bob using a 1960's electric knife. These knifes cut hard clay, rubber sponges, and carpet really well. To me this is a garage tool. I do have one in the house for Angel Food Cake and Turkeys but one in the garage is a must.

After the cut I sanded the top flat and smooth with the mesh sand paper.

I finished all that I had left except for 1. I had an idea for this one.

It was time for a female. I call her French Kiss Bobbie.

Anoter PNG Bob mug.

I did an all red flame Bob his will be a yellow and red Hot Bob.

My very last for the day is AMAZING Bob. START at the bottom and go through the maze until the end. If you make it you are sober if you don't get some coffee.



I worked hard to make this a difficult maze. Dan tried 4 times and couldn't get through it. He'd only drunk coffee so I felt really good about the maze.

More chores today and maybe more Bobs too. Thanks for the visit, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-10-07 07:47 ]

Oh Oh no comments to answer. I'm going to have to work harder to deserve them! Thank you to all who dropped by. I've a few more things to show. The kiln will be filled soon and I'll be back to the Wish List projects.

Marone Tiki and his lovely lady Debbie came to visit and pick up his Moai Bowl. Thank you Monty.

I started off working on more of the dry Bob's. This first one is a small ring coconut tree Bob.

WaikikianMoeKele's Waikikian small Bob showed that tiny carvings show up well. Because of that I did Doodles Bob. I just drew all over him with a sharp point. I still need to fine tune it.

Another version of Tapa Bob.

Oops blurry.

The clay was hard enough for fine tuning so I finished off Diver's Cove.

At the end of the day Dan and I worked on the garage. I needed a way to store the molds we've made but to make them accessible for use. They are so heavy that moving them around has been a problem for me.

They are now labeled and placed in Dan's garage mans cave.

We are holding back the grass skirt. It covers most of them so his cave still looks good.

The Sacramento Crawl and the Halloween Swap are almost upon us. Tiki Central is sure a fun place to visit for updates.

Cheers, Wendy

Hi Wendy and Dan!

Gotta say, I am loving your bobs! you are doing such a fantastic job recreating the original look, but adding your touch to them to make each one unique

You guys are non-stop ceramicists and producing some really cool and one-of-a-kind items!!!

I hope the tiki is treating you well still, he was a mellow fella around my place, but always up for a late night carving/designing inspiration session!!

I like the Doodles Bob and I can't wait to see how the Diver's Cove mug turns out.

Everything looks
AWESOME.........

:)

Love mazes, so I find Amazing Bob AMAZING. Really like how the diver one turned out too can't wait to see what colors you apply to them. The Dan and Wendy show continues! :)

That's really beautiful work, Wendy.

Wendy that final carving on the diver mug is wonderful. Love the new Bobs. :)

That maze Bob is killer! Can't wait to see how you finish it.

• Dale