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

Tell Mr PAC man that he better behave!
:)

The Hubba Hubba x3 bowl is lookin great

Ps-tomorrow ill have a Mai-Tai for ya for good luck with the kiln....

Jon

I know Dan liked the Invisible Man mug a lot, but dressing up as him might be a bit much? :wink: (I'm not the only one who saw this resemblance, am I?)

Love the bowl Wendy!

hang10tiki I'm not expecting Mr. Pac Man to behave but I'm working with him.
Soon I'll be fine tuning the ladies and then I'll hope for even more Hubba Hubba's.
Ps-tomorrow ill have a Mai-Tai for ya for good luck with the kiln....

TikiAno I love to hear and see my man laugh. We both loved the comparison photo. I have started a Photo-Shopped File and I've moved some of hang10tikis creations there with yours. I need to search out those from Grog to add.

Atomic Tiki Punk thank you. I think we'll be seeing you soon at DTB's

Clayton came to fix the kiln. It's always fun to see him. We just added another shelf for glaze right behind him and it made it a tight squeeze.

Our living room furniture is covered to protect it from our cats claws. There are the 30 severed heads waiting to be glazed.
The two big cabinets we got at the Discovery Shop (Cancer Society). We go there several times a week. These two were only $50 each.

Yesterday Dan drilled a bunch of holes in the back of each cabinet.

In his garage man cave he had lots of speakers and components stacked up. He collects old stereo equipment from the same shop and has fun mixing music.

He boxed up tikis and moved all these things.

All Clear.

He got one in place and then called it a day.

Progress Report Wish List #3.

I try but after a few days of glazing my table ends up looking like this.

I painted the Shrunken Severed head with black paint.

Then after it dried I scrubbed it off.

I let him dry.

Then I painted him to look like the Ren Clark Severed Head only shrunken.

I did change the blood to dried blood which is brown. The hair will be the same as the fresher head.

Thank you all for stopping by and keeping my thread alive, unlike the heads! Cheers, Wendy

Dried Blood...I love the dark turns these severed heads keep taking.

The pewter Hubba Hubba x3 looks really cool, but I have a question.

If you had glazed the girls first with the 6 cone, then the bowl with the 4...what would have happened? Would that have kept the bowl shiny or destroyed the women?

Count Bobula really is a pain in the neck, isn't he ;P

Dan likes old stereo equipment?

Nice! I'm quite the collector myself =)

Look at all that Kool stuff
When can I move in, ill work for tiki too...
:)

Jon

Now that Dan re-arranged the Man Cave I'll have to come up for another visit so I can check it out again :D

dartharnie ha ha, Count Bobula has been a pain in the neck but he's worth it. I don't know if the glaze would burn at a higher temperature. It might melt more and all run off. The girls bisque fired on that higher heat so they would be OK I just don't know about the glaze. I need to experiment. It was fun thinking about the blood being dried and darker for the shrunken head. Thank you for thinking about all of these twists.

Hale Tiki he never wants to run out of equipment to play his records on. So if it costs $20 or under and looks good he buys it.

hang10tiki its been 16 years of, Will Work For Tikis, for Dan

MadDogMike please do and bring Teresa.

Progress Report Wish List #3

My whole idea for these recent severed heads it to maintain the Ren Clark head but just to add a twist. Here's the last one for now. In the future I'll do special versions as ordered on the next Wish List.

Tapa Snake.

All done and drying. I hope to fire up the kiln tonight.

I am so grateful for your visits and comments. I come here first thing in the morning because it gives me a boost to work hard the rest of the day. Thank you, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2013-03-23 09:58 ]

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2013-03-23 09:58 ]

Clayton came to fix the kiln. It's always fun to see him. We just added another shelf for glaze right behind him and it made it a tight squeeze.

There's still a problem with the kiln, the thermocouple replacement did not resolve the issue?

Cheers :) !!!

[ Edited by: Loki-Tiki 2013-03-23 10:03 ]

Thank you Loki Tiki!!!

It was the thermalcouple. When we did the replacement there was a screw that was stripped. We couldn't tighten it well enough. With this last repair Clayton replaced the whole white block that held the thermalcouple. He said there is a lot of stress on the screws as the kiln heats and that's what strips them. It should be fine when I fire tonight.

Everything in my hand has now been replaced.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2013-03-23 13:50 ]

I wonder who got the Wendy/Gecko mug
Missed it by 10.00

Jon

Today I saw something that reminded me of Dan-Os collection

An Army of 5 in an antique store
In Vancouver Washington

hang10tiki I'm pleased that you valued the Wendy/Gecko work enough to bid so high. I know he'll be super happy with all the money from the last bid. I wish we were shopping and had those Tiki Bobs those are one of the hardest to find peanut mugs. We have one each of two versions.

Wish List #3 Progress Report

I have the run of 30 Severed Heads to finish and the 19TikiChef62 pot to paint with enamel. Here's yesterday.

I loaded the bottom shelf of the kiln. One mug that will be a gift had to be hidden.

Top shelf loaded and another mug was loaded after. When these have been given then I'll share the photos. I fired up the kiln.

I carried 30 heads to the nook where I glaze.

I glazed only the bottoms of each one leaving a space for the numbers. This is a run of 30.

Three hours later I finished the first layer and left them to dry.

My sister lives in Oregon where you can buy the Powerball lottery. She and I went in on $40 worth of lines. I told Dan if we hit it she'll call. If she doesn't call then it was a bust. We planned to split the winnings. Well she just called while I'm typing here. First she said we got the Powerball number 31!...and

one other number.
WE WON $4 to split. Yippee!

So I need to make more tikis, back to work, cheers, Wendy

Ahhhh, the next step has started...

Jon

We hit 31 also, Wahene's birthday this month but didn't get a 3 or any other. Ah well, a severed head's commin'

hang10tiki and another...

Holler Waller oh well it was fun to get the 31. The heads are marching along.

Progress Report Severed Heads

Another day another step completed. The steps were these. Use a spray bottle to moisten the inside of the mug so that the capillary action will pull the glaze tighter to the clay. Pour in a hefty amount of glaze. Cover all the interior surface. Pour out the excess then put the head in a plastic container upside down to let the drips stop. See two lined up in this photo.

Take one out and clean up the outside of the head.

Take more glaze on a brush and coat the inner rim three times.

At the end of the day I had all 30 finished.

I'm up early to take a friend to the hospital for a pacemaker upgrade. I'll get back to work when I'm home this afternoon. Dan is taking my car in to get it smogged which seems like another medical procedure. I get to open the kiln and remove the tikis, my favorite surgery!

May you have a healthy day a beating heart and clean air to breath. Cheers, Wendy

I love that last picture. Looks like a bunch of little ghosts "Oooing" you. HAHA You scared yet? :) Love the progress pictures.

Wendy's ghost army! eek! something else to frighten me! :lol:
~kele

Sooooo....which one's mine?

Just saw another Wendy item on Gecko's eBay page...

Jon

I'm so excited about the heads! They're going to look great. I'll be curious to see how you tweaked them for the final glaze. =)

On 2013-03-25 20:03, hang10tiki wrote:

I was thinking the exact same thing....well...I also thought of this ghost too...but I was afraid it would give my age away...

littlegiles I love posting progress photos for everyone to comment on. The ghost faces you have pointed out are creepy while the severed heads are all sweetness and nice.

WaikikianMoeKele littlegiles has started something.

Big Kahuna the one with the scariest ghost face!

hang10tiki I was hoping someone would find the ghost face he was referring too. Thank you. Yep, the Wendy/Gecko mug has surfaced but the auction is all his.

Hale Tiki the glazes were perfect the first time around. I have blended the hair a bit more.

dartharnie we are all on the planet at the same time and we know so many of the same things. Somehow we all were infected with tikis.

Dan's been working in his garage man cave. He now has 3 of the stereo systems working. I keep taking him away from his project to work on mine. Poor Guy but as you know he works for tikis.

Progress Report Wish List #3

Count Bobula is finished. The glaze stuck this time. Dan is packing up the monster trio to ship. He had to go buy a bag of peanuts. Double boxing too.

Pac Man didn't go so well. I will try it again. I'm determined to make it work. Pretty soon all the glaze will have been replaced.

Tapa Snake, AP for the run, and Bug Eyed version.

I'm adding some enamel to the chords stitching the eyes and mouth closed on the shrunken head then I'll revel it tomorrow.

I'm loving all the fun comments.

WE WILL BE AT THE DON THE BEACHCOMBER'S SALE ON APRIL 6TH. IF YOU HAVE ORDERED A SEVERED HEAD AND WANT ME TO BRING IT TO THE SALE LET ME KNOW. I'M TRYING TO FINISH ENOUGH OF THEM TO DO THIS DELIVERY.

Back to work, cheers, Wendy

Love a festive kiln opening! The heads look great and the one with the snake is fantastic. Wish I could have hopped in on this run. Maybe one day in the future. Glad the Count finally cooperated and I'm sure if anyone can whip the pacMan into submission it is you! Woohoo!

Dale

I'm torn... those severed heads are beautiful, but also danged creepy. I do like the one with the snake, kinda makes it a little less grotesque somehow...I think. Count Bobula turned out awesome! It's odd that you are having such a difficult time with Mrs Pacman... is the glaze too old to use maybe? My experience with the art of kilning is limited, but I think I seem to recall that some types of glazes can become outdated and not fire right as a result. Regardless, I am sure you will make it completely jaw dropping in the final version. :)

Severed heads look creepy n cool all in one

Jon

littlegiles Opening the kiln is as scary as seeing a ghost. You never know what is going to happen. I will keep trying to fix Pac Man just for the heck of it. Thank you for the WooHoo!

tigertail777 thank you several times. I'd never heard that about glaze becoming old. That is very scary because I've stock piled glaze. What I've found is that clay is mud. It's not as uniform as you would think. Handling it can change it. Every time the glaze pops off I've found that the clay underneath has turned to powder. Glaze will not stick to a speck of dust. I have used the same glaze on several of the mugs and it only comes off of Pac Man. I just had that happen with a red underglaze. It did the tongue on the bug eyed head and it came out beautifully but on my other project it all popped off and underneath there was dust.

Yesterday I caught Dan going through and re-arranging his tikis in the kitchen cupboard.

Progress Report: I did my fancy photos.

Shrunken Severed Head. I finished adding enamel to the strings and today I'll bake him in the house oven.

Bug-eyed Severed Head.

Tongue cut out Severed Head.

Tapa Snake Severed Head.

Dan's gone out to work on his man cave project. It's time to work on the run of 30 severed heads. Thank you for checking on my progress. You all make it worthwhile. Wendy

The customized severed heads are lookin' good!
I particularly like the shrunken head.

Good grief Dan, you've got all that fantastic space for mugs and you're still encroaching on the kitchen?!!! You sort of look like the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar in that first pic.

Mugs in the kitchen? Awesome
However it looks like Dan-O is packing up mugs
You know where to send em when all packed up
VEGAS baby
:)
Go Dan-O Go
I just saw that Frankie's has a new color on an old mug on their web site!

Wow, the new mugs look great
Love the texture on shrunken head.
All the colors are killer

Jon
:)

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2013-03-27 09:29 ]

I'm reaching into the very far nether reaches of my memory its been many many years... but regarding the glaze getting old: if I recall correctly over time the suspended particles in it can separate to such a degree that it affects firing time and quality. I think my teacher said for the most part this can be remedied with a shaking for a long period. I believe he used to put his bottles in some kind of homemade shaking/vibrating machine for an hour at a time, letting them rest inbetween both upright and upside down at intervals. He used to be almost paranoid about the glazes; making us turn every bottle upside down or right side up every month or so... so take that for what it's worth.

However... if the glaze is working fine on other projects, then it may not be the glaze itself that is the problem. As you said there could be dusty particles it is not adhering to, or perhaps that particular batch of clay has some small amount of a mineral in it that is not reacting well to that particular glaze. In the end, half the time you kiln something its a mystery as to why the dang thing comes out correctly or not in the first place, thus the miracle of "kiln birth" as my teacher used to refer to it.

Been many years since High School, I don't believe I even remembered that much. I do remember clay goes "BOOM" when the air is not properly worked out of it though. :wink: Oh and the dangers of getting ones hand caught in the pug mill...ugh.

Love Dan's "hand in the cookie jar" pic! Mmmmm cookies....

& for some reason I am very drawn to the Shrunken Severed Head. Can't figure out why...
Must be the magic that is Wendy!
~kele

Philot I had a lot of fun making the shrunken head, especially because I kept it looking like the Ren Clark head with pink and blue still showing in the hair.

That's not the only kitchen cupboard he has mugs in. He also stands in the living room thinking about expanding. NO NO NO!

hang10tiki thank you Jon but Dan would rather shop than sell. Dan served drinks in those mugs at the last Sacramento Tiki Crawl. It was fun to see each person with a different mug.

tigertail777 thank you for the information. I do shake and stir up the glazes before I use them. I will do it even more diligently after reading your note. Yep I've had a few go boom. A boom is worse than hang10's sound of an empty mug.

WaikikianMoeKele the head is fun to hold with all the texture. I'm happy that you like it.

Progress Report:

What should you do when you have 30 severed heads to glaze? Get out the spray painter and go to work.

Dan set up the sprayer for me.

I carried out all the ghosts!

Close-up and all sprayed with 3 layers.

I used my hand to block the spray from entering the head.

I carried them all back into the nook to dry before the next step.

These heads travel all over the place before they are finished. Now its time to paint them. Cheers, Wendy

Talk about having all of your heads in a row (or table), er, or something like that. Dan should be very excited about having a wife who allows the expansion on tiki mugs across the house. Though somehow there were no comments when she came home from work and didn't notice a new shelf that had mysteriously appeared on the wall.

Wendy, thanks, I was curious if you ever sprayed glaze, especially with the volume of pieces. Now I know. :) Look forward to seeing the next steps...

I think you should go to the local market and talk about all the severed heads you have setting around your house. Bet that would perk up some ears. :)

Now about that living room expansion. Just a simple a-frame bump out couldn't be too difficult. I'm sure the pics of you and Dan swinging sledgehammers would be very entertaining. Haha

Dale

Although it's not in it's permanent home, a photo is long overdue of my War God.

Right now it's on my desk at work, and has been for the last two weeks. It's helping me with a project I'm working on.

Severed heads are looking really cool! I am very excited to get one!

Dan sure has more tiki mugs than I do. Emily hardly lets me keep them anywhere besides my bar, but I do still have a couple shelves in the kitchen and some secret stashes in my bathroom for the overstock storage that I am not using for awhile, just don't tell my wife. :)

TikiAno Dan would love to take over the whole home with tikis. I love tiki too but its also nice to have tiki free zones.
Your wish is fulfilled more step by steps on the way.

littlegiles I love construction. My mom was 4'11'' but she could haul a 80 sack of concrete on her own. Laying brick is really fun. But Dan will just have to be happy with all the space he has right now. Poor guy.

Hale Tiki thank you for the photo. Are you going to give him an alcohol rub down?

lunavideogames we are very lucky to both be into tiki at the same time. It changed our lives for the better. Tiki brings friends, social events and lots of honest fun.

Progress Report:

Again, I have painted the Pac Man Mug for the 5th time. I am at war with this mug.

I set up the table so I could just go around from head to head.

I started with painting the whites of the eyes. Then all the black places on the faces.

Next up was the white streak on the iris.

The it was time to do the pink lips and tongues.

My goal is to finish enough heads so I can deliver them at the April 6th Don the Beachcomber's sale by number. Then as I finish the rest I'll ship them.

More steps today. Cheers, Wendy

GROG have a Moai bowl, the second one GROG ever made, that GROG has been fighting with also. The glaze crawled. GROG fix it in some spots and it crawls in others each time GROG fire it. So GROG feel your pain with that Pac Man mug. Bowl #1 also had problems, but GROG almost have it fixed. One more glaze fire with clear glaze and it should be good to go.

Damned Tiki Central double-post.

[ Edited by: GROG 2013-03-31 16:54 ]

Wendy always get 2 posts from GROG
:)

Nice work on the eyes, will mine be farsighted like me? :)

jon

Dammit Wendy, when I first saw your Ren Clark Severed Head, I thought that I love Wendy's work, but a severed head is just SO GROSS!!!
But now I want one! If there are still any available, please put me on the list. (llloooonnnnngggg sigh)
~kele

Almost at 200 pages
Congrats

Jon

GROG I'm not giving up until Caliente. When there I can put the mug on the sidewalk in Palm Springs and fire it for free.

hang10tiki he is no longer speaking so I don't know.

Kele how funny. I put you on the list for a severed head.

hang10tiki do I get a prize when I hit 200 pages. How about a drink? My favorite is diet Pepsi.

Dan's done most of the major work in his garage man cave.

I took him out for soup. His on the left mine on the right. He has a good appetite and he loves hamming it up for all of you.

Progress Report:

I'm working on heads for those who can pick them up at the Don the Beachcomber sale first.

Last messy face to paint of the 8 along with the black waves in the hair.

Pink runs from the opening.

Then the red blood runs.

They are ready to dry overnight.

Top level of the kiln. I had a glaze skip on one that is being re-fired.

Bottom level of the kiln.

My photos are not so good, too much light. The hair has been painted with blue and pink streaks that just don't show in the photos.

I will not proceed on the next set of heads until I see how these turned out. I will tweak these and fire again if need be.

Thank you all for checking in to look or to me know your thoughts. You all matter to me, Wendy

That's one LARGE bowl of soup Dan's enjoying!!!

:)

Waiter! There's a ham in my soup! :wink:

Dan-O enjoying his favorite book

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2013-03-30 17:45 ]