VanTiki Tiles - Ku Squared tile taking shape - 1/25

BITCHIN!!!!

I bought a cheap rubber mallet (Harbor Freight) specifically for that purpose but haven't got around to trying it yet.

I was right. Very cool design. Looks awesome!

• Dale

Awesome, as per usual, and it isn't even finished.

I agree with Swizzle... Awesome work!

I have just come across your thread, WOW! Awesome work! Thanks for sharing some of the steps and the concept drawings. I really like the new Moai tile. What sort of price will they sell for and do you ship to Australia?

Cheers
Sam

I agree with MahaloTiki, whom agrees with swizzle.......so I concur with those guys.....

Happy to announce this morning was the first day of pressing the Cracked Moai tiles!


I got through half of the 12 Artist's Proofs - and I've settled on an edition size of 50 for the final tiles.

As you may have noticed, the tiles are all slightly different! There are a total of 6 mold variations in the edition, so the Moai look nice and natural when lined up together - no glaring repeating crack patterns! I'm testing glazes on saturday, and will be pressing tiles FULL STEAM next week.

I've learned that the larger the tile, the greater the pressure it takes to press them. I have to do a couple of pull ups on the arm of my tile press for each tile. A nice bit of studio cross training!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Awesome tiles!

Those are just right.... what are the dimensions of the tiles? (I looked back quickly, am curious). Love the variations, too- can't wait to see them glazed.

Mahalo Zerostreet!

Tiki Ano, The wet clay tiles are 5"x10" - but they will be shrinking about 10% - they are quite hefty, and they sure eat through my clay pile when pressing them! I, too, can't wait to see them glazed. I loaded the first round of test glazes into the kiln last night - I used 4 of the master tile sculpts for the first round of testing:

I'll use the 12 AP Edition tiles to do the final dial-in on the glaze. I'm applying the glaze with a spray-gun, as the tiles are big and I want to avoid any un-evenness due to brushing. Some of these glazes promise a nice break over textured surfaces - but we shall see what they do in my kiln on Saturday.

Henrik "VanTiki"

Looks great Henrik. I especially like the one with the big cracks and the hunks missing. (first pic, left side)

Those cracks look so real that I have to ask...do they go all the way through?

Your projects are always different and fun. Wendy

On 2013-03-22 15:04, VanTiki wrote:
I've learned that the larger the tile, the greater the pressure it takes to press them. I have to do a couple of pull ups on the arm of my tile press for each tile. A nice bit of studio cross training!

A lot easier on the arms pouring slip. :D

Goodlooking stuff, dude! GROG like.

Thanks for stopping by the other day.
I always enjoy seeing your tiles & mugs.

Mahalo everyone!

Mike - these have chunks missing as they were the master sculpts, and suffered damage when I pulled them out of the molds. I just cut away the messed up parts and blended the missing areas into the cracks :)

Wendy - the cracks are for show only :) Although I did get a bit of cracking on the underside of this first batch. I did a fast glaze fire, and I think I need to do a slower program in the future. I also need to put a sprinkling of grog on the shelves to help these heavy tiles slide around during the firing.

Grog - that slipcasting stuff is WAAAY too complicated! :)

Will Carve - my pleasure! I love seeing what is taking shape in the carving threads.

And now the update:

SO, you should all know that I HATE glazing. I am a control freak, and there is noting I hate more than spending tons of time on a sculpture only to cover it with something that may make it even better or may fill in all the detail and look atrocious.

Sadly, glaze test round one fell mostly in the latter category. I want the Cracked Moai to look like stone - but I also want interesting color. I tired a range of glazes that were supposed to have a satin or matte finish,and that would "break" over textured areas (meaning they would shift color or intensity around areas of texture). When I opened the kiln, I was sad:

THe glazes on all 4 tiles were too shiny, too think, and overall too icky. I do like the feel of the brown glaze (2nd from the left) for a future mug - but not here. The satin turquoise on my whale shelf did turn out great, and I also LOVE the satin clear glaze over underglaze washes on the 2 pendants. I think that my be the direction I go with the Moai.

Mahalo for looking =
Henrik "VanTiki"

GROG HATE GLAZING TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GROG sympathize with you, Henrik.

"Hate" is such a strong word, but glazing definitely seems to be the process with the least control. I think you should try the foil saggar firing :D

Tiles look great, man. Makes me wish I had a tiki kitchen to have these as part of a large tile mosaic.

Am I the only one who enjoys the insecurity of glazing? Oh well. :wink: Henrik, I look forward to seeing more, trusting whatever the final glaze choices will look great. (I do like the look of the blue tiles- though I can see how they look a bit different from your non-glossy work. I love the whale shelf, too!

I actually really like the color of the far right one from what I can see of the photo....for what it's worth. :)

Wanted to toot my Tiki Horn: Adobe has made vantiki.com the featured site of the day! Super stoked!

http://muse.adobe.com/site-of-the-day

In other news, I landed a bunch of animated commercial contracts - hence the quiet clay studio. Hope to get the glaze tests up and running again this weekend.

Henrik "VanTiki"

Very cool on the Adobe site! Congrats!

I like the tiles a lot. I have been watching for some time and I can't wait til they are done.

Also, cool that you are going to make it to Tiki Oasis! I am a runner too, but I usually run at night. But, since you are on Hawaiian time, I might be able to wake up at about the same time as you. So we can figure it out.

I usually run from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach. It is a nice run right along the water. It is a little over 3 miles I believe. Only like 10 minutes max from the hotel. Could get crowded though depending on the time, that is why I usually run at 11 at night. But it shouldn't be bad if we do it before noon. But I also know a lot of other nice places too.

I guess we will figure it out as the time comes.

Congrats on the site-of-the-day (and on the contracts, work is good when you have bills to pay and clay to buy :) )

Congrats again on the site props Henrik!

You deserved the recognition!

Henrik, congrats x3 (or more, depending on how many animation contracts) :) Look forward to seeing you again at Oasis!

David/ Tiki Ano

Mahalo everyone!

This afternoon I was able to escape from my computer just long enough to spray underglaze on the bone-dry AP edition Cracked Moai tiles!

There are 12 AP tiles, and I am trying a wide range of colors and techniques before I commit to the full tile edition. SHould be some fun stuff. After the bisque firing, I'll be doing various washes and clear coats. Should be fun!

The black looks extra lava-like. I'll be doing one with a light grey wash, and one with a radient red wash. I'm not sure if I'll leave it at that, or do a satin clear coat over the top. Tough decisions!

Mahalo for looking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Henrick,

I see some tiles have the cracked look and some do not. Will you be offering tiles in both versions?

On 2013-05-09 20:21, El Jefe wrote:
Henrick,

I see some tiles have the cracked look and some do not. Will you be offering tiles in both versions?

There are 6 slightly different versions of the Cracked Moai (2 "clean" and 4 "cracked"). I plan on rotating the molds as I press my way through the edition (plan on pressing 50). If you order one, fate will decide what tile you receive! I'll ship them in the order of the edition, so unless you get more than 6 you wont get any repeats :)

Henrik "VanTiki"

Stuffed the 12 AP cracked moai into the kiln last night and threw the switch this morning. Hope this run goes better than the last one! Here are some shots I took of the tiles with the final underglaze washes applied, right before I did a coat of satin clear glaze on top:

As you can see - I'm trying out a WIDE range of color to help me figure out the best look for the edition run of 50 tiles.

Mahalo!

Henrik "VanTiki"

I really like the black over red and the purple over red. Looking really cool!

Very cool. The amount of work there is over the top. Wendy

Can't wait to see how they look post-firing....

Those are amazing!

On 2013-05-20 16:18, TikiAno wrote:
Can't wait to see how they look post-firing....

Me too!

Mahalo everyone! Kiln just finished. Now I gotta let it cool for a seemingly endless 10 hours or so before I can open it for the happy or sad news. Ceramics is rough on those who don't like to wait!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Another exciting kiln opening in the near future. WOOHOO!! Those look amazing before firing so I can only imagine what they are going to look like afterward.

• Dale

Well, poop. This morning's kiln opening was, to put it mildly, a let down.
The satin clearcoat that had worked wonders on an earlier test reacted badly with several of the underglazes, and ended up looking horrible on all 12 tiles. 6 of them are completely ruined, and the 6 passable tiles also suffered from cracks and warping. Arrrgh! Ceramics, you are a cold, cold teacher.

Here are the 6 that are nice to look at (from a distance)

woah! That is too close. Take a step back

ok - much better! :)

Seriously, though, the clay and firing schedule I've dialed in for my 4" tiles isn't working out for the 8" versions. I'm going to test out a few possible fixes this afternoon on a couple more tests - but things are looking bleak for this planned edition. I really love the sculpts, so I'll do my best to get it produced in some form or another.

After I press a few more tests tonight, I'm going to switch over to pressing some of my existing tiles for Tiki Oasis, along with pendants. There will be a new pendant (or two) for Oasis, along with some new mugs. I'm going to shelf this big moai for a spell and do some re-enginering (perhaps when Oasis is done)

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Not gonna argue with you on this Henrik. You're the artist and you're seeing them in person and know what there and not there....But have to say that they look very nice to me. Especially 1,3,5 and 6!

Best wishes with the firing Henrik. I have a Duncan clear satin that I am not happy with ~ it always fires milky anywhere it's the slightest bit heavy.

Zerostreet those are my favorites too! Unfortunately, satin glaze aside, they are a bit warped and cracked. My top two are #1 and #5 (3 & 6 tie for third)

Mad Dog - you hit the nail on the head. The clear looked great on a few small test pendants - but spread out over the larger surface area of the tile it ranged from plastic to milky in appearance, and I was left sad that I sprayed them in the first place. THese are stone Moai, and I should have left the raw clay surface!

Tonight I'm pressing a few more - 2 that I am going to scoop clay out from the back to get a bit more even thickness. I'm also going to change the way I de-mold them to avoid any bumps and bends that will cause warping later in the kiln. Finally, will try cone 5 instead of 6 to see if that helps with the cracking/warping too.

Also going to press a couple and trim away all but the big stone head - for 2 MEGA pendants! Woot!

I was really bummed this morning - but I'm feeling better now. Ms. VanTiki and I held the warped tiles up against the wall by our backyard deck and they look nice - so it isn't a total loss! :)

Henrik "VanTiki"

Heck yeah, man. They look great from here. Put them in your yard, randomly. You won't be able to tell they're warped!

Looking great- I have to say, after looking at these multiple times (here and on FB), I've been focused on the face, but the hands are now blowing me away. I really look forward to you perfecting this tile, because I really, really (really) want one. As I said on FB, I'm more than willing to take any reject bisqued pieces off your hands... :)

Since I usually don't work w/ underglazes (or clear coats), very helpful to read about your experience with them. Look forward to seeing you again in SD in August.

David/ Tiki Ano

Looking good Van! Looking foward to seeing you at oasis. I know you
will have box of surprise goodies that will blow us all away. Again :)

HaleTiki, the tiles look awesome randomly spaced along the wall in the garden. Once I get them premaritally attached I'll post some pics. There is a nice bed of ferns that will keep folks from getting too close and seeing the crazy cracks and warping :)

Tiki Ano - Mahalo! The hands are my favorite part of these guys. I wanted to make the Cracked Moai looking like they are calmly waiting for.... something. VanTiki Senior thinks it looks like they are giving two thumbs up. I am open to any interpretation :)

MP - I will do my best to bring goodies to Oasis! I'm already hard at work on some projects that have been on the back burner for far too long.

I'm also progressing on getting some of the Moai to work. I pressed two more, and hollowed them out before carefully demolding them (this time with a wooden backing board to avoid any bumps that may cause warping. So far, so good. They are drying nicely - and much quicker than the solid versions:

And what is that to the left of the tile? Well, the ever-so-clever Ms. VanTiki suggested pressing a few of the Cracked Moai heads as MEGA PENDANTS. Once the words were spoken, there was no turning back. I pressed and hollowed out 2 test heads, and they are swank. and big.

I'm gonna braid some beefy cords for them - possibly with some of my porcelain killer whale teeth. I have a OK book on braiding - but is there any book out there that you folks recommend for polynesian/nautical necklace braiding techniques?

I''m getting into FULL PRODUCTION mode for Oasis. Starting a new mug tonight, and pressing tiles & pendants this weekend. So excited!

Mahalo for looking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

[ Edited by: VanTiki 2013-05-23 13:20 ]

This weekend was an epic marathon of tile and pendant pressing!

To begin the press-a-thon, I first had to take care of poor little Marzipan

Unfortunately to get the tiles and pendants out of the mold after pressing, I need to slam them down on my worktable. Marzipan hates this noise, and she spent the weekend curled up in the bathroom corner. Feeling terrible guilty about freaking her out, she gets an extra long beach walk in the morning

Now it is time for clay! Before pressing tiles & pendants, the 25lb bags of clay need to be prepped. For tiles, I drop the bags on the ground till they have elongated from an extruded 6" square into a 4.75" square. I then cut the stretched out block into a bunch of "tile chip" blanks and stack them up for pressing

For pendants, I quarter the 25lb bag, then roll out the sections into long 2" diameter coils. The coils are sliced into little round pendant blanks

Then the pressing begins!
Saturday was a tile day. I have some wire shelves from a closet storage system that I stack up to store the tiles & pendants as they dry. When I fill a shelf, I add some spacers then stack another shelf on top. Helps to save space and allows air to circulate around the tiles (to avoid warping)

Sometimes I have a bit of downtime waiting for the molds to draw enough moisture out of the tiles for me to pop them out. I decided to fill this time by modifying some of the pressed tiles. I made some old stone idols, and then made some REALLY old cracked stone skulls (bad shot - these look much more spiffy in person)

Sunday was pendant day. I had made 2 new molds of the Octo-Moai, so I was able to press twice as many of these little guys

I also did the round pendants

And in-between pressings I modified some of the skulls into ancient stone repositories of powerful spirits

Here is the top shelf of the drying stack on Sunday afternoon. 5 racks in total! I need to pick up another 100lbs of clay for next weekend. Marzipan gets 5 days off till the tile slamming resumes :)

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Those are great! And in that picture you look like Walter White, which is even cooler. I am simply in awe of all the creativity that abounds in these forums. You're all urging me to give a try doing something—don't know what yet. :)

Really loving the octopi....your tiles area killer.

Happy Clay Slamming Day Van, those look grand!