Roots Rocka's Clay Journal - New Stuff pg 11

Thanks Wendy! I'm happy to have a one of my pieces in the collection. As always, it was great visiting with you and Dan.
Did anybody else get the ring off and are you really gonna make me wait until next year to show me how to put it back on? :)

Mike it was good to see you at Tiki Caliente again. Your pieces look even better in person, photos just never seem to capture the subtleties

Awesome work! I especially love that Marquesan!

Mike, great seeing you, too.
ZS, thank you very much! Hopefully we'll see a few of those Marquesans floating around in the near future.
Here's a PNG piece in progress.

Wow! holy smokes! love it Roots!

Thanks MP!
I just got her outta the kiln :)
Stands just shy of 9.5" tall and has a gloss red glaze on the inside.

DIG THE PNG! It almost looks like a mask! I love it. And your Marq sculpt almost looks like burnt bamboo. It's eerie, and very cool.

Looking pretty darn great. Very cool.

Mike, Each work is better then the last, nice PNG work also.

Hey Fellas!
Thanks for stopping by, the compliments mean a lot!
Here's a few things from the last month I haven't posted.

This is a coil cooking pot with PNG, Mailu Island inspired designs.

Another coil pot. Not tiki, but tried adding some MCM flavor with the turquoise and orange.

Tapa fogcutter

Moai

Here's a ceremonial bowl I just got back. I'm pretty sure I'll be re-glazing a few spots, to see if I can highlight a few areas better. I've never used this clay, so I'm very happy with the overall results.

This is on Russian River or Red, clay. It's heavy in iron and fires pretty red.

I have access to an extruder, but I like to torture myself, so I rolled all the coils. I'm not sure what's more tedious, rolling the coils, or scoring and blending them.

For glazing, I coated the outside with matte black and wiped it off.
I took white, red, black, and yellow underglaze, and dumped some of each into individual containers, and let them dry. I used the dry pieces of glaze like chalk, to apply it. I've never tried glazing like this, just thought it would look primitive.

Here's how it turned out.

The red and white are "non-existent," so these are the spots I'll be re-glazing. For these spots, I'm going to lightly paint the underglaze on, then rub some of it off with my fingertips. From my experience with other colored clays with lots of iron, the clay should still bust through the glaze. I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.

Kool
Da MOAI is my favorite
Lookin good

Jon

Looking good!!

Always great hearing from you guys, thanks for stopping by!
Here's the bowl, re-glazed before firing with my ceremonial coil pot, partially glazed.

Ceremonial pot with full glaze, before glaze firing.

My mold making disaster. This was easily preventable, but I'll take you through my learning process in another post. In the meantime, I'll be putting my Maori Warrior back together and re-sculpting my PNG Birdman a little more mold friendly.
Good times!!!

I really love the hand built pieces, very studio potter/old school. also remember me telling you about traditional Me
lanesian pottery from Fiji, Lapita pottery, heres some info if you want to check it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapita_people

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2013-07-01 22:42 ]

If it was an undercut the broke the head off you can just carve your mold to remove some plaster so your next cast will be fine. That's a good looking tiki. You are making really fun tikis and bowls. Wendy

Hi Dawn and Wendy,
Thanks for stopping by!
Dawn, I remember you telling me about the Lapita pottery. I'm actually working on a New Caledonia inspired piece, and, while doing my research, found that NC was a spot where some of the Lapita pottery was found, dating to something crazy, like 3,000 to 5,000 BC. Thanks for the reminder and link.

Wendy, I tried loosening it with a hammer, haha, and that's how I broke it. There's pieces of plaster stuck to the side of the head and I've been too busy/lazy to chisel them off. Is there something that will breakdown the plaster, but not effect the bisque ware? I'm guessing this happened because I didn't use mold soap.

So, last week I started this New Caledonia inspired piece from one of my oceanic art books. I want to make a fountain, with water spouting into a bowl, that I'll throw on the wheel or build with coils. Slabs are built around a UPS triangular box, for the main form, that stands about 22-23," before drying. The back panels will just have some design carvings. If I finish carving tomorrow, I'll try and post some pics.

Next, I started my piece for the Tonga Hut's 55th anniversary party. It's wheel thrown and carved. It dried without cracking, so hopefully it'll come out of the bisque firing uscathed.

Here's the glazed ceremonial cooking pot.
It stands about 9.75" inches a measures about 7" across at it's widest point.

Das Really neat. GROG like.

Mold soap is the only way to go. So sorry. But if you use the mold where some broke off you can hand carve that area to fix it if you make your cast thick enough. I always cast them thick to leave wiggle room for manipulation. If you can get a large chunk loose from the bisque with a chisel you can use wood glue to put it back in place on your mold. Go Tiki taught me that and it works.

I love how your pieces look aged. Wendy

Thanks GROG, hope all is well with ya!
Wendy, I finally spent the time to get the stuck plaster off, but it's just to save the sculpt. The mold is done, as in trash. No more lazy negligence. Mold soap, mold soap, mold soap. Oh, and starting the project with enough plaster to finish...

Here's pictures of my finished piece for the Tonga Hut's 55th anniversary art show.

Here's a Marquesan poi-pounder decanter I threw on the wheel and carved. The top comes off and will be fit with cork. This is #2, but I'll be making some more. I've never tried throwing this shape, so the walls are a little thick on these first two.

Thanks for stopping by!

Aloha Friends! Here's a new PNG mask that just came out of the kiln.
It's about a 12" tall and a 8.75" wide. It's on Rod's Bod clay that's loaded with iron, so it pops through the glaze to give it that nice weathered, primitive look.

I'm also happy with how my fountain project is progressing. It got a small crack during glaze firing, but it really doesn't take away from the piece.
Now it's time to finish the coil bowl that the water will spout into and start to build/carve a wooden stand to raise this piece above the bowl.

The stuff's lookin' really good. GROG like.

Kool

Love that Poi Pounder, bitchin'!

Ok, finally dragged myself out of the studio to post some pics.
Hopefully I'll get the bigger Marquesan, the bigger Maori, and a couple of the PNG drums made into lamps, soon.











There's more pictures and information about the lamps and fountain on my new tumblr page:
http://junglemodern.tumblr.com/
Thanks for looking!

Here's my "Spirit Snatcher" ceremonial bowl built with slabs. It measures 7" inches tall, just under 11" inches wide, and holds 34 liquid ounces.




Thanks for stopping by!
I also started an Instagram account that I've been updating everyday, so please search tags for #junglemodern, if you'd like to see more of my recent projects.
Mahalo!

Always great stuff Mike. Love the guys with the clubs and spears

Thanks, Mike. Your piece for the Palm Springs Tonga Hut is awesome!
So, I recently figured out how to upload pictures from my phone onto my computer, so here's a progression of my Ku lamp, that I've always wanted to post.
First, I wrapped a slab around a pipe. I stared at the bare clay, until I decided it was going to be a Ku, then started a rough sketch.


At this point, I'm still subtracting clay, but will start to add for the chest, arms, legs, headdress, and parts of the face.

Coils are added for the headdress and arms.

Here's my start of the face. I didn't take pictures, but I cut the nose off 5-6 times until I got it like this.

Sorry that some of the pictures are coming out small.

Dan and I are in Las Vegas. What are we doing here? We are looking at your thread. You have made so many great new pieces. Dan and I both love what you've been making. That split tongue gave me shivers. The lamps are so much work and they look great. The war club tikis are fantastic. I hope we can make it to DTB's to see them in person. Wendy and Dan

Continued awesome work. I missed your thread for a bit, absolutely love the poi pounder, and look forward to seeing updates on the fountain- fantastic idea.

Thanks, Dan and Wendy! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Thanks Tiki Ano! That gold glaze you've got is killer!
So here' more of the Ku.
For the eyes, I carved out socket areas, then added and subtracted clay until I was happy with them.

Next, a coil for the teeth.

This is for size comparison. He was about 18" inches to start and the little guy is in my eBay store at auction along with a few other items.
http://k2b-bulk.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ListingConsole&CurrentPage=LCActive&format=Auction

Next is carving the headdress and teeth.


Side and back views.


And drying in the green room with one of my PNG drums.

I'm sure glad I stopped by again. Very good sculpting on your mug. I'm ready to see it glazed. Wendy

Wow, I can't believe how fast the days go by! It feels like my last post was only a couple days ago, but no, it was 12.
Thanks for stopping by again, Wendy! Here's the mug (sold) glazed.

And, here's some pictures of the completed lamp.

And, here's an assortment of other finished stuff.
"Maori Moonshine" jug

Woodgrain Moai #2 (sold)

A couple of Maori tiles.


Cocktail mugs

Thanks for stopping by.
Most of this stuff is in my Etsy or eBay store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/junglemodern
http://www.ebay.com/stores/jungle-modern

You can also see daily updates on my Instagram account: #junglemodern

Killer stuff! Love the woodgrain Moai, as well as.. everything else. The Ku came out fantastic, and your sculpting skills are beyond impressive. Thanks for posting!

Awesome.........

Jon

very nice pieces, again I love that you're going beyong the predictable .

Aloha Tiki Ano, Hang10, and Dawn!

Thanks for stopping by, your support is greatly appreciated.

TA - I've been fortunate to spend lots of time in the studio over the last few months, working on my sculpting. My advice is to push your limits. It's daunting to think about, but don't be afraid to spend 10-15 hours on something and completely hate it.
I also try and make an effort on improving one thing, every sculpt. Cheek bones, eye sockets, eye lids, arms, shoulders etc.

Jon - I tell people, "I want every piece to be badass, beautiful, or a little bit of both." "Awesome," works, too. Thank you.

Dawn - I feel like there's so much to learn about ceramics, that I could dedicate my life to it, and still not know everything. Knowing that, I want to keep learning, and apply that knowledge to my work. I'm also very lucky to be surrounded by such talented people, here, and at my clay studio. The kind words of support and encouragement I've recieved, have also been a huge motivator, and make me want to get better, everyday. There's a lot of people to thank.

[ Edited by: TikiRootsRocka 2013-12-05 08:03 ]

And now, back to Tiki.
Right now, I'm working on a series of big Moai. The smallest completed piece is 16.5" inches tall and I'm trying to get something in the 23" inch ballpark.
These are different pieces in progress.


I just glazed this one today.

This was the biggest at 23.5" inches before bisque firing and the face blew off because I didn't dry it long enough.

This is #1 of the series and will be made into a lamp. It's 18" tall and is made out of Black Mountain clay.

This one is #2 in the series and stands 16.5" and is made out of Rod's Bod clay.

I've also been taking a glaze calculation class. These are the first test pieces. Not the most applicable to my tiki pieces, but a great start. I usually use iron based clays, so I'm happy with how these stand up to the clay, and hold their color, at cone 10.





My ultimate goal for the class is a cherry/rose wood color that would be close to the color of all the Maori tourist carvings.

Here's a moonshine jug that I threw on the wheel. I coated the outside with a porcelain slip and carved in the tapa designs.

I also started potting succulents in some of my coconut mugs and Nuka Hiva Booze Barrels, then, scaling them up in size. Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so if you've upset your significant other by exceeding your Tiki budget, these are the perfect make-up gift.

I update my Instagram everyday, so if you're interested, you can follow me at Jungle Modern Ceramics, or search #junglemodern. Jungle Modern is also the name of my FB page.

Enjoy and thanks for looking.

Terrific photos. I really like your new designs. We will see you at Marketplace on the 8th. Cheers, Wendy

Beautiful work, all around. Love the variety.... even the (hush!) non-tiki work!

Love your take on Moais, especially how you're able to showcase your style within different designs....

Can't wait for the next ITMP. Love me some Wendy and Dan!
Thanks tiki Ano.
Here's a Maori bust I worked on last week.
It's built with coils of Rod's Bod clay.
I think it's about 15" tall and about 10-12" wide and has 17 lbs of clay.










From here, it's about 3 weeks of slow drying.
If all goes as planned, the eyes will be inlaid with shell and I'll make a Hei-tiki pendant to wear and cover the plain spot in the middle of the chest.
Thanks for looking!

Just amazing work Mike.

Excellent work Mike.

Looking very sharp, Mike!

Gorgeous. That's a lot of coils. I hope you're extruding them???

Your work continues to impress all of us. Fantastic.

Aloha Tiki Hula, Tiki Republic, ATP, & Tiki Ano,
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words.
TA - I didn't use the extruder. The coils are thick, so it wasn't that bad, but, I still coiled 17 lbs of clay.
I've been drying the bust really slowly, but discovered a crack in the bottom two days ago, but, it was still wet enough to hopefully fix. Fingers crossed.
So, here's some new stuff.
Here's four more Moai in my series that are drying. They're #4-7.

Here's #3 finished.

Some sgraffito work I've been doing.

Finished moonshine jug.

And, an Easter Island diorama inside one of my wheel thrown coconuts. Still in progress

I'm still updating my IG daily. #junglemodern

Love the sgraffito Mike, I need to do some of that again. The coconut diorama is very cool