Tiki Ano Mugsville: "I made it out of clay."

Like that volcano bowl! I also commented on it on instagram :)

Sweet
Love the bowl/board/holes idea
That's 1 reason I don't drink out of bowls much
The freekin straws flop around

Keep it up bruddah

Treg, thanks, much appreciated.

Jon, ha! I'm sure someone else has done straw holders, but I think they are definitely helpful- there's nothing worse than straws sliding away from your mouth while you take a break from your drink (if you do take a break, that is).

I plan on working on a design that holds four straws (if not more). It's dried out some more, so I added lines for coconut texture to the flaming coconut in the middle of the board as well as the sides of the bowl. I hope that any unsupported parts of the diving board survive bisque firing and does not droop down at all. I also added more details to the Big Fez mug (forgot to take photos).

A bunch of pieces were bisque fired, including a stamp I made for Tiki Oasis pendants. I had made a positive, then used it to make a negative mold. I used the bisqued negative with wet clay, pressing it and then trimming out the shape. From this...

to

to

There are a total of 16 pendants (if all survive). If you'll be at Tiki Oasis let me know here and I'll add your name to the pendant list. There will be at least 10 available, a few are already spoken for. Each are trimmed a bit different but all will have a similar glaze on them.

I have a lot of glazing to do (not my favorite thing to do) since all of those pieces were fired. This is a very small portion of the pieces. All will be sanded down, rinsed, and glazed. There are 4 Moai Coasters, four (or five?) small hanging wall tiles, a Tiki Bob hanging tile, plus Tiki Bob pendants.

There was also a tragedy, the hand coaster went boom in the kiln.

Muchos mahalos for the visit.

Dudeman- u r on fire
Sorry about the hand coaster
Not so Shaka

Jon

Man, I hate glazing. There will be a few things fired before Oasis, including these (limited) run of pendants. There were 16, but one jumped off of the newspaper I was glazing on. It somewhat survived, but it looks like the Moai will be wearing a fez instead of a beret. Not sure if that's an "oops" or a "hurrah," but will see what it looks like post glaze-firing.

Here's the _______ Dive diving board bowl, a surprise gift, that was bisque fired:

Hoping to glaze this and get this fired (also) this week. Unfortunately have a lot of work and a wife in the hospital (though hopefully getting out tomorrow).

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

Thanks again David
Glad we could do the Tiki Alien art swap in person at Oasis
The mug is awesome
And thanks for the other two gifts

Jon

Jon, great hanging out- feelin' good with getting the "bamboo framed" stamp from your home bar! Will post pics of your pieces once I find their rightful "place" in mine.

Aloha Dave,
Great hanging out at Tiki Oasis and talking shop with you and Johnnie Velour. Also wanted to say thanks for stopping by to checkout my booth and even more for the frosty beer. Keep up the great work in the studio!

Mike, great seeing you- and all of your latest creations. I definitely need to add more of your work to the home collection/ bar.

I finished a few more pieces before Oasis, including 15 of these pendants. There were 16, then one decided to jump off the glazing table. Part of the beret cracked off, so I used a red glaze since it looked quite fez-like. I have no photo of the fezzed Moai, a friend grabbed it then gifted it to a little girl who loved it. Pretty cool.

A few more tiki tiles (on a new clay body):

These tiles, hand built on black clay (or B-3 Brown from Laguna, for those keeping score) are part of a set going to a friend's son's room. I made tiles with the baby's initials ("Rad") which will be interspersed with the tiles, hung onto a burned dowel.

Also this coaster (part of a larger set)- this one went to Hang10Tiki as part of the Art Swap!

Great seeing all at Oasis!

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

More items have been released from the kiln gods!

The High Dive Scorpion Bowl (for two). Four different glazes. Slightly experimental build but happy with how it turned out. The (High) Diving board has two straw holders and a coconut big enough for some flaming rum and/or sugar cube. This one is going to the owner of the High Dive Bar here in San Diego.

"The Big Fez." Around 3/4 size of a box standard fez, made one of these for myself after the first two were given to their intended recipients at Oasis.

We're dealing with a deck of Moai Coasters, too- though they work better sitting on a table with a mai tai in the Moai's mouth...

New Tiki Tiles:

Scorpion Bowl:The base of the volcano in the center is open so your drink can swim around, though you can't quite tell from the camera phone photos....

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

I'm taking a break from my ceramic work and thought I deserved some eye candy. Wow, I just gained 5 pounds. You have taken over the name of machine by pouring out so much work. Very cool, Wendy

Dave you always have the coolest glazes! I really like the glaze on the nursery tiles.
The big mouth coasters are nice, you could also make some inspited by the Kahiki fireplace

That Volcano Bowl looks pretty awesome! Good job! I like the glazes you have been using lately too.

Looking good!

Thanks, guys. I started stockpiling work to try to get it done in time for Tiki Oasis- giving a few pieces away, etc. Now I'm back to my slower pace ("I move at two speeds. If you don't like this one, you don't want to see the other one!")

Mike, thanks. The glaze on the kids' tile looks a bit different in person- that black clay eats up glaze like crazy. I didn't use quite enough glaze on these tiles (to get the look I was expecting), but it ended up okay. I do like these cone 6 glazes (though I did use a cone 06 Jungle Gem glaze on the interior of the High Dive bowl) which creates cool effects when firing it further than it's supposed to go (more "melty").

I made some Kahiki coasters slash tiles a while back- they're a bit too small for a mai tai glass, but maybe big enough for a zombie/ collins glass? Did you ever see these?

Maybe I'll make some larger Kahiki coasters. Next week I plan on starting on a new mug that's been in my notebook for some time. :)

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

I think I do remember those now that I see them

Mike, unfortunately those Kahiki coasters aren't quite "coaster-size," unless you're using them for a champagne flute? Once I started building that one I realized that keeping the original Kahiki one to scale would make for an usually large coaster (since the mouth/ coaster center would have to be made considerably wider.

"Da Bar" Mug. I've had a few drawings in my sketchbook for a "tiki bar" mug. These are from at least a year ago, finally I got started on it. Kinny posted a pic a little while back with the same idea, which validated my moving forward with the mug. Ha.

First I threw a slab, then used a press stamp for the stone walls. (The "plain" clay slab is visible above the imprint).

I wrapped parchment paper around a form (a water bottle, since my trusty PVC cylinders somehow went missing). I scored and slipped the wall together to make it "stick."

I let it set up, then pulled the bottle and made a better seal- plus added a bottom to the mug

A few days later I trimmed off some of the stone work, then began adding pieces to the wall. Each piece will need to dry a bit more before adding more detail....

The bar itself:

A glass float

And two flaming torches.

Soon to be added: bar shelves, bottles of rum, a mug shelf, hanging masks, bar stools, and a resin chunk lamp.

I've been posting more progress shots more regularly on instagram: www.instagram.com/tikianostikianos

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

[ Edited by: TikiAno 2014-09-10 10:14 ]

That rock texture is cool
Nice start

Jon

You've come up with so many cool ideas. That's turning out beautifully. I love the ideas. You are so good. Wendy

Thanks Jon & Wendy! It's been really hot here in San Diego, and I wasn't able to get back to the studio to work on "Da Bar" mug (EDIT: Okay, maybe not quite as HOT as near Wendy or Jon- but definitely hot for us wimps in SD)- :) ). Thankfully it was wrapped up tight and didn't dry up TOO much. I unwrapped it today and added some details. Carved bamboo into the front of the bar, & added rum bottles on a shelf above the bar (more details to be added after). There's also a mai tai waiting for its drinker on the bar top.

A hanging chunk resin lamp....

And more details on the flaming torches.

Got some more work done on this wheel thrown volcano bowl. Trimmed a foot ring then carved a lava line around the volcano pedestal in the center. Added texture to the sides for a coconut effect. This will be the first version of the "Flaming Coconut" bowl.

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

[ Edited by: TikiAno 2014-09-15 08:25 ]

Lots of details on "Da Bar Mug" Dave, cool!

Sweet.......

Worked on some more details, and now it's time to wait for it to fully dry and then get bisque fired....

More details on the rum bottles, do you recognize any specific ones? There's also some wood grain added to the shelf that holds the booze.

Itty bitty mai tai on the top of the bar. Ice cubes were slightly easier to sculpt than crushed ice. There's (supposed to be) a long mint spring coming out of the top of the glass. The bartender was pretty nice and has one ready once you enter "Da Bar."

Some visitors wonder about the lack of tiki decor in Da Bar, but their bartender reminds them to look up. The owners decided to place some details way up on the wall. Here's (half of) a Moai mask up there... don't worry, the flames from the torches LOOK like they're about to light the mask on fire, but that's just one of those perspective things. To date there's yet to be a fire in "Da Bar."

Muchos maholos for the visit!

I really love Da Bar mug. This was a terrific idea. I hope you keep it wrapped and just uncover it for short periods of time. That will prevent cracking. I've sometimes takes a month to dry one of my thicker pieces like the Suffering Bastard Bob's.

Wendy

"Da Bar" Mug (version 1) is all dried up and ready for bisque firing. Wendy, I left it wrapped up after "score & slip" attachment of the added pieces, then let it dry out for a while more unwrapped- my usual procedure for pieces like this. Fingers are crossed- a potter friend will be loading this into a kiln load soon, along with a bunch of test tiles made with the stone work pattern, want to test out a few glazes before committing one to this mug.

A few Tiki Tiles came out of the kiln, too:

"Rum-Toothed"

"Nosey Moai" (photo may not show it, but it has a fairly large sniffer):

"Smiley." I used a low fire "Jungle Gem" glaze, which melts even more when firing to cone 6. I like how it came out, blue pops of color and a little cracking.

Looking forward to starting on another version of "Da Bar," tentatively called "Da Other Bar" mug.... what would you like to see on it?

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

I like those glazes. High fire? Wendy

Ready to fire "Da Bar"?

Hi Wendy, yes, electric kiln fired to Cone 6. I used cone 6 glazes on all but the last tile (as I normally do), which was a Mayco Jungle Gem cone 06 glaze.

Mike, yes, it will hopefully make it into a bisque load today or tomorrow. I'm going to head to the studio (hopefully) later today. I want to start on the second version of this one (with different "decor"). Did your fire the kiln after you replaced the elements in yours? Wait, let me go to your thread to find the answer... :)

"Da Bar" mug went through da bisque fire and make it out a-okay. his is speckled buff clay body, so when it vitrifies (during the glaze firing) little black specks will appear all over the clay (under the glaze). Here's what it looks like now.

I'm leaning a few different ways for the glaze options (just one color for the exterior, I think), so made some test tiles with the stone work. Feel free to chime in with any thoughts on glazes, too. Test tiles are used to see how different glazes look on different clay bodies, using different amounts of glaze (or different applications of said glaze) work. I often use whole mugs as test tiles, which is not recommended. :)

I already had brushes out for glazing the test tiles, so I decided to attack the Volcanonut Bowl: Coconut on the outside, Volcano on the inside. I used five different glazes. The bowl base was hand thrown, then a Volcano hand built and attached. The volcano center has an indented area for flammable materials- whatever those may be.

Hopefully these will get fired soon (bad volcano pun). Muchos mahalos for the visit.

I've been posting more photos on my Instagram page- if you're on it, check out "tikianos" and say hi.

Forward progress....

First up, the Volcanonut Bowl came out of the kiln: it's a Coconut on the outside and a Volcano on the inside. The volcano top has a place to hold some flammable material(s). The larger bowl was thrown on a potters' wheel and the volcano was hand built and added afterwards. The black specks are all part of the clay, not the glaze (the clay body is called "Speckled Buff").

I really do like drinking bowls, so here's a peek at one that's just been trimmed. It's made of B-3 Brown clay body- which turns charcoal black when it's high fired. I will be adding some pieces to the sides....

Next is a small bowlish looking vessel- not so much for drinking, but might be good for something else. I trimmed this down and realized the shape be perfect for someone I know. I inscribed the name of this someone's home bar on it...

Top view:

Peek at the side view- don't want to give the name away since they may be on TC...!

Also, one more Tiki Tile was fired, I call him "Toothy." He definitely needs to go to a dentist- or an orthodontist (preferably).

I made some test tiles to figure out the glaze I'll be using for "Da Bar" mug. I chose five glazes and applied different coats of glaze on the tile to see how they'd come out. They came out of the kiln looking like this:

Do you have a favorite?

Muchos mahalos for the visit!

Dave I like the test tile on the far left. I got one of those slab texture mats, I need to try it out :)

Glaze tests are fun. There is an underglaze pencil that you can write on them before you fire and it stays on. I label all my tests and save them on the wall. Using the press detail sheet was genius. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-10-07 13:04 ]

I like the medium brown, second from the right. Da Bar Mug looking good Tiki Ano.

Thanks, guys. I think I've chosen the glaze, but might hold off since I'm thinking about making a mold of this design and have been advised to do this with bisqueware rather than a glazed mug (thanks, Wendy!). We'll see, might just want to see how it looks glazed first...

Nice job throwing on the wheel, Dave. (why is it called "throwing", anyways?)

The white glaze worked out really well over the Speckled Buff on this one.

Bowie

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[ Edited by: Bowana 2014-10-16 12:19 ]

Not sure of the real reason for the name
But I know that if I attempted to "throw" clay on a wheel
I'd likely throw something
:)

Hats off to all you clay people

The bowl is beautiful. I hope you feel the excitement of a piece well done.
When is the tiki room mug coming out? Wendy

Thanks, Dave & Jon! Glad you guys like it. Trying to throw more (to get better at it).

Wendy, thanks- "Da Bar" mug has been bisque fired but I haven't glazed it yet. I'm still deliberating about making a mold of it, but most likely will just glaze it to finish it up. Working on a few pieces for the nursery that the wife requested.. .which, yes, is pretty shocking. Since they're not so tiki I haven't posted them here, but you can check them out on the instagram ("tikianos", or http://instagram.com/tikianos

I checked out instagram. My first visit to that type of site. Seeing all your work together was terrific.

However going to facebook today and seeing your new son was even better. Congratulations. It will be fun to
see if you make him a tiki bowl when he is old enough to have solid food.

This will be a Halloween to always remember. Cheers, Wendy

A long time since posting. Thanks, Wendy, for all of the well wishes. Tiki Ari has been doing well, eating, growing, and doing everything a baby is supposed to do (mainly pooping).

We had come up with his name, Ari, before his birth, but didn't tell anyone. It means "lion" in Hebrew (my wife is Israeli), so I started working on a number of lion- related non-tiki items. I know, it's not the place to post non-tiki stuff, but the second wall tile I made is mid century- styled, ALMOST tiki? In any case, these have been bisque fired, and will be glazed soon:

Each is approximately 7-8" tall:

I've been working on two different mugs for the upcoming TC Art Swap. The theme is "Hawaiian Shirts," so I sketched out my idea- make a mug that IS an aloha shirt. I haven't seen this design before, so it seemed like a good approach. (Sorry if you've seen these photos already on that thread):

First I built the form for a mug out of a slab of clay:

Then attached the bottom to the cylinder form:

I let it firm up, then started working on the basic design:

Added a collar, pocket, and sleeves...

Another potter at the studio I work at saw my slab form, and offered to throw a mug to work on at the same time. She threw it, then trimmed it, and left it for me to work on. Linda's been giving me feedback on each piece. She's a great potter and is always stoked to see what kind of tiki project I'm in the middle of:

I'm working on the slab piece, made entirely by me, for the Art Swap piece, and the wheel thrown form for fun. The slab form is quite a bit taller. The plan was for each to have mismatched seams of the "fabric," as many poorly constructed Aloha Shirts have.

I let each dry up a bit, then started sketching out the design and then started carving. Here's the Slab Mug first:

The wheel thrown mug has a bit more "shoulders," but basically has the same (well, similar) design:

I let this firm up, then added coconut buttons to the form and kept carving:

The two of them together:

Mahalo for the visit!

Those are adorable but not as much at Tiki Ari! Wendy

Wow
Lookin good

Love the "Dan-0 Ano Mugs" :)

Those mugs just keep getting cuter and cuter. Love them both, Wendy

PS good job hang10tiki

Have they been fired, once or twice??? Wendy

Wendy, the lion tiles were finally glaze fired a week or two ago, haven't posted pics yet here. I used acrylic paint to add pupils to the eyes. Each is approximately 8-9" tall. The dots visible on the faces are due to the clay body ("Speckled Buff"). While not so tiki, they were photographed on top of the Hawaii Kai cookbook- does that help?

This is the "Mod Lion":

The Aloha Shirt Aloha Mugs were bisque fired, which now forces me to glaze them. I hate glazing, so I will attempt to avoid doing this for as long as possible. I have to glaze one before the end of January for the Art Swap. I'm firing a few test tiles to see how to move forward.

To make the decision a little easier, my friend Linda the potter left me a few more wheel thrown pieces to tiki-fy. One I'm using as a prototype for another design, and the other is... yes, another Aloha Shirt Mug (3.0). This one is considerably larger than the other two, and will have a different design on the "fabric."

I also started working on a new version of the Tiki Bar Tiki Mug (TBTM). First I threw a slab, then used a large stamp to add stone texture.

Then I wrapped it around a form, connected it, and added a bottom. I'm going to let this set up for a few days and then move forward with the design. Luckily I had some spare time while sitting around at jury duty (didn't get picked, whew) to work on the layout/ design. This version will include a contemporary Witco-like wall hanging, a small home tiki bar, and a few other details. This is how it looks so far:

Mahalo for the visit!

Lion King looks great

Can't wait to see the Aloha Mugs glaZed

That rock wall is kool

I've been working on a few projects but slow going- posting more on Instagram than here (oops), including a few videos to show off the mugs spinning on a wheel. Don't think I can post something like that here. I've been working on more of the Aloha Shirt mugs, plus working on a few different versions of the Home Bar mug... one of which I hope to have finished in time for the SD Home Bar Crawl in March! Version 3 of the Aloha Shirt Aloha Mug has a different "fabric," which includes large tropical leaves and little fish. It could be an underwaterish scene or perhaps a scene from Sharknado. You decide.

The first version of the Home Tiki Bar mug (2.0) began as a wheel thrown mug. I added texture all around the mug. Here are a few early shots from adding a map of California. There's now quite a bit more texture. Although the Ca map isn't geographically accurate, it's the thought that counts, right?

Eventually a "SD" goes into the circle...

More (moving images, at least) on instagram (username: tikianos). http://www.instagram.com/tikianos

Mahalo for the visit!

Lookin good bra