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

On 2014-08-12 07:50, hang10tiki wrote:
We will miss you guys at Oasis...

Indeed! :(

Those Innsmouth Horror in Clay mugs are stunning. I'm drinking out of my regular one right now and I have to say I am absolutely jealous I won't be drinking out of those anytime soon. Just like the torch mugs, they are spectacular and singularly impressive.

Luckily I should be able to enjoy the Sac Crawl Coconut mug in due time though.

Abbey will not put down the bowl you made for her (the Hogwarts bowl) and even made a wand for you. She won't let me ship it though cause she wants to hand deliver it, and also join your hug collection.

Thank you ever so much, not just for your tireless works of art, but your constant posts and letting us all into the Wendy and Dan show every day.

Loki-Tiki next time I see your kids they will be as tall as I am. Hug them for me.

dartharnie the regular mugs have wonderful detail. I'm looking forward to having one of those. Tiki Atari is sending me a surprise box. I worked all day on the crawl mugs. I'll put up more photos soon.

Tell Abbey that it's fun knowing she's made one and I look forward to a visit.

Without you and all my tiki buddies stopping by there wouldn't be a show. I'm such a ham I just love doing this and reading all the messages. Thank you for thanking me!

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It is a tradition for Dan to get all the presents on my birthday. So this time I was really smart. I told him he had to take me on a trip. The trip turned into a tiki hunt and it was successful. That meant Dan continued to get presents on my birthday. We had a blast. Here are the best photos of our trip.

My request was to go to Lake Tahoe. We have hardly ever been there and the last time was many years ago. We will change that now that we found that it was only a 2 hour drive from our home. We've been missing out.

Our first stop was at the lake for lunch.

Just outside I got to sit with Mark Twain.

Next we had a brief walk on the shoreline.

Dan's such a sport to pose for my silly photos.

We walked the main street past all the casino's. This one is Harvey's where all the old Sneaky Tikis came from.

Dan joined the Blues Brothers.

In one shopping center they had a Wyland gallery and this painting was in the window.

That evening we went to Chevy's and I got my free desert, hat and song.

The next day we drove to Sparks Nevada to a recommended Big Ceramic Store. It was huge but they refused to sell me anything. It turned out they only sell on-line, dang it.

So onto Reno for lunch at the Peppermill. Since I've shown so many restrooms before I'm sharing one again. All marble.

Next we went to antique stores and Dan found these tiki treasures. The bowl was marked $5.77. Interesting.

The big tiki was a first place trophy.

We traveled on towards Virginia City the story to be continued tomorrow. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-08-12 20:54 ]

Happy Birthday Wendy! Looks like it was a fun one.

I have a solution to the place that only allows you to order ceramic stuff online: bring in a laptop, make your order, show them "see I just placed my order online". Then ask for them to give you what you ordered which saves you shipping, and them packaging it. :wink:

virtual hugs and a digital mai tai :drink:

tigertail777 thank you for the birthday wishes and shopping ideas.

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Here's a continuation of my Birthday Trip August 2014.
We left Reno and headed back towards Lake Tahoe.
The mountains and desert were beautiful. Here we found a look out to climb up too.

The view of the Carson Valley.

We made it to Virginia City.

I've seen buckets of blood ceramics in antique stores and now we know where they come from.

In an antique store Dan found a Hawaii boat.

In a bar window they had this lei and plastic tiki goblet display.

Now we headed to Carson City. On the way the clouds opened like a cave to the sun.

In Carson City we saw this liquor store and I made a stop for photos.

Just as the highway was leading us out of Carson City I saw a wonderful site. Last October during our Sacramento Crawl we were traveling the freeway to Davis. We came upon a trailer with a Moai and a Sphinx. We were so excited to see them. Later Tiki Hula found them on-line. They were being taken to Burning Man to be set on fire. He later found a post that said they didn't burn well.

I found them again!!!

Sill on the trailer after a whole year has gone by.

The fire damage was interesting.

I'm so happy they survived.

A majestic face.

You can see how huge they are in comparison to me.

A different view.

The next morning we left to go home. We stopped in Placerville. Instead of walking the main street we went down the alley behind.
There were pretty trails up the hill.

I found a gold mine but I didn't venture inside.

ebTiki here is Dan's haul from all the stops.

The Maori statue and coasters are plastic.

I had a wonderful birthday trip and now it's time to finish the Sacramento Crawl mugs. Dan's thrilled that he once again got all the presents. He's back to tiki arraigning.

Cheers, Wendy

Thank you for posting your travel photos. I used to visit Lake Tahoe quite a bit when I had family in the area.

Check out Truckee, CA and Donner Pass/Donner Summit if you haven't been there in a while. On the way from Reno to Truckee I always liked spotting the log flumes that still carry water.
Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe was my favorite spot for a short hike to the water and Vikingholm Castle which you can tour. The view of Fannette Island and the Tea House is very pretty.

Always love your photo trip postings.

Somewhere in my matchbook collection I have a matchbook to Bucket of Blood with the same logo as the one painted on the building interesting to see where it came from. :)

I am kinda surprised you didn't try to hitch up that trailer and take the lost Moai and Sphinx home... just think of how spiffy they would look in the yard and you could put plants in the middle. :wink: Hey is this further proof that tiki and Egyptian motifs go together well? :wink:

Sorry about not posting any new art I've hit another bump in the road; I have tendonitis and can barely hobble around. Been going to acupuncture therapy again like I did when the gout reared its ugly head. It's slowly working, but all in all I can't recommend tendonitis as a nice vacation spot, it's really not even worth a visit trust me. :wink:

Oh yes, almost forgot those Innsmouth mugs are KILLER!!! WOW! The dedication and devotion you have put into those really shows! And if I forgot.... congrats on getting some of your spectacular art into Tiki Pop!

Wow
What a great trip
Looks like u guys had a blast
Love the Moai on a trailer
To bad you didn't buy em,
hook em on the back of the car,
and take em home.
Lots if good finds
Are the Tiki Bob salt n peppas original?
Great photos
We are on our way to Oasis, lil overnight stop in Temecula
Bali-hai tomorrow
Photos to follow
Hugs

Jon

Wendy, thanks once again for the photo tour- always fun to see places I've never seen- or been to (or vice versa, I suppose). Only the Cevolas can find a huge wooden Moai on a trailer in the middle of nowhere- THAT is impressive tiki hunting, no?

My brain just exploded thinking about that. BOOM! :)

tikilongbeach thank you for the travel tips. We plan to return now that we've found it to be so close to home. Our parents always went to Santa Cruz on the beach and we did the same. It's an hour further away so now we've found a closer trip. However we do not drive in snow so Lake Tahoe is only a summer trip for us.

tigertail777 I am so sorry to hear about your tendonitis. For me ice always worked best. You may scream a bit until you get used to it but it will heat up your tendons better than a heat pack. Think of this, when you heat up your body tries to cool you off. When you get cold blood rushes to that area to warm you up. What helps tendons? Heat and blood with it's healing properties. I can put an ice pack right on my side without flinching, that's how much I've used ice. It calms down the pain too.

I wanted the Moia but if I photographed it from the other side it was a wonder the head was still on. Glad you like Tiki Atari's mugs. I'm waiting for them to arrive at his home.

hang10tiki the salt and peppers are original. Do you have any? The trip was wonderful. I'm going through Tiki Oasis withdrawl. I have to keep busy so I don't suffer not being there.

TikiAno you and hang10tiki are going to have so much fun swapping art at Oasis. I am looking forward to photos.

The Moai and Sphinx were at the side of the sculptors shop. I just took photos from the other side.

More photos later, Dan wants to go on a walk. Cheers, Wendy

Good thing those mugs weren't any bigger, they almost didnt fit into your oven!

MadDogMike we have a really small oven. In the 19 years we've lived here I've never baked a Turkey. A chicken fits! Are you and Teresa going to Oasis? I'm so sad to miss it.

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Back when I made Wish List #4 there was also a list for Dan's wishes. I put them on the backburner while I did the mugs for Tiki Atari. Now it's time to start glazing his wishes while I do the Sacramento Crawl mugs.

This is the complete glazing story for Dan's Tiki Bob Volcano Bowl. These are the colors he picked out to use on the bowl and volcano.

I sat down to start and then changed my mind and

set up in front of the bigger TV. I started on the bottom.

Only where I used under-glaze (which doesn't move) did I use the clear glaze on top.

In the kiln to fire.

All done no skips.

Off to Dan's tiki room it goes.

I hope that many of you have gone off to Tiki Oasis. I hope you'll post photos here. Have a wonderful time.

Cheers, Wendy

Aloha Wendy
Dan-0's new bowl is lookin good
Wish you guys were here
I'll post the fun so you don't miss it
We started off at Tregs home bar
It was great.
Beer, great food, mixed drinks of his menu and Rum tasting.
Ahhhhhhh
Then off to the Bali-Hai

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2014-08-15 08:26 ]

hang10tiki this is so super fine. Now I don't feel like I'm missing out. Please continue when you have time. I know it takes a lot of that to post. I appreciate it so much and I bet everyone else does too. Hugs, Wendy

Some pieces from the art show

No Wendy, we're not making it to Oasis this year either - too much stuff going on. So I'm enjoying Jon's pics too :)

I like that volcano bowl, if you put some baking soda into the crater then add lime juice will it erupt? :wink:

Looking great Wendy! I love it all. Simple.

Tiki/alien art swap with David/ TikiAno at Oasis
Score
:)

And he gave me 2 other gifts too
Awesome....

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2014-08-15 17:34 ]

Wish you guys were here

hang10tiki you were reading my mind. Seeing the photos of the art show is such a gift. Thank you.

hang10tiki Sandra Fremgen has a painting in the show. Did you see which one?

MadDogMike is that a hint? I've never put baking soda and lime together. Should I? We are missing you and all out tiki buddies this time. But I know you are in good hands.

Dan's really happy with his volcano bowl. Soon I'll be working on all of his Wish List. Those pieces are just waiting to be glazed.

TikiG Thank you so much. Good to see your name pop up. Do you still have the sticky zombie clay mug?

hang10tiki those photos were so wonderful I feel as if I was there. Thank Janelle for doing them for us all.

hang10tiki I've really been in withdrawal. No tiki buddy hugs in August is a real bummer. I think I need a trip this winter to Las Vegas to see our friends!!!

Thank you so posting these photos. I love seeing you there having fun. The greatest tiki party in the world. With the best tiki people ever.

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While we wait for more Tiki Oasis photos from hang10tiki and others I'll post my projects.

Tiki Hula came over to see how his mug turned out. It was perfect. One day we'll have more photos with flames from the pockets he had me custom add.

One by one while he and Dan played record I wiped off the excess glaze from the second half of the mugs.

Sometimes the washcloth took off too much. For some I used an underglaze pencil to put the line back and sometimes I painted it back on. I had to check the bottom of every mug to make sure they were OK. My bottoms are hand done so they don't look manufactured.

My next day I prepared to glaze all the insides so that they would be white there and around the edge. These are coconut mugs with white meat. My first plan was to fill the mug and coat the inside and then to put them upside down on these plates to drain further. Then I would smooth the outer edge when I picked them up. I changed my mind see how below.

I set up another table and brought all the mugs together. My goal is to get the insides done in one day.

I poured in the glaze and coated the insides.

Then I quickly poured out the excess. Instead of putting it down on a plate I had found bowls that fit the coconuts so that they could drain into the bowl.

6 at a time could drain.

Also I would use a spatula every so often to clean out the bowls and put the glaze back into the pitcher.

Another 8 draining.

When I turned them over I spread the glaze around the rim with my finger.

I made it. In one day I did all the crawl mugs plus one left over from Wish List #4. See below.

Muskrat requested that I change the name to Kiki's. I told him that I could do that if he could wait until I was working on the crawl mugs. He also wanted the letters to be turquoise. I'll do that with enamel after they fire. But I did do a back up glaze of teal blue that will show up a tiny bit.

Now it's time to get back to work in my home tiki factory. Cheers, Wendy

As you may know, I'm not the biggest Tiki Bob fan, but that volcano bowl is just amazing - especially in person. Dan is a very lucky guy (because he has you, Wendy) :D

Hang10. Of course I'm missing Oasis too and partying with all you cool kats again :( Next year I'll be there or else! Mahalo for the photos.

Jon,

Thanks so much for posting pictures! Someday I'll get to Oasis, SOMEDAY! In the meantime thank you for leeting me live vicariously through you. :)

As everyone knows, Dan is a most excellent packer. I just received my swap painting (I was away last week) and, as usual, it was packed beautifully. Thanks Dan & Wendy!

Glad u guys like the photos

TikiHula ahhh thank you. Let's go to Tiki Oasis next year and hang with all the cool cats. I wonder what the theme will be.

hang10tiki more wonderful photos. I hope there are more to come. Did you stay today or head home?

LoriLovesTiki I'm so happy to know the box arrived safely. Dan is a wonderful packer.

hang10tiki I feel so good when I see your photos. Thank you for the gift of your time and effort.

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I'm catching up my photos. Here's four days worth of work on the Sacramento Crawl mugs.

I need an unglazed spot to mark the 1/50, 2/50 etc. on the bottoms. I cut pieces of painters blue tape and put in on the bottom of each of the mugs.

Then I walked around each table and painted over the tape covering the bottoms with glaze.

I finished the bottoms in one day.

The next morning I decided that I needed to do more of the sides before flipping them over. This photo shows how far down the sides I ran the glaze. Another day gone.

The mugs dried overnight and now on the third day I flipped them over and glazed from under the rim down.

One table down two to go.

Now all three tables full have one layer done. They dried overnight.

On the fourth day I did the second layer

and put them on trays on the floor as I worked.

Glaze layer number two done after 9 hours of work. One more layer left to do.

GROG you should have come here to glaze instead of having fun at Tiki Oasis. Not fair.

Cheers, Wendy

Wendy, we missed you at Oasis this year. Next years theme is SPACE. Hope you can make it!

lunavideogames thank you for letting me know. Now I'll start a painting for the Tiki Oasis show this winter.

I took a couple of photos of Dan's Tiki Bob volcano bowl.

Cheers, Wendy

Now that I'm putting on the third layer of glaze I am also adding one more layer to the top edge and

pulling off the blue tape so I can number them.

Once they were all done they went into the 90 degree heat of the backyard to dry out for several hours.

Into the kiln. I was just able to do three layers. 21 mugs per load.

I brought the rest of the mugs into the shed where it will get real hot.

Dan surprised me by putting boxes together. There's still a lot left to do. Before they go into the boxes but this just puts us a step ahead.

I hope everyone is safely home from Tiki Oasis.

Cheers, Wendy

Fun photos of TO - mahalo Hang10.

Wendy, so now your downstairs is full of unglazed mugs and empty boxes - no rest for the weary :wink: The crawl mugs are looking good!

Hula- we missed ya
Wendy- dats a lot-0 coconuts
Aloha Dan-0

TikiHula we miss you. We are having fun working each day on Tiki projects. I'll be posting the changes that are occurring.
Love your new Tonie mug.

hang10tiki you just put that song in my head again! Our Sacramento Crawl is so much fun. Some year you have to come meet our Ohana and see all the homes.

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I opened the kiln to find all those coconuts waiting to be removed.

I still plan to paint them with some pin-striping gold paint to highlight the tiki and lettering.

The second of three shelves. I can't put a mug under the thermal couple on the left because it shoots out specks of black metal.

21 out of the kiln.

21 more into the kiln to fire.

closing the lid.

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I took Dan to have his favorite bowl of soup. That's my bowl in front of his!

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I took Dan to have his favorite bowl of tostadas.

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Now that I've bribed him I got out my list of honey-do's.

The first was to take me on a day trip to Davis, California. It's about 45 minutes from our home.
Recently we saw that Brenda's Tiki Hut had gone for a walk there and we wanted to do the same.

Here's the start to the University of Davis Arboretum walk. Those are shovels.

We found Dan's favorite flower. He'd better watch out for that big beetle.

Gotta take a selfie.

Then when we walked through the town we found this

and this. We were there so early all the shops were closed.

Thank you for the visit. Time to work, Wendy

Wendy singing the coconut song
Now that would be a great video

The color on the coconut mugs is great

I knew it
Dan-0 is just to busy to not have a twin

The crawl mugs are looking great! I love how the glaze looks!

Those are some fine looking coconuts....

I wanted to add to Jon's photos of Oasis- I didn't take too many, so enjoy...

Late on Sunday at the pool- a LOT less crowded:

Car show:

The Rum Revolution seminar with Martin Cate:

Photo since I'd think you'd appreciate the mascot- I called him Che Bob ("Rum Revolution," ha)

You and Dan were missed, and more than one person talked about your whereabouts... :)

Dan, if you were any better you'd be twins!
Wendy, the crawl mugs are beautiful - nice glazing. My kiln was starting to take forever to fire to ^04 so I bought new elements and am going to try and replace them - wish me luck :D

Hi Wendy -

Thanks for the kind words and YES! I have the "clay zombie" mug from 2009 - as you know the clay does not hold up well even though the mug is usually wrapped up secure and boxed...
...I thought you would enjoy the attached photos I took last night of this very same piece:

With or without the cracks this mug is still one of my prized poly-pop possessions. Thanks Wendy and Dan for all the tiki goodness. G

hang10tiki I love this photo because I just can't have enough Dan's. Thank you so much.

lunavideogames I'm happy with how they have turned out and having some good responses makes my day. My goal is to make them look vintage but of a very good quality.

TikiAno you guys and gals can never put too many photos on here for us to enjoy. I appreciate them very much. Thank you.

MadDogMike you are so brave. I hope my elements will last a long time because I fire with a high of 04 when my kiln will go to 10.
I am wishing you luck on the repair and also on not catching anything from the river water bucket challenge.

TikiG Hi, I'm so glad I wrote to you asking. I have a dozen of my original sculpts made the same way. Two were out in my kiln shed and the rest are in my house. The one's that were subjected to heat and cold cracked. Those in the house are still just fine.

Would you consider a swap? I'll send you a ceramic surprise in exchange for this cracked beauty?

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I'll have to post photos tomorrow. I'm beat. I'll show you what we have been up to that has taken my strength and is sending me to bed right now. It would have been great to have had two Dan's for the last few days.

Cheers, Wendy

Time to share again. I opened the kiln to expose load number two.

After the kiln was empty I loaded in the third and maybe last group of Sacramento Crawl mugs.

I carried these all into the house to add to the growing stacks.

I noticed that there was one mug where the glaze covered a letter to thickly. Then I found one more mug I'd missed on table of bisque fired pieces covered with tarps. I'll glaze it to replace the other mug.

I found an unused cutting board and realized it would work well as a pounding board to loosen stuck lids.

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We didn't know the cursed domino effect was about to overcome us.

All I wanted to do was move one mask over to make room for the mask Dan found in Reno.

The one shown in this photo.

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More later it's time to go for a walk. Cheers, Wendy

It was a long walk. Not really just kidding. We just went to work when we got back and I'm just now upstairs where the computer sits.

Here's the start of the Domino Effect. I only talked Dan into getting the ladder so I could move one mask and hang another.
I got it done. 2nd from the left.

Of course I could see that the two sides were unbalanced so I sent him to look for another mask for the right side. Meanwhile I had to remove the trees so I could move the ladder.

It's looking kind of bare in my nook where I glaze my tikis.

Dan then says, hey why don't I put the big tiki on the patio and you'll have more room.

I agree so he lifts the heavy guy and carries him

to a new spot outside.

Now our nook ceiling looks good and we are

happy with the two additional masks.

Now the treeless room is growing on me. I like it better.

However our family room is now a wreck.

Part two of the Domino Effect tomorrow.

Cheers, Wendy

Once ya start
It never ends

Hi Wendy,

I am blown away by your living room! THere's so much cool stuff to look at. =)

Sandra

Wow. Just...WOW. Love it!
YAY!
Hugs,
~Zero

hang10tiki you are so right. It just keeps going like the energizer bunny.

SandraFremgen thank you. Here comes more photos of the family room as the Dreaded Domino Effect continues. See below. Please share some photos of your Tiki Oasis day.

ZeroTiki are you and your wife coming to our Sacramento Crawl??? Glad you like the mug. I try to make each years mug look like it really came from a Sacramento tiki place.

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Part Two of the Dreaded Domino Effect. I decided and Dan agreed that the nook needed to be treeless so out to the car they went for a trip to Goodwill.

We even got rid of all the silk plants that were hiding the fireplace.

Now that the nook had more room I figured out how we could make space for more of Dan's mug collection. So after Goodwill we drove on to Home Depot. It's so wonderful that they will cut anything you buy to the size you need.

It didn't take long until we checked out and were on our way back home.

We screwed the sides on and then I used the boxes for the crawl mugs to position the center shelf which was screwed into place.

After I marked the back Dan hammered in all the support nails.

It fit perfectly and now hides the cords to all my tall lamps.

Now back to work to make a second shelf for the other wall.

I didn't show this the first time but Dan couldn't start any nail without me holding it in place. That's the trust that comes with a 36 year marriage!

It fit like a glove. You may notice that Dan decided that the big

tiki needed to come back into the nook. He worried about it being outside.

I painted all the cut ends and screws with white enamel paint.

Dan tried out a MadDogMike mug on the back shelf and

a few others on the side shelves.

These two shelves cost a total of $68.00. Not bad at all.

However the Dreaded Domino Effect is not yet over. The family room is still in progress. More tomorrow.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-08-23 21:32 ]

Nice shelf building! Oh, and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXOdYeG7Nio

Whoohoo!!!

Wendy I like the lighting in your work area. As I get older and blinder, I find you just can't get too much lighting :wink:

Any damage from the temblor last night, Wendy? Moderate shaking here in SF woke us up but no damage - epicenter in Napa and some real damage and injuries there :( - but I'm guessing Sac'to got some rumbling as well.