MadDog Mike's Platterful of Pupule - El Tiki/Ben Wilson Wall Finished

Thank you so much, these were worth waiting for. What Matt said is so true you deserve a wonderful future with Teresa. Much love you to and you family, Wendy

PS nowhere is better than the good old USA

Jon, Matt, Wendy - thank you so much :blush:

I have stood on the shoulders of a giant (UncleTrav) and made a miniature tiki hut. I needed a miniature for a photo shoot and Trav had already done all the hard work of researching and documenting the techniques. This is just a quick and disposible hut, not nearly the amazing detail of Trav's. SPOILER ALERT! - there is a foul wind blowing and I smell disater in the air. I fear things will not end well for MadDog Mike's Tiki Hut :lol:

Some shellac help the coloring and tamed down the thatch. It will look better when it's sitting on a sand "beach" that blends seamlessly into the background

Mike, great photos, and great mini-MDM hut! I look forward to seeing mechanized miniatures of you & Teresa around it! :)

Are you guys heading to SD for Oasis?

:D :D I'm no giant Mike. You can see that by all of my mini builds. Your hut looks awesome !!! Can't wait to see the photo shoot. Thanks so much for the kind words and keep up the good work.

Mike and Teresa in paradise. The house is leaning so you better work on that or you'll keep rolling out of bed! Wendy

Happy Birthday, Mike!!!!

I didn't know Teresa was a teacher too. I've never taught 1st but I previously taught kindergarten, 3rd and 4th. Now I have it easy and teach 5th graders technology.

Anyhow, thanks for posting the honeymoon pics. I saw some on FB but you can never see enough.

Happy Birthday! (again)

Thank you very much my friends :)

OK, we had a little accident at my hut :lol:

And the aftermath

Not quite Hollywood quality but it will work for my purpose

There must be a story to this that will keep our hearts from breaking. Wendy

Nooooooooooo !!!!! I have had nightmares of images like that happening in my mini neighborhood. Hope everyone got out ok :D

As a kid, I use to build fire crackers in to my car models.
They burn great & blow up spectacular.
Why ? We were kids.
Some of us don't grow up.

Hope everyone got out safe! I guess the locals didn't have firefighting equipment.

Always fun to see what you are up to Mike. Happy belated birthday!

• Dale

:lol:
Wendy, it has a purpose but YOU dont get to see it until August 8th
Trav, just don't store any tiki torch soaked paper towels inside your huts
Will, that sounds like fun! I guess I haven't grown up? :wink:
Giles, that's right, you do miniatures too. You probably would have made little fire extinguishers out of empty pellet gun CO2 cannisters!

Ah, cool. I had a girlfriend who entered all the cereal box contests. She bought so many stamps that her husband thought it was an excuse to see the postman. I think you'd better let Teresa know what you've been doing. I'm ready for the 8th! Hugs, Wendy

"Not quite Hollywood quality but it will work for my purpose"

Hmmmm.....Interesting.

I borrowed your flaming hut for my thread. Wendy

Happy Birthday dearest friend. Wendy and Dan

Every day I see this thread, and every day, for an hour afterwards, that Talking Heads song is stuck in my mind, until eventually I have to erase it with the Rose Royce classic "Carwash."

I'm not sure which is worse.

Really nice fire, though.

[ Edited by: Professor G 2014-07-28 16:46 ]

the theme to I dream of Jennie is supposed to work.

There is nothing bad about the "Talking Heads"! :)

I agree with ATP. Talking Heads are one of the best bands of all time.

Rose Royce is not really that great. :)

"It's a Small World" is the USR (Universal Song Replacer)

Oh great! Now I have "Its a Small World" stuck in my head.

It's a small world afterall,
It's a small....small...world.

Ugh

• Dale

Happy belated birthday MM!!! Loving the trip photos. :) Can't wait to find out the purpose for setting the roof the roof the roof on fire of your tiny tiki hut. :wink:

I am still alive, just been busy :D
I decided I "needed" a wind motion Hornbill for the patio so I made one



The weighted mask and shield serves as a counterbalance and wind vane

Sculpted Styrofoam and paper mache

3 coats of paper pache, the last one white paper

Acrylic paint, posterboard "feathers", and a couple coats of clear polyurethane

A snip of motion video
http://youtu.be/1c62ZjosNxk

So creative. Love the video. Wendy

Mike, awesome stuff. Love the creative in-motion sculpture(s). Still haven't made it to the Tonga Hut in PS to see your work in action.

Thanks for posting.

I agree....so creative and the video is great!!!

Brilliant!!

Very cool Mike, but i think you are going to run out of things to make soon. You've covered just about everything. :D

Thanks guys :)
Swizz, you know I'll never run out of crap to make :lol:

I tried my hand at a tropical silk flower arrangement. Can I quit my day job? Can I?

It looks like your bird is about to catch fire. Your flower arraignment passes the test but don't quit your day job it pays more.

Cheers, Wendy

Wife liked the flowers...
I think it would look great on a giant Mai-Tai
:)

Thanks Wendy & Janelle :)

Fininally decided it was time to replace the elements on my old $100 kiln. It was taking longer and longer to fire. Armed with just a YouTube video, a basic understanding of electricity (ie don't touch a 9 volt battery to your tongue), and a pair of needle-nosed pliers I dove in.

The old and new elements. The old elements were very brittle and came out in lots of pieces

Placing the new element

Connecting wires

Seems to work. Need to do a test firing soon.

Now the MadDogMIke creativity will begin to flow like electricity through wire. I am ready to watch all the fun. Congratulations on a good repair. Wendy

Maybe a new job as a kiln repair man!!!

Flower Arrangement = Beautiful

I'm impressed!

Let the art come forth

Nice. And jealous. Now I want a $100 kiln... :wink:

Look forward to seeing your new creations....

Thank you my friends. Hope to get some time to use those new elements now :)

My kiln is SMOKIN'!!! It had gotten to where it took almost 12 hours to fire to ^04. A nice slow firing is not a bad thing when your kiln is automatic and you can set it & forget it. But mine is a manual - that means I have to turn it from low to medium, from medium to high, then make sure it shuts off when it reaches temp. So a 12 hour firing is an all day affair for me. Now it fires in half the time! Graph below shows today's firing. The red line is a rapid fire ramp, good for paperclay or well dried clay with little chance of bubbles - 270 degree increase per hour. The blue line is a slow fire ramp at 108 degree increase per hour. The green one was my plotted temps for today, a little faster than it should have. Will leave it longer on low and on medium next time. It also shut off about 300 degrees cooler than it should have. That means I either accidentally put in a ^06 pyro bar or else I need to re-adjust the KilnSitter after I pulled it apart and put it back together :)

I usually turn the kiln on to low at 6:30am when I leave for work, to medium when I get home at 4pm, to high at 5pm, then it will turn off before I go to bed around 10pm. Works for me.

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-10-01 02:03 ]

Mike, congrats- and thanks for the kiln setter walk through, too. We have a few automatic Skutt kilns in the studio, which is definitely a "set it and forget it" method.... Much appreciated!

Tried out the new kiln elements with this ceramic pig head for a beer can chicken :wink:

A whole pig cooking in an imu is great for a backyard luau, but sometimes you have a smaller crowd. This ceramic pig head fits into the neck hole of a beer can chicken. Add the ceramic coconut bra after cooking and you’ve got a party!
Since I stole the idea, the least I can do is to give the originator a bit of free advertising

Oh My!

A pig sitting on the can, now I've seen it all.
You graph quite well Mike.
Back in business, Wendy

U krAzy
:)

Like the pig head beer can coconut breasted chicken ceramic Mike!