rvictor's tiki lab

Posting some more progress photos of the ETR chalice here...The photos are right at the completion of glazing. Working on this project and production of the Taki Tiki Mugs right now....Lots going on. Will post more of the Taki Tiki once I get some glazed and fired. Thanks for looking.

What a fun project, it looks good just the way it is already.

Just a quick post today...

Some mugs waiting to be glazed.

Need to meet with the owner of the Taki Tiki to see what color mug he wants and how he wants it finished. Did artist proofs of three brown colors...we will see which one he likes.

Decided to make a few raw versions of the two Taki Tiki mugs...both are going to have a "volcanic glow" glaze interior.

If I have time before Tiki Kon, I will post more photos in a day or two. Put a few things in for final firing last week.

As always, Mahalo for visiting.

RV

Check your pm. I'm ready to add one of your mugs to my collection!

Aloha,
Picked up a few more things from the workshop that I can share with you all...have more that I am working on but can't share quite yet (needs more work). Still learning and having fun with it.

First...minions...more minions.

Im using them to work on my glazing technique. Got allot to learn....

Next up...My first Moai (tm)...I really liked how it came out. It reminds me a little bit of Grog's work...just less refined :wink:

ETR chalice...kind of a mess but I managed to clean it up a bit. They must have put gunpowder in the kiln cause it was a bad batch.

Happy Mistake Tiki Necklaces...So I used some glaze from the workshop on a few tiki necklaces...and the glaze was bad....started flaking off...not sure what to do, so I sanded off the glaze and as I was doing so, liked what came out of it...not sure if this can be duplicated in the future...but tried turning a negative into a positive through experimentation and I am happy I did.

What fun to see these photos. Fixing those necklaces was a win win situation. There are also bisque stains that you can use to do small projects such as these and it's great for aging pieces. All your work looks really good. Enjoy! Wendy

Wendy - again thank you for looking and for the encouragement as always. Great to know you were friends with Paul and Debra...they are really, really cool people with a vibe I can relate to.

Aloha,
I wanted to take a minute or two to thank all of those people I met and was able to meet for the first time or reconnect with at this years Tiki Kon. Only being into Tiki a little under a year now, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Tammy and I had a really great time and left feeling like everyone was so welcoming, upbeat, fun and laid-back. It was a really great group of people throughout. We appreciate all the encouragement and kindness we received and wanted to take a moment to say thank you. We appreciated it all and look forward to doing it again next year. My list of thank-you’s….

First – Jason and Robin at Tacoma Cabana. You two are the nicest in Tiki and allot of fun. Everyone needs to visit the Cabana for the best Tiki in Washington.

Paul, Debra and Miles of Munktiki – You are all the nicest, interesting, welcoming, down-to-earth people I have met. I appreciate you taking the time to show us your workshop and show us what you love to do. You’re the type of people that has drawn me to Tiki and I hope that we can meet again next year.

Henrik and Denise Vantiki – Thanks for being so nice, approachable, fun and for answering all my questions. I bought an airbrush kit today…so maybe my glazing can be more consistent once I get the hang of it. Love that your table got swamped when they opened the doors. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with next. Though it may not be in the near future, we may have to make our way to Oahu so I can take you up on the offer to make a mug.

Rory of Tiki Caliente and Mod Palm Springs and Kari of Poly Hai – Great meeting you two…It was amazing that we ran into you before the conference like we did. Thanks for being such personable and encouraging people. I look forward to be able to spend more time at the next event we meet at. I will use your encouragement to keep going and come up with some better work for next time. You guys were the best.

Rod and Monica of The Shameful Tiki Room – Thank you for the good conversation, your love of Tiki and the invite to come up. I promise that we’ll make it up your way soon and give you a call before we come. Got the mug…thanks for sharing one of your last. Keep representing the Tiki in BC baby!

Jim and Denise of Retro Ruthie – Nice getting to meet you both and for the great conversations. Hope you did well in the vending. Hope we run into you at another event sometime in the future!

Crazy Al Evans – Thanks for taking the time to take a photo with me…You have mad skills and your last mug, the Hei Tiki, is nothing more than jaw dropping in person. Keep setting the bar man. We all love what you do and your persona.

To all the other really great people we were able to meet and talk with…Like Justin @ the Diller Room, Mindy Kukan of Hale Pele, BG Reynolds of Hale Pele, Dustin with Disney Day in the Park, Brett & Monica from Salem, Ray, Jill, and all of those others that whose names are alluding us at the moment…thanks for everything. Tammy and I had an amazing time.

Posting photos of another custom Creature mug paint job. This one is for a friend...It needs some touch ups (some I see as I post these photos) and to get baked. If I do one again, I will try getting more shading everywhere I think..

The two side by side...

Thanks for looking...

Killer creature

Aloha tiki familia,

Hang10 - Thanks. Looks like we will be in Vegas this Christmas. We will have to see if we can meet at Frankie's or Golden Tiki?

It's been a little while since my last post. Life is getting in the way this month for sure...have missed two weeks straight of the workshop, which means no firing and no finished work to share. Still working on the Taki Tiki mugs and it will be a couple more weeks until things start getting finished.

Thought that a few of you might enjoy the attached photo though...

I learned allot at Tiki Kon. The artists there were helpful and I came to the realization that there were some things that I would need to do in order to improve...I continue having a problem with my glazing consistency...it just sucks in my opinion. I see other peoples finished products and I know I have a long way to go. I found out that one key to getting the glazing down is to spray the mugs.

So I saved a little money and dropped a few dollars on an airbrushing setup. I know that the spray gun method is faster, but I don't have allot of room, so this was a compact alternative that will get me working in the right direction...I am quickly learning that producing in any volume is difficult and I am going to have to work on both speeding up the process and getting better quality from the glazing. I sprayed about 5 of the Taki Tiki mugs and ran out of glaze...boy was it faster. Look forward to seeing how they look out of the kiln.

December, awesome, see you then

Have fun with the airbrush
Look forward to more great works from the RVic lab

Aloha again,
Not much time for posting lately...Summertime is party time and lots too do and see. Loving it and not slowing down much. Thought I should take a few minutes to post and let everyone know I'm still working at it. I may have to post everything in more than one post...

Hang10 - Looking forward to Vegas...Were going to have to plan a night out...not sure if we can do the Frankies / Golden Tiki tour in one night or not...It would be cool to see them both but if I had to pick just one...I think Frankies would be the obvious choice. Well have to plan a night out when it gets closer.

Been going steady with the tiki projects since the last post...but in a few different directions.

I guess I will start with the status of my 10 mug order of "Taki Tiki's" for the local bar...I ended up making three artist proof mugs with three different brown glazes. Of the three, I brought the owner two of the artist proofs to choose the color he wanted. The following pictures are the color he chose...I think the glazing turned out pretty good after two rounds of air brushing.

I initially did three coats, which was far too little glaze...Since you have to mix glaze and water at approximately a 50/50 ratio to spray it, I found that I had to double the number of coats to get the glaze where it was supposed to be. However, the glazing is really, really even after spraying it. Vantiki was right on with that advice.

Right now I have 5 that are done and 6 more in for firing.

The following is a picture of a glazing experiment on one of the Taki Tiki's...I also put a coke can in the photo for scale

This one had a coat of underglaze with a wipe off effect. After firing I sprayed two coats of the same brown on and fired again...I think it could stand one additional coat and it would be good to go.

This one was a glazing experiment because I made a mistake when I poured this one...I didn't drain it long enough. Actually, I did two this way...poured it out and then just turned it back over..."what could do wrong?", I thought. It will just be thicker on the bottom right?....

Wrong.

A fissure developed like on the bottom of a lake bed. This is clay right? Duh moment.
There are reasons that people like Wendy Cevola post all these little details...because they are all important steps to follow to make sure your work comes out right. Nobody likes putting an hour into cleaning up a piece just to get this...

Another post today...didn't have enough time to catch everything up on the first post.

Keeping moving forward with mug production...here are a few more Moai's...

Just to give some sense of scale, here is another photo...

My plan, at the moment, is to keep making more of the mugs I have molds of. Some to sell, some for friends and family, and some for our Sculptor's Workshop sale in November.

I had the same thought process in the past and yes I did post the problems that resulted. Wendy

How come nobody tell GROG this a ceramic mug thread? GROG just went through the whole thread, and you are making such fun stuff.

GROG like.

GROG especially like the BOSKO tribute mug, the Volcano Mug and the planter. It really shows that you're having fun playing in the mud.

Keep it up, and keep posting.

So...one of the other reasons I didn't post was because I had a side project that I have been working on...probably going to post in another forum, but I'm not sure where this fits...

After people found out that I was into the Tiki thing, I got allot of requests to mix drinks...So I did...and people liked it (there are allot of good drink recipes out there...Got more requests to play bartender at various gatherings...and I started getting tired of having no where to "set up" and lug milk cartons full of booze and juice all over the place...so I started thinking there has to be an easier way...So I started looking for something I could buy, like a mobile bar...All I could find was either really expensive carts or bars that didn't look very "mobile" (you had to build the bar on site)...Nothing fit the bill...So I decided to get to work and make something myself.

I found an old military AV cart at a vintage/oddity shop in Seattle and decided to work on transforming it into a real Mobile Tiki Bar...I've lost all of the progress photos somehow...so just going to post the finished product...

Now I just have to launch the thing and see what's missing...probably make allot of additions and tweaks over time but it's ready for the maiden voyage.

On 2015-08-23 16:23, RVICTOR wrote:

My plan is to paint the outside with enamel and bake it.

GROG like this the way it is now.

Wendy - I think it's Svens voice in my head telling me to pay more attention when I am looking at your posts.

Grog - Thanks for the posts and encouragement. You know, It's artists like yourself that inspire the rest of us to play in the mud in the first place...thank you.

Well I need to pay attention. I looked at your tiki bar and I thought you had made a mobil art studio and that you had just painted the tiki bar sign. Then I read your words. That's a really cute idea. Did you paint the sign? Wendy

Wendy...to answer your question...yes, The sign is by me.

The Spelling Police have been informed that you misuse the word ALLOT pretty often when it should be A LOT.

allot (əˈlɒt)
vb (tr) , -lots, -lotting or -lotted

1. to assign or distribute (shares, etc)
2. to designate for a particular purpose: money was allotted to cover expenses.
3. (foll by to) apportion: we allotted two hours to the case.

ALOT is often used for A LOT, but that is considered a misspelling as well.

First you get a warning, next comes a spanking, and a third violation your clay privileges will be revoked.

The Spelling Police have spoken. :)

FreekIN Grog
:)

That's FREAKIN'-------The Spelling Police. :)

[ Edited by: grog 2015-08-26 00:26 ]

Wait a second...Cavemen can't spell...I think Grogs been possessed by a Librarian. Call crazy Al, I think we need an exorcism.

In your last post, Grogs should be GROG's. ---------The Spelling Police.

[ Edited by: GROG 2015-08-26 00:29 ]

GROG I like the police. Keep up the good work.
You too RVICTOR! I like your sign. WENDY

GROG, cunning linguist.

Should be one word Will, but we'll let it slip. :) -------The Spelling Police

:)

Bloody head moai...

You mean LAVA, right? Because bloody head would just be gross. (unless it's a severed head mug, then blood would be expected.) :D

Grog - It's not Lava. More like pre-shipping shipping damage.

It would be fun to know if the Ren Clark severed head started this trend. It's been popular forever and I don't see it ever ending.

GROG did you watch True Blood where the vampires tears were blood? Could be that too.

You guys are fun. Wendy

Need that mug
Need
Need
Want
Need

:)

Thanks Bruddah
It's awesome...........

I can't wait to mix up a drink and enjoy it!

Hang10 - My pleasure. Nice seeing my mug get out there.

Three more of the Moai done...more with red interior glaze.

Three heads are better than 1

:)

Eric - This post is for you. I looked the minions over and these three are the ones I think that are good enough to be in a collectors hands. The others have slight defects...the minions were my first ten molded mugs.

Dey look great

Aloha,
Decided to pop in, share some news and randomly post this weeks work...well, part of it anyway...

This weekend I delivered the mugs to the "A Very Taki Tiki Bar" in Edmonds...I sure hope the owner likes them. Put more time and effort into them than they are selling them for but it felt great to have my work at a Tiki Bar. Kind of like completing a box on the Tiki Bucket List....

Based on the order from Taki Tiki, one of the good folks at Ooga Mooga contacted me to make templates for my mugs...so now you can do a search on Ooga Mooga and select RVTiki in the "designer" column. Cool.

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend and it felt, in a way, like the hobby is taking a step in the direction of being what I eventually want it to be later on. My plan in the next month or two is try selling a few mugs...either by people contacting me or selling on ebay. I will probably post on TC Marketplace as well. What I have available will be limited (as I have no plans on leaving my job for art) and sporadic...hell, not even that good imho. Not going to try competing with anyone...just happy to have some sort of a presence.

As of this moment, the only event I am planning on being at this or next year is Tiki Kon...too many family things going on...but I may it may be my rookie year vending. We will see if I can get it together by then. I have lots of ideas...pendants, mugs, masks, etc. I have no illusions of grandeur or anything, just would like to have fun with it and get my art out there...

anyways, sorry bout the rambling...this is what I worked on this week.

More mugs...

A hook (for hanging tiki lights at my brother's new house) and a mask (one of about 3 that I am working on). Went to the SAM "unmasked" exhibit, and save for a few artists, was extremely disappointed in the exhibit. Thought I would try to do it myself...we will see how that works out.

Monkey pendants - kind of like my tribute to Tiki Tony

Well, Mahalo for looking...

Very nice mugs! :tiki:

Adorable necklaces. Wendy

Aloha,
Just a quick post today...have a lot planned and gotta get to the pottery supply store this morning.

bkrownd, wendy, hang10 - Thanks for the comments...having fun

This morning, instead of cleaning up the mugs I cast yesterday, I decided to let them wait until tomorrow and had some fun making pendants...this mornings stuff is mixed in with a few from a few days ago....kind of simple but I was having fun being simple and unsymmetrical this morning...kind of drawing with clay...here are the rough carves...

Love your minions.

What's that
Mai-Tai?
Ok
:)

Hiltiki-thanks.
Hang10-Christened with a Mai Tai. Very good.

Quick post...life has been getting in the way of Tiki. Probably will have to post pretty infrequently as I am working on getting some career training right now. I was passed over on a promotion that I feel I deserved and am channeling the butthurt to professional development. Nuff said.

A few things...Trying out another project idea courtesy of Tikiskip...Tiki planter feet


will probably tweak the carve and get started on casting the molds this weekend. This will be high fire obviously. He only said tiki...and then I thought, what would Tikiskip appreciate? Kahiki Moai?
The idea is to cast the two pieces (fairly thick) and join after casting. Probably should use the template technique...but we will see how it goes. This is an experiment I am hoping to work out in the next month or so.

Mugs...the Moai are to sell, the Taki Tiki's will be glazed in the next week or two...have several of the minions done and ready as well. It takes me a long time to produce so I am changing my schedule at work so that I have every other Friday off...this should help me with the production.

Moai's - I have done 14 total, 3 artist proofs (myself, Hang10tiki and Rod@ShamefulTikiRoom) and 11 numbered. #1 and #2 are gone already. Here is a picture of #3...

Im planning on selling these for $50 + shipping through Paypal. In order to test the waters... First person that's interested in this one (#3) , PM me for details. I will sell others on eBay later after the sculptors workshop sale, in Edmonds, WA in November. If there is a good response, then I will consider releasing more to TC'ers.

WOW!
The Tiki planter feet look great!
You just gave me an idea for a light, Will send via pm.

Your mugs are great too!
I have not looked in some time now.