101 Years of Stephen Crane Art Swap - DONE!!!!

You're nailing it Jon!

Thanks Mike

2 coats of light body stain

Next will be some dark stain highlights

Jon is going to be finished before many start! Looks killer. Send to San Diego.

The "Luau" mug was bisque fired, so time to glaze. First I glazed the inside, then I covered the entire mug with a brown underglaze, then wiped it off with a sponge.

I added a clear gloss coat of glaze on top. Now wait to glaze fire this one.

Ano- dang dude, awesome...................

Love the honey buns!!

Very cool TikiAno!!!

Some dark added for contrast

Go Jon, go! Time for the finishing frenzy!!!

So...straws or no straws? I'm working on a bar scene and wondered if mugs and bowels look better with or without straws in a piece of art? What do you think?

Mike- :)
Tu- I say go with straws

TU, I concur with hang10; straws will help identify the object as a drink glass and not just a tiki statue.

Now, for straws and "bowels"...absolutely not! :)

Bowels!!! :o

(My daughter is a Registered Dietician and e-mails out a weekly nutrition tip. More than once she has substituted the word "bowel" for "bowl" much to her embarrassment :lol: )

Lol. Gotta love my auto correcting phone! I am getting not enough sleep due to selling our home and getting ready to move this summer to Las Vegas.

TU- I might know a place or two to grab a cocktail
:)

Hang 10...my wife said she would drive!!

Uber
:)

As I wait for the Swap mug to be fired, I decided to go down tonight to dinner to the original location of "The Luau" in La Jolla- now called "Su Casa." Su Casa has been there since the 60s, and I used to go on occasion for their (good) Happy Hour when I lived closer (12 or so years ago).

The sign certainly not as cool as the original Luau's...

The entrance probably hasn't changed much since the Luau opened its doors, and it's easy to imagine walking into Stephen Crane's restaurant..

Even though it's (clearly) a Mexican restaurant, but there are a few things that catch your eye...

A divers' helmet, and other nautical items...

Not sure if these are remnants of the past, or pay homage to the area itself...?

But if you look up, there's lots of bamboo- all of the ceilings....

We kept looking for some sign of tiki...

But didn't find much.

Their mai tais were quite suspicious looking... and tasting.

There are rumors that the building is going to be knocked down so I wanted to make sure I got a chance to check it out again.

Okay, information sourcing trip over!

Ano- nice recap

Saw this online

Nice Tiki Archeology TA!!!!!

Thanks Jon- yes, that's the image I'm using for the mug. I did a little bit of research- somewhere it seemed that this Luau location (claims) to have "ripped off" Stephen Crane's Luau in LA- though only one mention, so not sure how accurate it is. (Think it was from a TC thread).

Thanks Mike. I only got a few funny looks while poking around the place. I just shrugged and pointed to the toddler- seemed to work so I kept going. Plus now he likes repeating what you say, so it looked even more authentic when the manager came over to see what we were doing. Ha!

"somewhere it seemed that this Luau location (claims) to have "ripped off" Stephen Crane's Luau in LA- though only one mention"

As far as I can tell, the La Jolla Luau WAS NOT a Stephen Crane restaurant. But we never have been sticklers on the Swap Theme, if your inspiration is coming from the La Jolla Luau that's cool

Ano said: I just shrugged and pointed to the toddler-

Now that's funny

Mike, I always thought it was... until (after I made the mug), I reread this (scroll down for the Luau part):

http://classicsandiego.com/tiki/

While it reads The (San Diego) Luau was a "carbon copy of Stephen Crane's Los Angeles original..." I always read it that Stephen Crane duplicated it. Oops!

In any case, Martin has done great research on that link, check it out (and he's one of our San Diego Ohana, tons of information of local tiki history (and more)).

Hopefully I'm forgiven..

Great web site, lots of San Diego history & pics and well put together.

Like I said, we have always been pretty flexible with the theme so don't sweat it. Besides, it was done in good faith :)

I think it's kool

We can look fondly at the past, where intellectual property wasn't even an idea, and you can copy business ideas in other cities... possibly the same city?

People wouldn't be writing angry yelp reviews, or taking photos of their drinks in your "copycat" bars.

Man, I miss those days...

(well, except for the copying thing, but that other stuff...) :wink:

Got stuck working a night shift tonight and it should be slow so I would have had some time to work on my Stephen Crane Project. Alas, I realized I have run low on my go-to EM347 clay :( My mug is going to need 4 identical Tikis, maybe tonight I can make a sprig mold for those little guys? Got a trip to San Diego in the next couple weeks, need to get more clay!

Not really much to see but it's a start. He's about 3 inches tall. The idea is to be able to make the basic shape and mold it, some detailing can happen after they are come out of the mold. Details are a bit sketchy anyway, I only have one photo and one drawing of the front of the Kon Tiki. Arms will need to be added later since the two guys are mirror images of each other.

Little clay figure

Buried in plaster

Mold done

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2017-05-04 05:20 ]

Mad Dog on a roll
Cheers bruddah

There goes Mike, making it look easy!

Have fun at Freeform Clay.... (assuming that's where you're heading?)

Yes TA, I think Freeform is the only clay store in San Diego county, Imperial county, and the Coachella Valley (although you may be able to buy limited selection clay in the book store at College of the Desert in Palm Desert) It would be nice if Freeform had some weekend hours :/

Mike, if you ever need me to pick up something (when you're coming to SD on a weekend), let me know and I can (potentially, depending on the work week), swing down there and pick up something for you...

Even their weekday hours are short, they know we'll go there anyway/ how...

I may take you up on that offer one of these days. I'm supposed to be up there during the week in a couple weeks so I should be OK this time around. Thank you kind sir

Mike, I need to stop by there too- maybe you can pick up some stuff for me! Ha!

Okay, forgot to post these pics, but the Stephen Crane (ish) Swap Mug was glaze fired. It came out just as a I wanted, aside from some stray drops of maroon glaze on the back side of the tiki's head. :( The color is a bit more saturated in person, not great lighting where I took the pics.

Wow, this is the earliest I've ever finished a Swap piece, now what to do???

Looks great TikiAno. Does that make you the first finished? I was just thinking today about how this thread started off with a bang but there haven't been any posts in a while. Good to some activity :)

Ano-u done, sweet.... looks kool my man

This is the first time I've finished a Swap NOT in the same week it's finishing- I think. I feel like I'm always racing to the finish, but it will be fun to watch everyone create some killer stuff.

Thanks Jon! Your piece is close, no? You can just send to SD!

Lookit all of the beautiful work! This is turning into yet another MDM hosted cavalcade of FUN!

I got clay yesterday!!!! (that bag looks a bit beat up :lol: )

Unfortunately, I think this weekend will be dedicated to Styrofoam set decorations for a kid's program at church. Think grunge steampunk meets primary colors :D Lots of gears (some moving), tools, etc. Vintage elevator/time machine, who knows what else?

4x5 foot gear cluster

3 foot long Left-Handed Monkey Wrench and Screwdriver

Here is my "vintage postcard" submission. The tikis and paraphernalia are based on Crane items. The woman is based on Ava Gardner and a South Pacific movie she was in, the title of which slips my mind. She once dated Crane, among others and others. She is sitting on the tiki picture I found out was from Tuscon, but it was already in there, and besides, I kinda have a thing for painting tongues when I can. Of course, the plastic flamingo is classic TU.

I should be starting my new job in Las Vegas when the swap ends, but I will make sure I don't lose the painting. I have another painting I am almost done with too.

Hope you like it...
TU

[ Edited by: TU 2017-05-16 14:46 ]

Very cool TU, lots of Crane imagery. Congrats on the new job!

These swaps are so much fun. I love logging on and finding new posts. Where are all the girls? Guys are rocking this swap.
Tu I love flamingos and Dan loves Ava Gardener. I don't know her movie either. Dorothy Lamor was in an island movie.

Tiki Ano your glaze was perfect for you mug. It looks great.

Mike we were just showing off your airplane to Dan's sister. You sure know how to work that styrophome.

Cheers, Wendy

Thanks guys!

Here is the finished other painting I did. This is more my usual style. I find painting bamboo to be very therapeutic. Originally I was going to use the Crane mug in the first painting, but when I came up with the worn out look, it kinda disappeared.

TU

[ Edited by: TU 2017-05-17 04:54 ]

Cool stuff! Tu, looks great.

Mike, you ARE a wizard with styrofoam- impressed that the gears can spin without breaking apart!

Glad you made it to Freeform, look forward to seeing (more of) your creation!

Wendy, thanks- the underglaze/ wipe off worked, and matched the look of the matchbook art.

TU in the house
Awesome

Thanks guys. I just got to Vegas to look for a place to rent! Maybe this time I'll have time for Frankies

The swap has been weighing heavily on my mind. I've spent the last couple of weekends laying a tremendous amount of bamboo flooring at the beach house but it's almost done! 99% at least!

My next project at the shore is to paint a large crab or whale on some reclaimed lumber, a big piece of art on several pieces put together. Although I was thinking of bowing out on the swap I was looking at the wood and I thought - hey, there's gonna be leftover! So I may try my hand at painting something on the wood for the swap as well. But what?????

So I'm off to page 1 of this thread to look for inspiration.

Get it Lori