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

Thank you for the progress photos. I look forward to every time you post something new.

What Mauka said

Cheers

Saw the Samurai Dan-0 today

MaukaHale I am gearing up to start more posts again. I've been working and saving them up. I'm so happy to hear you like them.

hang10tiki we have one of those frogs, their song is terrific. We do not have those drums. Are you taking lessons? To you pound on them until Janelle yells STOP!

hang10tiki the only time I can pull Dan out of his recliner at night is by saying, "you've been photoshopped!" He'll run right in to see what he has been made to look like.

Good one! Thank you.

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Here are some fun photos that have been shared with me or that just fit the theme of flames. If any of you have one to share that would be wonderful.

Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2017-09-04 07:58 ]

I made a mermaid for my girlfriend Robyn. It looks just like her when she is not wearing a hat.

I hope it brings her joy each time she looks at it. Love you Robyn. Wendy

Looking good

Just got the conga bongo combo
Use to play drums as a kid
I wanted something to do while I play my records
Wife plays the frog
:)

Cheers

My bro is visiting
I'm thinking there will be a few drinks in our future
:)

Cheers

hang10tiki that is so fun. VampiressRN has a set too.

hang10tiki I see the Frankie's tiki behind you. It's so fun to see your brother. Older, younger?

Dan's back to tiki arraigning and so now your tiki is in the family room watching us watch TV.

Looking so good!

Gregory Ramirez and his fiancé Rachel came to pick up his painting and mug today.

I just started a cold with a sore throat so I missed out on the hugs. Bummer. Wendy

The Tiki looks right at home

I'm the young one :)
He's 3 yrs older
:)

hang10tiki Dan says it is a place of honor!
Two handsome men in the same family.

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These are the names of the people I have down for a Hot Tub Hula Girl for Wish List #8.

Alan Groll
Alex Dulude
Amanda Halley maybe
Anthony Vela
Christine Nguyen
Fred Ferrer
James Dinwiddie II
Sean Smart
Todd Sieber

If you see an error let me know. I could have missed someone or added someone who has changed their minds.

Here are some examples of the mug. $150 plus shipping for the classic. Some things will be altered for free some cost additional funds.

Classic.

Wearing a swimsuit.

Tattoos.

Different hair colors.

Send me your instructions. I am now pouring the parts to make these. Wendy

Sorry for the lateness of this. Here's Wendy's gorgeous painting, in its new location. I still need to install a light for it, which should happen soon.

It is being well loved and appreciated in The Lili-Kai Club. Thanks again!

More fun
And a new project

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-09-05 20:45 ]

hang10tiki seeing your photos is like having a mini trip to my favorite city of Las Vegas! Does the skull have a light inside or florescent water? Looks like you took your brother to some fun tiki places. Did you go to Golden Tiki?

I'm still recovering from my cold. Photos soon. Wendy

The SACRAMENTO CRAWL 2017 is coming up soon. I have made the crawl mug.

This is the list of those who wanted one last year. If you want to stay on or to get off the list please let me know.

I am accepting payment NOW for the mug via Paypal as long as the money to family option is used.
My account is my email address. If you need my email addess let me know. This is for those attending.

I will ship and collect payment including shipping costs from those who miss the event after the crawl ends.

The crawl is October 6th - 8th. Run by VampiressRN. See California Events for more information.

The mug is $85. I hand-carved the detail into every mug because my mold wasn't good enough. I hope you can tell.

See next page.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2017-09-27 14:34 ]

The skull has water and Florisene in it
It glows under the black light
:)

Yep
Hit The Golden Tiki

hang10tiki the pirate with the bare bottom is priceless. Thank you for the photos. Next visit we need to see this place.

:)

Good walk this morning

Hello everyone. I bet you think I've been taking time off since the Sacramento Crawl mugs were finished early and Wish List #7 is done and shipped. Well I haven't I've been super busy. So busy that I did just take time off from posting. It's time to get back on board here.

I made a deal with Mahalo Tiki. I would finish 36 mugs and 2 huge bowls in time for the Forbidden Island sale. These are all tests so hopefully they all work out.

I made the blank mugs the summer of 2015 and they have been waiting ever since. So here is the start of my story.

Dan is always such a help. He carried them all into the kitchen.

I filled the sink with water and dunked each mug to saturate it so that the glaze would stick better.

I used an under-glaze pencil to write my name and copy-write. Then I poured some

clear glaze on top and gently moved it into place with a soft brush.

The next day I poured glaze into a pitcher and used it to fill each mug. They sat for 30 seconds and then I poured it back out. I constantly clean as I do these projects in my kitchen. Nope I don't cook in my kitchen but we use the microwave and toaster. The mugs stay upside down until they stop draining.

When ready I put them upright.

The next day I wiped off all the glaze that had run over the sides.

I also glazed the insides of the two huge bowls.

It takes a lot of time to do these mugs but I will get them done in time.
Cheers, Wendy

I love the way you share the details of your process, Wendy. I've known some artists that want to keep it "secret" so nobody can copy them. Well, you and I both know that knowing something in theory and putting that knowledge into practice are two different things. I watch your artistry and instinct honed by (how many?) years of practice and am simply amazed. Thank you!

hang10tiki thank you for the video and the lovely sunrise.

Prikli Pear thank you very much. It was so hard to pry information from artists when I started that I immediately began to share as I taught myself. I did have some help from Babalu, he showed me how he did his glaze tests and I've done them that way ever since. I was helped by kingstiedye when he set me up with a friend who showed me how to make a 2 piece mold that day is on page one of this thread.

Mainly I have to thank Gecko for "cutting me loose". I used to sculpt things such as my Bloody Maori and send them to him to make back around 2006. But one day he said that he had to get back to doing his own art and I had to make the leap. 15 ceramic books later I started on the first Sacramento Crawl mug after Psycho Tiki D asked me to make it. I still do that with the 8th one about to circulate. I'm so lucky he asked because I love doing this mug each year.

How's that for answering how long I've been doing ceramics. On my own since August 2010. Prior to that it was all Sculpey clay for display only in my husbands collection.

Time to post.

======================

This took several days. I decided to make sure there were no thin or skipped areas so I did four layers of under-glaze that does self glossing when fired.

I decided to do them all the same blue Caribbean glaze so that mugs could be mixed and made into a set.

I set up to do four mugs at a time. I first did a layer that was sideways.

I did four and then waited for them to dry so I could do the next layer up and down. This was taking too long. I got out the rest of my turntables and did the next two layers on more of the mugs.

Now I had eight mugs that I could do up and down strokes on with the second layer.

I keep cleaning off the wheels and the bottoms of the mugs as I go.

I decided to put them out of the way so we could have a place to make dinner. I let them sit over night.

The next day I spread them out and did the last two layers then put them on the stove and started the next group of eight.

End of the day and put aside for the next dinner.

Next morning it started all over again.

I did eventually get all 36 mugs to have four layers each of glaze. I sure hope it stays in place and doesn't run off at the bottom. Under-glazes are supposed to stay put but they don't always behave.

Just when I think "I did it" I remember the two huge bowls.

Cheers, Wendy

Great idea
Love the Book em Dan-0 mug

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-09-12 19:29 ]

I imagine working with Sculpey gave you a good foundation for the design work you put into your mugs, Wendy. That's not something someone wakes up one morning and just starts doing at your level of perfection.

Looking at those blank mugs, I was struck how one could do an interesting riff on those old Siesta Ware wood-wrapped glasses. Not that I'm advocating such, but I saw a great set at an estate sale this past weekend, so they're on my mind.

And hey, "super busy"? I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy these days!

hang10tiki Dan's comment was, "That's a good looking mug!" Of course I love them. Thank you.

Prikli Pear I've seen those glasses with the wood band too. Doing small details on these mugs may just disappear. I'm always behind posting so you'll see what I came up with soon. Practice does make things easier to make and I do improve over time. No matter what it's all fun. Especially connecting with people right here. Thank you.

========================

Now that the Fogcutter mugs were dry it was time to glaze the huge bowls. I needed to be able to do the entire outside of the bowl without having to flip it.

I found the right size small bowl and taped one to each of two turn-tables.

The huge bowls found the surface very slippery.

So I used a big cup and pressed it down as I painted on the glaze. I didn't have any problems.

I did alternating layers up/down and sideways until I had four done.

Looking good.

I added them to the table with the fogcutter. Everything is ready to be decorated.

I've had since the summer of 2015 to figure out what I wanted to paint on these. Now I get the chance.

Cheers, Wendy

Nice blueware :)

Had more thunder tonight

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-09-14 05:48 ]

hang10tiki looks like you saved the best photo for the end. It looks like an upside down tree. You put a bit drip of water color on the paper and blow it with a straw. It ends up looking just like that. Very cool photos. Stay indoors and be safe.

==================================

All the projects here have been purchased by Mahalo Tiki aka Nelson Parker. He is taking them to the Forbidden Island outdoor sale at the end of this month. 36 mugs for sure and maybe 2 huge bowls. I'm working every day to pull this off.

I told him that they wouldn't all be tikis. I have other interests as well. I did each idea as a four mug group. He will sell them individually.

Dan and I were kids in the 50's and we like ROBOTS.

So I just made up some Robots and here is how they turned out.

As they dry it's hard to see them. The colors will hopefully pop when glazed.

I just added a few decorations to the backside.

These mugs have 4 layers of blue, 2 layers of black and 3 layers for each decoration. I sure hope they all stay put.

Wendy

I'll be very interested to see how this project goes. I had a few ideas in a similar vein but wasn't sure if this would be more difficult than your normal carving and glazing process.

Q: Glazes mostly work as opaque on top of opaque, right? So this would be more similar to painting with oil or acrylic than watercolors? That is, you can't do a lot with blending layers of color.

Those made me think of

Philot they do take a long time to glaze and they will be flat. I just hope that they don't just run into a big blob. Hey another run of mugs, the Blob, the Tomato that ate my Toe, Dan's inner monster.

hang10tiki Dan loves those old shows. The campier the better.

===============================

Here is the next set of Fogcutter for Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki.

This is just plane fun. I painted black cats on all four mugs and then went back to add eyes etc.

I did whatever I wanted on the backside.

The body on this cat was too thick so I used a carving tool and removed some black paint once it was dry.

The colors will be darker once they fire.

I just did anything that popped into my head.

I hope you are all having a fun Saturday night out. I'm about to get back to a good book.

Wendy

Wow thank you all for putting me over the Four million view mark. I love numbers so this is really fun.

Now back to work. Dan said it was tiki time so I chose to do Tiki Bob on the next four fogcutter mugs.

This time I did big and small Bob's all the way around the mug.

hang10tiki does it remind you of the coffee cups you did a while back?

Cheers, Wendy

Cool cats
Cool bobs

hang10tiki and you are the essence of cool!

==========================

The next four fogcutter mugs for Mahalo Tiki have a tapa strip and 3 float lamps.

The line up so far.

I sure hope these work out. Wendy

Can't wait to see the kiln open up with all these inside

hang10tiki there are still so many yet to post!

===========================

The next four mugs for Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki for the Forbidden Island sale on the 30th.

These are my PNG style mugs.

I started first with a black background in the shape I wanted to use.

Then it was just the matter of painting them.

The line-up grows.

Wendy

hang10tiki I love your photos! Thank you.

==================================

Fogcutters for Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki. It's volcano time.

I did an outline and filled it in with black glaze.

Next I covered the black glaze with Pingo black glaze that is flat.

Done. The areas without Pingo will now get the red lava.

This red glaze doesn't stand out well once it is fired so I found a fix.

I bought red Duncan crystals and I glue then with red glaze to the areas of red lava flow.

I painted water around the volcanic island.

The last step was to add some greenery. I hope it shows up. The third mug had the red lava reach the water so I added steam.

This has been a lot of fun. Having these leave my home will free up a good amount of space for the Wish List Projects in the works.

Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2017-09-20 07:33 ]

Time is short the Forbidden Island sale is looming and Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki is pacing the floor, will she finish in time?

So I decided to do the last twelve mugs as three of the Disney tikis.

First I did the black base coat three times. Style one.

Style two.

Style three.

Then I painted the tiki with grey glaze.

I used a wire brush to remove the grey glaze down to the black.

I decided to glaze all four tikis and then to go back and add grass.

I began the eyes for the next tiki. The glaze ran to the center and filled them up.

I carved out the eyes and then added black back in.

Two done.

Same thing with the next tikis.

I dig out the grey glaze with a sharp point.

Tick Tick Tick for tikis. Wendy

Wendy, those fog cutters are magnificent. I especially love the Tiki Bob, volcano, and PNG ones.

Love those

Hamo that is so good to hear. Thank you.

hang10tiki hopefully this will all work out in the end and I'll make Mahalo Tiki very happy.

===============================

More steps for the fogcutter Disney style mugs for Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki for the Forbidden Island sale.

Here are a whole bunch of catch up days. I'm always behind in posting but this morning the photos were loading really fast!

When I bought some FN Mayco Glaze the plastic screw on lids all had a small hole. I covered them with tape so I could shake the jars to mix. Looks like I missed one and through glaze on these mugs and myself. Anyone ever see these holes before? I fixed the mugs that got streaked.

Now these all dry. I have other projects and the Two Huge Bowls to do.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2017-10-03 08:23 ]

Mahalo Tikis mugs are ready to fire.

They finished drying in the kiln room.

I loaded the bottom layer and

then the top layer. OH, there's room for a couple of more mugs

so I did some cute Bobs that I had waiting to be glazed. I always use white underglaze, 2 layers so that Bobs face is super white. Sleepy and Flirty.

Backside.

Green Clear Glaze.

Now it's full.

Now I will work on some extras and the huge bowls.

Sometimes I cut the bottoms off of Bob's to add to other mugs to make them taller. When I do that I save the Bob face and make a necklace.

Rat Fink style a PNG style and a regular Bob.

Green clear glaze.

This PNG Bob has already been snagged by Dan. I have to pay him to work and this one will do the trick.

Time to glaze, Wendy

Love it Wendy
Aloha Dan-0

hang10tiki thank you sir. I am so happy that this hand-painted style is working out.

============================

Next I have two huge bowls to glaze for Mahalo Tiki aka Nelson Parker. After I got this done I thought to myself, Oh Oh, I should have waited to see it the mugs turned out or had problems. Oh well. The first bowl is done.

I cleaned glaze off the rim and

then I put the bowl on top of my turn table tower so that I save my back. I did a rim of "sand" colored glaze around the bottom.

I decided to do a Tiki Bob bowl because there haven't been many made compared to mugs. I did all the bodies.

Once I had all the bodies outlined a raised the level of the "sand" so that the tikis were on the beach.

After many layers of sand I did layers for the faces.

All done and posing.

I have to have everything ready for pick up by the end of this week. Tick Tock Tick Tock Tiki Tiki Tiki. Wendy

Great bowl idea

Kiln time??????

hang10tiki your wish has come true.

=========================

The HORRORS of ceramic art.

I opened the kiln and learned a huge lesson about under-glaze versus regular glazes.

When drying I saw some small separation lines (cracks like on the desert floor) in the glaze on the inside bottoms of the mugs. I thought when the glaze melts they will come together. NO they separated much worse.

So all but 6 mugs needed to have the insides re-glazed with regular glaze to fill the separations.

Out of the 36 mugs I had these three where the glaze separated or sloughed off.

Here is the other side.

The robot melted and

the cat drooled glaze on it's face and separated in other areas.

So I will play with these three mugs to see if I can save them.

I brought all the mugs into the kitchen to re-glaze.

I would take them to the garage to dry in front of the fan. Then into the shed.

At the end of two days I was ready to fire again. The glaze inside the mugs was still damp so I did a 10 hour pre-heat and

a 13.5 hour slow ramp. Plenty of time to dry and to fire.

My hope is that the mugs that were OK will not separate and run with this second firing.

Cheers, Wendy

Ouch! After all that effort put into those mugs, having things fall apart like that's gotta hurt. My condolences! You make everything look so easy, I think it's easy for us bystanders to forget how much uncertainty is involved in the process.

Sorry for all the extra work
But
I gotta say

I think this looks Kool

hang10tiki I have buyers lined up for this weird Tiki Bob but before that happened he was touched up a bit and put into the kiln. I decided that the bisque showing needed a slight coat of glaze. He may change completely or get worse.

==========================

I'm still working on projects for Nelson Parker aka Mahalo Tiki. It's possible that this one will not make it into the batch since firing takes so long.

I wanted to experiment with both the black and white Pingo glazes which are flat.

I don not have Moai in my brain so I printed some photos in the right size and I outlined them on the bowl (which is glazed and dry with under-glaze) with an underglaze pencil. Then I looked at these photos as I painted with glaze.

I filled in all the outlines with a regular black self glossing FN Mayco under-glaze as a base. It will be deeper black and glossy. I think it sticks better than Pingo. I could be wrong.

Days after it dried I scraped off some of the black so I could set the volcanos behind the tikis.

I then painted on "sand" colored glaze.

From this point on it's easy to see what I am doing. I am layering on Pingo and adding color to the hats. If you have questions about a photos please ask.

Again I have attached Duncan red crystals to the areas I want to be very red.

The glazing is done for now. But all of this is unpredictable and so I expect to touch it up once it is out of the kiln.