new mug for Saturn Room, Tulsa

so, this is my first foray into mug design - i had a great idea for a mug for my local tiki room, so texted the owner a rough sketch, and he loved it - the next part was tough, as i'm a sign guy, not a sculptor - i found a factory in china that does tiki mugs and production should be done in the next month - here are pics of my full size sketch and couple renderings of the rough sculpt and final sculpt.

this is a labor of love for me, as Tulsa has a cool tiki history - i wanted to do something reminiscent of the frankoma stuff, so i played the local flavor with some tiki thrown in - the mug is a tribute to the Golden Driller statue in Tulsa with some added maori inspired tattooing - i redrew the TULSA typeface from the drillers belt buckle and added it to the base of the mug, and drew what i thought would be the lettering in the same typeface for SATURN ROOM on the back base - the negative space in the tattooing on the back has a rocket ship shape that is one of the graphics saturn uses. the hardhat will be removable and have a straw hole in the back, and Saturn is working on a "Golden Driller" cocktail for the mug specifically

hope you guys enjoy and pick one up when you're in town - i'll post more pics as i receive them from the factory producing them - kind of hoping to possibly do some more as a side gig possibly now that i'm working out all the logistics kinks in regards to working with a factory in china, pricing, minimum runs - all the boring parts of business.

final to-size sketches:

rough sculpt - had to have the face re-done 4 times

final sculpt approved for mould making:

Well done that is a really cool mug. I hope you will keep this thread current and post your step by steps as you create all of your art.

If you haven't done it before you can change your date and header information just by using edit on your very first post. Then you save that and add photo and start your next project again.

I would love to see you work and how your mold this and all the rest of the steps to completion. You are off and running in the right direction and you won the race.

Cheers, Wendy

Cool! Did you do the sculpt?

On 2017-10-16 09:29, MadDogMike wrote:
Cool! Did you do the sculpt?

no these are being made in china - i did the design and found a ceramics company in china for production, due to the volume they're going to make - i've been working on some sculpts, but nothing that i'd want to show off just yet - i'm a 2D guy trying to learn a 3D world lol

Looks good. How did that process work? Is that the placticine original? That would seem risky to ship from China. Seems like a lot of work to make a preliminary mold to send you copy of the original. I'm not planning to have China make me 1,000 mugs, just curious :lol:

On 2017-10-16 09:52, MadDogMike wrote:
Looks good. How did that process work? Is that the placticine original? That would seem risky to ship from China. Seems like a lot of work to make a preliminary mold to send you copy of the original. I'm not planning to have China make me 1,000 mugs, just curious :lol:

they're doing the whole thing off the drawing - i had other drawings as well - side and 3/4 view and some reference photos of the actual golden driller statue in tulsa - they took all measurements and sculpted it from that - they'll do whole production - just like if tiki farm has an artist draw a mug up

here's a poster i designed for the mug release (date to be added) - i'm going to screenprint 25 of these on french paper at 18" x 24" - tried to give it the vintage vibe as well - waiting on glaze samples right now, so hopefully we'll have the mugs in the next few weeks

here's the latest update on the Saturn Room mug project - glaze samples are done and approved (see pics) mugs are made and standing in line like soldiers ready for glaze

there will be one variation that will be gold colored (20 total) and the bulk will be the 2 color mustard colored with dark brown water rub finish

if you look at the mugs around ours waiting as well, there are some other really cool ones waiting to be finished

gold finish sample:

standard finish sample:

mugs in line:

You have to be super excited that they did such a great job from your drawing. I can see why even Munktiki and so many others send their designs out to be done in Mexico and China. Both glaze choices look really good. Wendy

That's a nice homage to the driller over at the fairgrounds!

All the minor league baseball fans in town should get one! Seriously, very well-executed design that has deep roots in the community.

thanks for the compliments! they are on the way - this has been a HUGE learning curve, but think i'm ready to tackle another - looks like the in-hands date for Saturn Room is 3/5/18

here are some more pics i was sent of them being packed up and ready to go - there are 20 of the gold colored ones and a run of appx 500 of the mustard yellow / brown wash