C&D Tiki's Mugs

Aloha everyone,

Earlier I posted in the TC Ohana forum a little on me and the journey in Tiki that led me to make mugs. Please check it out if you want and introduce yourself, I'd love to get to know you all!

I'm a relatively young artist in the Tiki & Ceramics community and want to share my art and the steps I take along the way to make it. Most of my work so far has been inspired by some of my favorite movies like Lord of the Rings..

Or The Nightmare Before Christmas..

Currently, I am working on a "bowl" themed after the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Carribean named "Dead Man's Wager". It's a monster of a mug and hopefully will hold around 32 or more ounces! :drink: :D All or nothing is the motto associated with this mug/project!

I’m hoping to attend my first Tiki event this year at Tiki Kon, but will not be bringing any mugs to sell. If you would like one please let me know or check out my Etsy!

Mahalo
C&D TIKI

PRECIOUS

Strong work

I really enjoyed looking at your post. That head is beautifully creepy. Wendy

Thanks so much Hang10Tiki :D

Wendy I'm glad you enjoy it! Thank you for sharing your process and great work, your insight on mold making helped me so much in my journey to making Gollum and now Dead Man's Wager! Which took a 7 piece mold to make...

Mahalo!

Corey
:tiki:

It has been a little bit since my last update on the Dead Man's Wager mug/bowl, but here it is. The first 5 came out of the kiln and all was well...

...until I heard a "ping" and then it continued for several days... :o All of the interior glaze on the mugs crazed, making them usable as pots, aquarium features, and decorative sculptures, but not food safe. Luckily they are great sculptural pieces and most have been bought (at a discount of course) to be repurposed. Plus now I have decided which glaze combo I like best.

I learned to always sample glaze test before firing your product, even if it's a liner glaze... A hard lesson, but a good one going forward.

Instead of releasing these in batches, I realized that because it is very sculptural and time-consuming to craft them that I will be making them to order (max 5 ships at a given time). Which I made a damp box last weekend to keep work leather hard and workable for longer periods.

What this means though is that everyone who wants to collect one before I get tired of making them and destroy the mold will have the chance! :)

This is a DMW mug ordered fully decked out, prior to bisque firing.

The circle on the deck above is where the main mast will be attached via magnet or furniture fastener.

If you are interested in ordering a custom one please email me .

Mahalo!
Corey

C&D TIKI
Tiki Mugs & Ceramics
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CDProvisions

[ Edited by: CyroTiki 2019-04-10 13:26 ]

[ Edited by: CyroTiki 2020-03-14 07:56 ]

Woah! That is pretty epic! If my son were of drinking age (he's got nearly a decade to go LOL) I'd nab one for his birthday- he's a huge historical piracy fan.

In a group it looks like a catastrophe. So many sunken ships in one area. Must be the Bermuda Triangle! These look great, Wendy

Wendy
The first thing I thought of was the Bermuda triangle.
:)

Sorry about the interiors.
But they look freaking awesome

Thanks so much, everyone!

SandBartender I too was a huge historical piracy fan as a child and adult! lol I have 2 defective ones left if you wanted to get him one as an aquarium piece, pot, or repurpose it.

Wendy, it does look like a ship graveyard in the Bermuda triangle. That could be a fun photoshop session later!

Hang10tiki thanks!! It was a great glaze test at least. Onward to the next few!

Those look great. That glaze crazing can be frustrating, especially when it happens hours or days later - all of your elation from a successful firing slowly drains away :( Glad you were able to get them sold. Best wishes in your endeavor.

CyroTiki when you do the bisque fire do you have a 20 minute hold at the end? When the kiln is at it's max firing temperature it will shrink the clay completely if you do this hold. Then the glaze will be on a vessel that will not change it's size due to temperature.

We once had an expensive vintage mug crack because it was on a high shelf near the air conditioner vent. In 9 years of ceramics I've only had two mugs crack and I've not heard back that any have become crazed.

I hope this helps, Wendy

Some serious clay work going on these days! Impressive!

MadDogMike thanks for the kind words and wishes! I've had far too many of those experiences, I can only have so many paintbrush holders!! :lol:

Wendy, thanks for bringing this to my attention. I just realized that I've been testing wrong altogether! I bisque and glaze fire at home in my Skutt firebox test kiln, but don't have a large enough kiln for the ships so I take them to a local ceramic shop that offers to fire. I use my own programs at home and didn't even know what they use at the store!! :o
I inquired yesterday and got their firing schedules and fired new test glazes to their parameters. Which they don't have any holds on any of their firings??? Seems odd?

Mahalo Foamy! :)

Cheers,
Corey

Aloha everyone!

It's been a few weeks since my last update on my DMW mugs, but here's where I'm at! After my crazing problem on the entire first batch, I tore apart a couple of greenware DMW mugs to do glaze/vitrification tests. And after several weeks worth of testing, I got the clays absorbancy under 1% and figured out which glazes are not matching the body well. 8)

Now I'm back on track and getting a few of these out to a few customers who put commissions in a couple of months ago. Time for the final touches!

I got some new glazes in for the tentacles and ran a bunch of test glazed tentacles for the Kraken attack ones!

My massive test glaze bowl! 7 different glaze combos to try out.

Not too shabby!

And I think I have a winner with #7! First try as well, maybe I need to always to glaze tests on Mondays. :roll:
What do you all think? Which tentacle color is your favorite?

Also once I get these first few out and demonstrate the final combos I will be auctioning off this super limited edition one! Doing all the tentacles and suckers by hand was tedious, but man I'm excited to see it fired!! :D

What do you think?

Mahalo,
Corey
:drink:

I think the one you picked for the tentacles is a winner!

Thanks littlegiles! I think it will give the tentacles the "burnt" look quite nicely, just like in the movie when shot by cannonfire.

Aloha Ohana! I got pretty carried away making more Dead Man's Wager bowls, Gollum Mugs and more for Texas Tiki week last September and I realized I should probably post pictures of how the Kraken Edition came out!

I decided on this one to not do burns on the tentacles.

I then hand-built an anchor from clay and attached it with twisted hemp rope that I had to hand twine to the right thickness. It turned out beautifully but made it a bit more difficult to pack it for shipping!

The mast I ended up using a dowel rod with a furniture fastener insert. The sheet was made from a thick black canvas that I aged and added burns. The nice thing about this setup is how easy it is to remove the mast for storage or cleaning!

A few months after Texas Tiki week and 20+ pulls from the molds later they started to crumble on some of the finer details... So I made a hard decision...

It sure was a blast making these and I'm kicking myself for not making a master out of silicone. Although it would have cost me an arm and a leg for how large it was! On the other side, no more assembling, pouring and dumping the massive 7 piece mold that held over a gallon and a half of slip! Being a glutton for punishment, or just always seeking a challenge, the mug I'm currently working on is going to be the first lidded vessel I've ever made.

ATOM BOB!!! After the initial concept sketch I created a three-dimensional model of the lower section (main body) out of foam board and layered on the clay to block out the shape.

Next I have to remove tool marks, smooth and add detailing before I can start on the lid or should I say warhead?

Cheers,

Corey

CyroTiki your Tiki Bob is the bomb!!! I love that we tiki artists are keeping Tiki Bob alive. I hope this doesn't come with any explosives that cause it to explode like your mold. I had to crack up one recently too. It will be really fun to see this Bob completed. The sculpt looks wonderful. Cheers, Wendy

Hahaha, I should note that they are completely defused before shipment! This time I will make a master of the mold sections so I can freely blow up any mold pieces that get too crumbly without shedding a tear or remolding the original. The molding process is by far my least favorite part of mug making...

Thank you so much for the kind words Wendy, that means a lot coming from the Tiki Bob legend herself! Cheers, Corey.

Well that's a relief to know. You might need to include that information in each package. Keep on having Bob fun and thank you, Wendy