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

bamalamalu thank you. Hamo said it's inside the book too so I'm even happier! Wendy

When we began to pour the crawl mugs for 2019 we also poured pieces that would get me to work on Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five.
I put them into thick Hefty plastic bags and kept going until all the shelves in the garage and work tables in our homes hallway were filled. Then I continued on working on the crawl mug.

This is the beginning of the story of Phase Five.

Happy Holidays, Wendy

Looks like you were well prepared

hang10tiki these are all on tables waiting for me to proceed. Wendy

Wait
All the tables?
So where do you put Dan-0s cookies?
:)

hang10tiki funny you should ask about the cookies. A friend brought us some freshly baked cookies today and we are keeping them on top of the microwave. The kitchen counter is now covered with projects.

Question: do you still have the montage of Tiki Bob's that you did for me. I've been searching for them and if it's easy for you to find them please email them to me. I filed them in a safe place and no word hunt has worked.

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

I thought I was done with the Sacramento Crawl mug but a few people said that they needed this 2019 Lanai mug to complete their sets of 10. If you are in the same boat let me know.

I have cleaned up four and they are currently drying.

I couldn't bare to know someone has collected all 9 and wasn't able to get this last one.

Cheers, Wendy

Wendy- the Bob pics on page 12 of your gallery posts?

hang10tiki thank you so much for finding them for me. I searched and gave up. I have copied them all from TC now so I can use them on Facebook. I am so thankful that you did these for me. So many of them I had forgotten. I appreciate you very much. Hugs, Wendy

My pleasure
Was fun looking at your old posts

hang10tiki not only did you find the Tiki Bob's for me you also showed the Tiki Pop post I did last time and I had forgotten that my Zombie Torch mug was inside the book back then. Thank you so much. I am having a fun response to showing all those photos on fb.

Getting back in the frame of mind to work work work on tiki mugs is work in itself. I've always chosen projects that get me moving.
The very last casts I did this summer were of the Frankoma War Gods after making and drying the molds. So I decided that I would get back to work by cleaning these up. Here is how it went.

I brought all 12 of the War Gods into the kitchen and lined them up.

I took one out of the bag and went to work.

I cut off the excess clay at the top of the mug.

Next I will remove all of these mold lines.

Slowly I removed them and

used water on a brush to "sand" the entire mug.

Here's how the bottoms look out of the mold.

I use tools and shape the bottom into an acceptable shape. Later I will come back and add Joniece Franks initials as I promised her and my own copy write.

More "sanding".

These are all done and

drying slowly under a plastic table cloth.

Frankoma returns in 2020! Cheers, Wendy

To start, we had some plain yogurt that wasn't going to be eaten so we put it out in our backyard. When I checked to see if it was gone I saw a big possum! We knew our neighbors had spotted one but now we know it also comes into our backyard.

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

I had plans. Retire from the Sacramento crawl mug so I could concentrate on the Wish List #8. While casting the crawl mugs for 2019 I also cast parts for Hot Tub Hula Girls so that as I did the custom pieces I could do a HTHG here and there. I have a long list of people who have wished for one so I needed to make a whole bunch of them. I also cast Tiki Bob's because they are my fun and relaxing hobby.

In preparation for working Dan tears loose lots of rolls of paper towels for me. I'm lucky he still helps. I used to pay him in tiki art but he no longer collects tikis and has downsized. Now he does it because he loves me. I'm a lucky woman.

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

Here is where my schedule changed drastically. I was in the garage and picked up a bag with a coconut cast in it. When I checked it out it was completely dry. OH NO, are they all dry?

Dan helped me bring them all into the house so I could go through them one by one.

I found that casting a YEAR in advance was just too long. I had many that were dry or to dry to use for the HTHG mugs. I didn't want to lose all the work it takes to cast and clean the molds so I went to work.

I used clay tools to carve into the dry clay

to cut the tops off.

I cleaned this one up and set it aside for a friend who is coming over to learn about carving clay.

Then I started going through the rest. One by one they broke when

I tried to see if I could use them

for the Hot Tub Hula Girl Mugs.

Now I got smarter and began to spray the mugs inside and out with water. Once I got them pretty wet I was able to cut one down so I could

carve a small tapa bowl. Peanuts?

Then one broke even though it was wet.

I just broke it all the way around and then I carved it with

sea creatures and then roughed it up.

Just playing here to save anything fast.

All done. I hope it will be worth glazing. Oh well

onto the next one.

Green coconut worked out. I am now spraying the casts with lots of water before I try to cut them. Duhhhh I should have done this sooner. Another Oh Well!

Then I did another one.

The water being sprayed on is soaking in well. Not good enough for the HTHG's but OK for these.

I always choosing the lightest casts to work with. I can tell they are drier than the heavier casts.

I cut the tops off and clean up the mold lines

Each one is then hand carved so no two alike.

I like to rough them up.

In the end this is how many I made into something else. The rest of the coconuts will be fine for the HTHG's and I'll recast more to make up for these.

All the rest were thicker casts and while drier than I wanted them to be they would work for the HTHG mugs as long as I get right on it. So that's the big change. I am now working on nothing but all the Hot Tub Hula Girl mugs. I won't start custom pieces until they and all the Tiki Bob's I've cast have been sculpted and are slowly drying.

I just do these projects as I can, the best I can. I'm sad that some people have waited years for me to get to them, some I may never get to because one day I will stop this wonderful art.

Happy Holidays, Wendy

Good table right there

hang10tiki I see it and I think of the work that will follow!

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

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2019.

May we all have a fun time being alive in 2020! Wendy and Dan

Merry Christmas to 2 great friends

hang10tiki well that was fun to long onto. Thank you we think of you and Sew Tiki as wonderful friends. Wendy

We had a very tiki Christmas. Since Dan no longer collects we had to stick to wearable or readable presents.

We started our day with a fun meal at Macaroni Grill. We gave our server a 30% tip for working on the holiday.

We love new tiki books.

Since the Hot Tub Hula Girl was kind of on the Tommy Bahama Shirt I got us each one. Dan is horrified that we may match one day.

We always shop at Swanzberg's during the crawl and by Christmas we have forgotten what we bought. So Dan was surprised.

My very favorite present for all occasions is a hand made card from Dan. They each tell a story with photos.

This gift is again from Swanzberg. I had no memory of it until I saw it.

Happy Holidays Friends, Wendy and Dan

Awesome
Looks like a good day
When was that last photo taken on the previous page
The one where Dan-0 dressed up like Santa

:)

Merry Christmas I didn't recognize my own husband in Hawaii. Thank you hang10tiki I would have missed this. Cheers, Wendy

Back to work on Wish List #8 (2018). The rest of the cast coconuts for the Hot Tub Hula Girls were fine enough to proceed. So it's time to clean them all up.

Here are the steps for each one. Out of the mold saved in the bag and still OK.

I cut off the top with a huge knife.

I clean off the mold lines. I recurve all the coconut detail later.

Time for the three dents.

I make a hole in the bottom so that there's no trapped air inside the girl when fired.

I don't have stamps with my name so I hand carve all the information on the bottom of each one.

I will do this to all the remaining coconuts and then on to the girls. I haven't checked to see if they are still soft.

Happy Holidays, Wendy

:)

Had to post this

Look who’s back:
See locating tiki for the full report
:)

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2019-12-27 20:33 ]

hang10tiki thank you.

For years after I filled a wish to show how the pole currently looked, Joshua Bell was going to take it to be photographed next the green Tiki Bob. He was too late!

I was so happy to see this done. For years it was something I wanted to do. A good start.

Mr. Bali Hai in San Diego was painted gold for it's anniversary. I hope one day it's returned to it's original colors too.

Happy Holidays, Wendy

First I had to save as many of the coconuts for the Hot Tub Hula Girls as possible and now it's time to see how many of the hula girls I cast starting in October of 2018 can be saved.

The first one was so dry I cracked the bottom. So I turned it into a necklace.

The next one was fine so I cleaned off all the mold line and

added the hair down her ample chest!

I use slip as glue. I dipped and then added a ring of soft clay to the bottom.

I then squish it down into the coconut to glue it in place. Then I remove the excess clay.

Then I add hair in the back that further glues the girl into the mug and then I carve the coconut texture.

The coconuts and two of the hula girls (that were to dry) were cleaned up and are on the drying

table. By the time I got to the end there were only three girls too dry to put into coconuts. So I just poured more to match the number of coconuts ready to be made into the HTHG mugs.

I am so happy that in the end I will have been able to make these for all those who wished or are on the waiting list. This is just the start of the work to make these. Two hours to get each mug to this point. Then there is sanding then firing then washing and glazing and firing and re-glazing and firing again.

Happy New Year, Everyone, love from Wendy and Dan

hang10tiki if you did that in Las Vegas for real you could start a whole new job. Wait a minute you are in Las Vegas! We will have to visit to see your act!

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

For New Years Eve we went to our favorite place. They even put us in our favorite seats. Today we just rested at home (which means I worked clay and Dan made CD's) and finished the wonderful meal from last night. It was too large for a dinner. But I'm not complaining left over lobster is a treat!

We wish you all a wonderful 2020. Wendy and Dan

:)

Dinner sounded great, so did the leftovers.
You guys look great.

And I think it’s amazing that they replaced their plain white columns
and copied one of your Tiki Bob Mugs (that I own) for the model...

:)

Wow hang10tiki I will have to share the remodel on fb too. Love the new look. Wendy

To save all the parts that we cast while making the Sacramento Crawl mug for 2019 I went to work. First I used up all the dry pieces that couldn't be used for the Hot Tub Hula Girls and now it's time to use the pieces that will work.

Since I've shown all the steps so many times I only took a few photos while working long days week after week. I have in the past made 129 of these mugs. These that survive all the steps will start at 130 and go up accordingly. All total I have made 47 more. Maybe I will have enough to cover all the requests. I would like to have a few extra. Time will tell.

The coconuts are waiting to be cleaned and cut down.

I decided to do a few of the girls with lei's. I will glaze them in a variety of hair and eye colors.

Once a girl is cleaned and placed inside the mug I have to build her hair in place. This makes her solidly in the mug.

I also have to keep in mind the glazing steps. So the hair is placed to help that out as well.

Some will have bangs to be different.

Here's one with bangs and a lei.

Every coconut is hand carved. No two will match.

I also change the hair in the front to make it fuller.

Dan and Scottie keep me company from time to time.

Here are the 47 that I hope all turn out. The have to dry, be sanded, fired, glazed, fired, touched up and re-fired. Then the faces are done in enamel. So these are very far from being finished. But sometime this year I will contact those on my list and waiting list.

So my goal now is to make everything cast before they are too dry. Then all I will have left to do is the Wish List #8 (2018) custom pieces. I am hopeful to have this all work out.

Happy New Year, Wendy

Wow
Busy busy busy
Nice work

Uh oh--cat's in the house. I won't tell the neighbor.

hang10tiki thank you. I even worked on Christmas Day and New Years.

Hamo it's OK that Scottie comes in. It's Scrabble and Calvin that can only visit in the yard. We won't be in trouble here I promise.

Wendy

Test

I am having problems posting photos. MadDogMike was able to post the test but I still can't load photos to post. He has Hanford working on it. I am missing you all so much right now. Wendy

I just logged on to both of my other computers and they had the same error message come up. Since photos are stored differently on each computer I can say that it's this site and not my computers with the problem. HELP!!!

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-01-11 20:27 ]

Still down today.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-01-13 09:12 ]

He is like a secret agent man

Did you email me some pics Wendy? I didn't see them

MadDogMike took these photos and changed them so I could copy and paste. Each day I will be checking to see if Hanford has me back on.

After doing all the Hot Tub Hula Girls it was time to start on all of these mugs and Tiki Bob's. They are two and three deep on each shelf. Even when something is completely dry I can still carve it so I'll be busy. Cheers, Wendy

Still down with the same error message. To top it off yesterday someone tried to use our credit card number to purchase gas so we had to cancel our card. Thank Chase for stopping the purchase and sending us a message to call them.

When this happens it takes a couple of days to change all the sites that run on the card tp the new one and to contact all the credit agencies. This has happened so many times that I have a binder with all the information on what to do contained inside.

I so want to be back to posting here. Wendy

On 2020-01-14 08:05, danlovestikis wrote:

Still down with the same error message. To top it off yesterday someone tried to use our credit card number to purchase gas so we had to cancel our card. Thank Chase for stopping the purchase and sending us a message to call them.

When this happens it takes a couple of days to change all the sites that run on the card tp the new one and to contact all the credit agencies. This has happened so many times that I have a binder with all the information on what to do contained inside.

I so want to be back to posting here. Wendy

Ugh, that is the WORST!

My wife had her card number (our CU issues us two different card numbers so we're not both screwed if one card gets compromised) ripped a few months ago.
Such a pain in the butt.

Sorry you have to go through all of this. :(

Sandbartender at least we had our new card arrive the day after our call. We are up and running again. Sorry it happened to you. It happened last year too.

Now I'll try to post a photo.

Nope it's still down.

Could you post a photo to see if it works for other people besides MadDogMike?

Thank you, Wendy

On 2020-01-14 20:53, danlovestikis wrote:

Could you post a photo to see if it works for other people besides MadDogMike?

Thank you, Wendy

test
removed

test2
failed

Edit- I can add a remote link image, but the TC image uploader is not working for me

“The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the effect of which is like having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.”

[ Edited by: Sandbartender 2020-01-15 06:43 ]

Sandbartender so maybe TC made the add via phone work but not the TC image uploader got messed up. I only use the uploader here. Thank you for this information.

tikiskip thank you for the post. That sure looks like hang10tiki. Did you use the TC image uploader or a cell phone?

I'm lost without posting on TC. Thank you for helping, Wendy

I have no phone.
Upload from TC.

Don't think I can post pictures now.

Would not open things from TC for now.

Ok so I was able to post two pics on the Christmas thread BUT one other picture from the same time would not download.

Sooo you might try other photos to see if some other pictures might post.

tikiskip thank you for trying. I just talked with MadDogMike and it's a failure for everyone trying to post. He's in contact with Handford. He said what a bummer that this has happened right with the 20 year anniversary celebration. I'm going to just try it each morning and each evening. Wendy

Was able to post photo today.

Bigger issue is, what about the day when all you have posted here is gone?
Or the day that this internet thing is about as relevant as the 8track tape is today.

I have for some time said to have at least some hard copy info on what relevant tiki things you do art, recipes, info on bars, events.

Do any of you do that?

This internet thing is great BUT I still say it makes for a time when all the photos and info could be lost or at least most of them.

We take photos and glance at them once or twice and that's it, no more printing and framing on the wall or box of old photos to look at or for a Sven to find and put in a book one day.

You think that hard drive or thumb drive will last fifty years?

It is most important for the tiki art types that get little to no exposure in the few tiki print arenas Mags, books, ect to do this as the very people who pan you could make you disappear for any recognition in the future.

tikiskip I talked to Hakalugi about that years ago. He said they were not set up to make hard copies of our threads. I know I would buy one if they could. But I'm finding that family VHS tapes put over to CD's do not much interest the younger members of the family. So you are right one day its all gone and I for one will just say a big "Oh Well" it was a fun run while it lasted. It does make me sad. Wendy

On 2020-01-16 07:38, danlovestikis wrote:

tikiskip I talked to Hakalugi about that years ago. He said they were not set up to make hard copies of our threads. I know I would buy one if they could. But I'm finding that family VHS tapes put over to CD's do not much interest the younger members of the family. So you are right one day its all gone and I for one will just say a big "Oh Well" it was a fun run while it lasted. It does make me sad. Wendy

but the mugs will stand the test of time Wendy