Zerostreet's Tiki Art!

Hadn't seen much of you lately Robert. I figured that meant you were busy "artin' instead of "yakkin'. Can't wait to see what you've come up with.

On 2013-07-20 08:06, MadDogMike wrote:
Hadn't seen much of you lately Robert. I figured that meant you were busy "artin' instead of "yakkin'. Can't wait to see what you've come up with.

Thanks Mike!

Got WOOD CHUCKIN' back from the framer today.

Hi All!

Very busy here at Tiki Tower/Zerostreet. More so now that I'm going to try to produce my Stowaway mug. Unfortunately, Eekum Bookum will not be producing my mugs, so I'm relying on the amazing posts here on TC, along with the very generous help of Wendy and MadDogMike, to do this on my own. This may (or may not) be a slow drawn out process as I'm juggling a few things at once.

Anyway, I've taken advantage of this stormy day to make my cottle boards...here's an exciting pic of a c-clamp!!

More soon!

Great Art as always. I'm going to enjoy seeing yours at Oasis 13.

We screwed our boards together are you gluing?

Putting clay on the sculpt can be made tight by wiping with a wet paper towel.

Best of luck, Wendy

On 2013-07-27 13:59, danlovestikis wrote:
Great Art as always. I'm going to enjoy seeing yours at Oasis 13.

We screwed our boards together are you gluing?

Putting clay on the sculpt can be made tight by wiping with a wet paper towel.

Best of luck, Wendy

Thanks for that Wendy. I was struggling a bit with it!

I glued and clamped then went back and added screws...just to be sure I guess. Here's more:

Watching the Venture Bros. and I applied soap to the boards.

Don't think the dogs think I can pull it off!

My first attempt will be on my Moai mug!

Tiki Tower
The Art of Robert Jimenez
http://www.tikitower.com

[ Edited by: zerostreet 2013-07-27 14:04 ]

That looks good but the locks should be less straight up and down or they may break off when you pull the mold apart. They don't need to be deep. Even a thumb print works. Bigger is better. Wendy

Some of these broke off because there was a slight undercut. Now I smooth the edge with my fingers. Remember the mold soap between pieces or they will fuse together permanently.

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2013-07-27 14:22 ]

On 2013-07-27 14:15, danlovestikis wrote:
That looks good but the locks should be less straight up and down or they may break off when you pull the mold apart. They don't need to be deep. Even a thumb print works. Wendy

Thanks Wendy! Will fix that now.

Haha, Wood chuckin is great!

On 2013-07-27 15:19, Badd Tiki wrote:
Haha, Wood chuckin is great!

Thanks! If you're going to Oasis you can see it in person!

Thanks again Wendy. I went back and filled those keys and used my think. I'm sure they're safe now.

Well everything pulled off nicely. Looks like this may just work!

How exciting Robert! Best wishes!

On 2013-07-28 10:19, MadDogMike wrote:
How exciting Robert! Best wishes!

Thanks Mike! Your generous help and info is a big part of what pushed me to try this!

And speaking of mugs....I've listed my last Mug Of The Fisherman's God on ebay. This mug, #63, has an exterior crack running through its eye as seen in the pic. The interior is sound. I had painted it using Liquitex Glossies.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321174249309?ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Tiki Tower
The Art of Robert Jimenez
http://www.tikitower.com

[ Edited by: zerostreet 2013-07-28 16:20 ]

Terrific now you'll be joining us in the fun and horrors of mug making.
Good job on the painting for Oasis and eBay. This has been fun and
I'm looking forward to the next steps. Wendy

Wood Chuck'in turned out grrreat! Really funny concept executed very well!

Look forwards to you proving the dogs wrong about the mug making. :wink: Well... except MaddogMike I think he has more faith in you. :wink: You feed them... you wash them... you play with them... and still they have no faith in your tiki powers.

Ha! Thanks Tiger!

Been having a pretty hard time producing a mug from this mold. Not sure if the mold is not dry enough or if it's the casting in a well air conditioned home that's the issue? Either way, with much effort I finally managed to pull a mug. It's not perfect but it will do for a glaze test that's for sure. Any advice of how/where to cast would be appreciated. Keep in mind humidity here is super high usually and inside the hous eis usually pretty cool.

In other news. Topps, the trading card company contacted me to do sketch cards for their upcoming Mars Attacks series due out in October. I'll be doing trading card sized sketch paintings that will come one to a box of cards. So the odds of finding one are roughly 1 in 70 or so.

Here's a pic of the mug.

Sweet lookin

Jon

Congratulations. After it dries get some mesh see through sand paper and make sure that your mold lines are completely removed before you glaze it. No reason not to have this one be a perfect mug. Congratulations, Wendy

Thanks Wendy and Jon!

Got 2 out....making a third.

R

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 02:55:57 ]

Congrats on the Topps job, that is sooo AWESOME! I had no idea they were releasing another Mars Attacks set.

oh... and good job on the tiki stuff too. :wink:

mug looks good.

Congrats on the Topps gig, that's big time. Considering you will be doing the rare cards too. Super cool.

You did it! Congratulations on the mug casts and on the cards. This is a wonderful month. Wendy

Thanks everyone! Appreciate the kind words!

These should go in the kiln this weekend. Each one is uniquely distressed.

Best wishes for a successful firing, Wendy

On 2013-08-07 14:09, danlovestikis wrote:
Best wishes for a successful firing, Wendy

Thanks Wendy...Alas....here are the pics.

Well. I'm happy with my glazes, but sad to see 2 of my mugs cracked in the kiln. Don't know why....

The Lone Survivor.

Love this green stone glaze.

Tiki Tower
The Art of Robert Jimenez
http://www.tikitower.com

[ Edited by: zerostreet 2013-08-10 07:56 ]

Sorry to see the mugs cracked but love the glazes. I wonder if your kiln is cooling too fast?

On 2013-08-10 08:17, MadDogMike wrote:
Sorry to see the mugs cracked but love the glazes. I wonder if your kiln is cooling too fast?

Something tells me it's the kiln. You may recall it runs kind of fast. I was recommended by the people at Paragon, a pcb controller, which will slow down my firing. That probably won't help with the cool down. The run the kiln outside and it's been pretty hot here.

R.

I sent you an email but most of what I wrote was about ramp and cool down but also water re-entering the cast when you glaze. So sorry, Wendy

Be sure and let the kiln cool down completely before you open it. Slap some clear glaze on them puppies and fire 'em again. They're Moais, they can have cracks. They're supposed to look primitive.

Ok. TRUE STORY! I just had some guests over and they were looking at the cracked mugs on my kitchen counter. I explained how 2 of them cracked in the kiln but the third was fine. The person points at the ok mug mug and says "Is this the one that survived?" and at that SAME instant the mug shattered. No lie.

Grog, The seperation of the cracks are just over 1/8 of an inch...not sure that's do-able?

R.

I hope you don't mind me commenting here, but I thought those were really nice glazes. I showed my wife your cracked and broken mugs and asked her what she thought might have caused it. She taught ceramics for many years and fired her kiln thousands of times with poorly made student projects. She said the only time she ever saw that was when one of her gang snuck in a piece that they had glazed on greenware. No mater how dry greenware seems to be, there is always trapped moisture. I checked back earlier in your post and could not tell if you had bisque fired first. Please ignore this comment if you think it dumb. I just thought those glazes were really cool and it was a shame to lose them ..... Gene

Did you fire at the right temperature? Glaze fire is cooler than bisque fire.

Thanks Gene and Grog! I appreciate any and all help! I did bisque fire them first and they looked perfect to me at that point. I bisque ired at 04 then fired at 05 for the glazes. Grog you have me wondering now....maybe I accidentally slipped in a cone 02? But would that be reason enough for the third mug to explode after it sat on my counter for a few hours? I do keep the house pretty cool....

I won a rare mug on eBay. It was really old. We were standing next to it months later and heard a ping. We looked at each other and picked it up. Sure enough a crack ran down its side. We decided it was because the air conditioner turned on and was blowing on it. Sudden change of temperature on a thin mug. It couldn't handle the stress. So one more thing to add to the list!

Wendy

The official term is "Dunting", here is what Babalu had to say about dunting several years back

*Hey guys,

I've had this happen before too. Glaze will continue to cure long after it has been fired. Dunting could be the cause when you see long vertical cracks like this. I have seen where this will happen when there is a thicker layer of glaze on the bottom inside of the mug than are on the inside walls. Anyway the below is a short explanation that I pulled off of the Internet:

Dunting
This is a special type of crack which occurs from stresses caused during firing and cooling.
This stress primarily occurs during two critical points of firing called silica inversions which occur at 1063¢ª F or 573¢ª C and 439¢ª F or 226¢ª C.
At these inversion points, the structure of the silica molecules rearranges.
It is important to fire slowly through these two temperatures and electronic kiln profiles often do this for you automatically while they are heating.
Most dunting however is caused during cooling.
These cracks appear as long, clean, body cracks with sharp edges.
If the pottery or ceramic is glazed, the glaze edges are sharp.
They can be vertical, horizontal or spiral.

There are three main reasons why cooling dunts occur.
The first occurs as you cool through the first silica inversion at 1063¢ª F.
At this inversion the body contracts suddenly.
The more silica, quartz, in the body, the more contraction.
Since different parts of the pottery or ceramic reach this temperature at different times, it doesn't all contract together and that causes stress which can crack.
Take for example a tall pot.
The top will cool much faster than the bottom, because the bottom has the whole temperature of the kiln shelf keeping it warm.
The top will cool faster than the bottom, causing a crack around the bottom wall.

The second occurs as you cool through the 439¢ª F inversion.
A similar thing happens as above.
But, pottery and ceramic artists sometimes like to open their kilns at about this temperature to see their pieces and this will make it much worse.

The third type of cooling dunt occurs months or even years after firing.
Sometimes the pottery or ceramic might split right in half after three months.
This is usually the result of thermal shock.
In this case the clay and glaze expand at different rates when exposed to temperature variations and this change causes the object to crack.
To be more specific, the body contracts more than the glaze.
If the glaze is weaker it will shiver.
If the clay is weaker the object will crack. *

Thanks Mike, for that info!

I purchased a PCB-1 controller for my kiln. Wonder if you guys have any experience with one. You plug the kiln into it then it into the outlet. It is designed to speed up or slow down firing times by restricting the power to the kiln (turning it on and off) and is mainly for fats firing automatic kilns, which is what I have.

Gonna fire up again this weekend! I'll keep you posted.

Finally have a mold and the first cast of The Stowaway mug! Still battling these Mars Attacks aliens so updates may be sporadic!

Nice Robert! Bold detailing. I'm interested in seeing how that controller works, I'd like to convert my kiln to auto

Thanks Mike. Actually from what I know about your kiln this is basically the type of controller you already have. It's an infinite control switch. Here's the link. I got it cheaper through TheCeramicStore.com

http://www.paragonweb.com/PCB.cfm

Love the barrel. Very cool. Wendy

Yeah, I looked at it after I posted and it's not what I need. I need one of these but they all cost 3x more than I paid for my kiln :lol:

http://www.bigceramicstore.com/kilns/kiln-parts/controllers.html

UGH! That sucks! Sorry to hear about all the cracking and breaking Zero! I really don't know how you "clay" guys do it, I could not have the patience of having my work disintegrate before me like that. I hope the next ones turn out better.

Thanks Wendy, Mike and Tiger! Appreciate the visits and comments to the thread!

I hope to glaze and refire by the end of the week. In the meantime, thought I'd share a couple of Mars Attacks cards I've done. I am doing quite a bit of cards...so it was inevitable that some Tiki themed cards would enter the mix!

Anyone wanting to follow the process please head over to my facebook page and click LIKE at the top of the page:

https://www.facebook.com/TikiTower

Tiki Tower
The Art of Robert Jimenez
http://www.tikitower.com

[ Edited by: zerostreet 2013-08-19 17:24 ]

If we keep landing on their planet this is going to happen. It's just too conceited to think we are alone in this universe. I think it would be fun to share your cards with them. Cheers, Wendy

On 2013-08-20 07:44, danlovestikis wrote:
If we keep landing on their planet this is going to happen. It's just too conceited to think we are alone in this universe. I think it would be fun to share your cards with them. Cheers, Wendy

I don't know Wendy! I don't think I'd get anywhere near them Martians! :D

Well...it happened again....I successfully bisque fired 3 moai mugs. Glazed them. Waited a day then fired them. A day later, the kiln completely cooled. I opened the lid to find them all split. Googling the issue I found that possibly I'm laying the glaze too thick? Either that or my kiln is cooling way too fast. The splits are razor sharp and I've read that if that is the case the split occured after the glaze was set. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

These are going in the kiln tomorrow morning....Let's hope for the best! :D

Well that's a bummer. I've always cast my mugs thick. About 1/4 inch thick. I believe thick is harder to crack.

I've always cooled the kiln down for 24 or more hours before opening which means the temperature was under 130 degrees. Never open the kiln if it is hotter than that.

I've only had one bowl crack and suspected it was because the glaze was too thick. We bought a Bowana bowl with a cracked inside and it looked like the glaze was thick. I re-fired it today with even more glaze to see if I could get it to heal. I'll let you know how that turns out.

I've got my fingers cross for your barrels which are wonderful.

Wendy