Wendy Cevola - Zombie Hut movie and Sven's new book on display.

Wow Wendy! Great job again! I am starting to play with some clay and hope to make something cool! HOPE! and MORE HOPE!

Holy crud
Freekin amazzzzzing
They are all awesome
Ya knocked it out of the park with that Bob lineup

The Wendy n Dan show is up for an Oscar or two...

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2012-06-11 21:35 ]

What a fun morning to wake up too.
Thank you
Danno
VampiressRN
McTiki
little lost tiki
Professor G
MurphDog
Sandra Dee
Tavarua Tiki
bavtech
and hang10tiki (I love being photo-shopped)

You all made my day. I'm so happy right now I can't stop smiling.

Today we will box and ship and send out totals to each of you who will now own the mugs and bowls. I do this on a trust system. We ship and then send the bill. I've never been let down. Tiki people rock.

Now I'll be spending time with my family. Some from as far away as Dillon Montana, imagine that.

Next up will be the two paintings. Did you see that little lost tiki has finished both of his and they are terrific. Very soon I'll be back to work.

Cheers, Wendy

Congrats on the awards Dan & Wendy! :lol: Jon, you're too funny

Wow! That batch of mugs turned out awesome!

I could see a better idea of the color of my Bob mug from the picture of it still in the kiln, and it looks great! I can't wait to see it, and my Zombie Torch, in person!

Thanks, and hope you have a great family reunion!

Enjoy the family reunion guys! You deserve a break from all your hard work. So many great Bobs! That creature mug is stunning! And I love the green on the leafy mug. Well done, as usual!

Hi Friends, I'm happy to announce that the tikis that I sculpted for Roge's chunk lamps are now available as statues. He'll also make them in a color of your choice. Please check them out on his Etsy site listed below.

Only $14.50 each
https://www.etsy.com/listing/101912563/easter-island-moai-statue-with-base-cast

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101912563/easter-island-moai-statue-with-base-cast

LoriLovesTiki where is my photo of you with your Bob mug? I hope you'll share. Meanwhile your words here just iced my cake!

Here is dartharnie with his Zombie Torch mug and the Frankenstein's Bob mug. You gotta love these photos. I do. Thank you Derek for sending them so I could add them here.

Well my family time is starting in the morning. I'll be hugging lots of people who mean something to me, gee that sounds like our tiki events. Isn't it amazing how many friends we make through tiki and how it enhances our lives.

I'll be back soon. Hugs, Wendy

Those would look awesome set over a lighted box so that they glowed!

On 2012-06-12 17:59, MadDogMike wrote:

Those would look awesome set over a lighted box so that they glowed!

Uh oh Wendy I can hear MDM's wheels in his brain turning from here!

Yep
I heard it too

Sorry for the delay. Had major computer problems. All fixed (knock on wood).

Here are the photos Wendy sent me. The Bob is greyer (almost ghostly white) than the pictures, but I can't compliment her enough. I love it and can't wait for the next wishlist. My daughters fight over the mug, but luckily I get veto power and have filled it with several zombies already.

Hi Wendy,

I have to break my TC silence to sing your praises! I am so pleased with what you have made for my requests and I’m just thrilled to add the three pieces to my collection! The Bob bowl is spectacular and the leafy Bob is simply a master work of art. The Pac-Man Bob shows that you can tackle anything that’s thrown your way and give even the EXTREMELY off topic late-century idea your own special mid-century flair! I can’t wait to study all your careful work in person and bring these guys back to their new home. Thanks so much for all your exceptional work and your unbelievable commitment to sharing with the community; it is so very appreciated!!!

Sean

I loooove the frankie!
YAY!
~Zero

Frank rocks

Wendy my Dad loved his mug (like there was ever any doubt) so thank you very much!!

Sadly I know he wont ever get a photo of himself using it so we will have to use our imagination.

Words cant express how lucky I am to have you and Dan as friends xoxoxo

Hi Wendy!
Love the Missionary Downfall altar bowl and lovely vahine! I will send a picture soon! Thanks again!

Got a package in the mail yesterday! It felt just like Chritmas. Wendy the "Creature" mug is phenomenal. So much detail, and the glazing is fantastic. Thanks so much for turning a crazy idea into a wonderful work of art. Pictures to come...

Hello Friends, thank you for keeping my thread alive while we were gone. We had a terrific trip to Oregon for a small family reunion. Here are a few of my favorite photos.
Dan cleaning the windshield on the way. That's Mt. Shasta in the background still covered with snow.

My brother-in-law Steve making dinner. He's a fine cook.

Time to eat, the mad rush.

Nephew Jonny, me, great-niece Michelle and her love Jerry.

Great nephew Jason his friend and my nephew Jonny all playing.

Next night buffet with my sister Gloria and her grand daughter Michelle and Jerry.

This is Grant's Pass Oregon outside of the Taprock restaurant.

We searched Medford, Grant's Pass, Rouge River and Jacksonville for tikis and this is all we found but we were happy.
We think this is from the Solomon Islands.

This is made of paper. We hope its PNG but it could be African.

No markings on this tiki but he is new for Dan's collection.

Before Dan and I left we mailed off all of the boxes. I took these photos first.

It finally occurred to me that having a photo of them all together after glazing would be fun.




To the post office with all the loot.

First thing when we got home I ran to read all of your posts. I enjoyed every single one of them from;
MadDogMike
SandraDee times 2
hang10tiki times 2
dartharnie thank you so much for more photos, that makes my day
BaconSM I've read that post a lot of times. I wish my thank yous would let you and everyone know how much it means to me to have these here.
Danno and Tavarua Tiki I am so happy you are going to post photos. Thank you both so much.

Dan and I worked on Spanish while riding in the car. It took me a lot of hours to learn the days of the week and numbers by ten. It just tells me that I need to exercise that part of my brain. Dan's far ahead of me on the Rosetta Stone program but look what he ran into for the word Statue.

We poured mugs once we got home and now it is time to pour out the excess slip. Dan's calling so I'm signing off. Again, thank you all so much, Wendy

Wow Wendy, what a impressive lineup!
Thanks for thinking to snap that!

The tiki bob graduating class picture, off the see the world!

That group shot of all the Bobs together looks great. It would be good to see a composition photo of every Bob you've made so far. I'm sure there'd be quite a few now. Nice work Wendy.

Glad you had a great trip Wendy. I'm outta here in half an hour - talk to ya when I get back :)

Glad u had a fun safe trip

Glad you had a safe & happy family reunion, Wendy. They can be so much fun. My family has been having them every summer since my Dad passed away.

The Diamondhead Bob was waiting on my front porch when I got home from work today. Give my thanks to Dan for the exemplary packing job, that puppy was safe and sound!

My better half is out of the town at the moment, and the cats were uninterested in helping me get a picture of myself and my new treasure. So I hope these will suffice.

This one is a really good example of what I really love about the carved Bobs -- the way the glaze gets into the grooves and really makes the texture POP!

Bob didn't waste any time finding a party.

ooooh, need to top off that volcano lamp...

I'm really impressed with the sculpt you did on Diamondhead on the back. A fantastic mug all around, thank you!

nb - both pics from my crappy old iPhone -- goes to show how sensitive those are to having enough light.

Hi Friends, it is always good to get home and back into the routine that we enjoy so much.

Thank you:
Philot for posting photos. I'd love one more with you and the back of the mug showing.
Tavarua Tiki see you in August.
Swizzle - I wish I could photo-shop a set. Some had shipped before I thought of the line up.
MadDogMike off playing I know we'll miss him for awhile.
hang10tiki always my rock
Kele sorry for your loss, family is important, I'm happy you all get together too.

Yesterday I opened the molds. My goal is to pour enough green-ware to cover a Wish List of projects. So as soon as I have finished my two paintings I should have enough Bob's etc already to customize and I'll open up for orders.

Pre clean up.

After clean up and ready to plastic wrap to store.

Pouring the next set.

I do more thinking than painting. Here I printed photos of McTiki's tiki in different sizes to see how they look on my painting.

I selected the smallest.

See Philot I take blurry photos too! Here I have outlined the tiki with black ink.

Now I fill in the outline with a mix of black and dark brown paint.

All that thinking wore me out so now it was time for dinner and TV.

Today I'll open those molds again. Now that the hot weather is here we carry all the molds outside and put them in the sun. That way I'm able to pour them more often.

Thanks for stopping by, Wendy

W
Lookin good
Great choice on McTikis Tiki
It's going to fit right into your painting

Good morning friends.
Thank you hang10tiki like you McTiki is a friend. That makes it fun to add in his art to mine.

Yesterday morning another successful run of mugs cleaned up and stored.

The heavy molds were carried out to dry in the California sun around 10:30 am.

At 4:30 pm they were dry and brought back in and prepped for pouring. Everywhere I know there is a leak I fill it with sticky clay.

We filled four molds. On the shelf above are the Bob's being stored for the next Wish List.

Later when we went to pour out the excess slip I found that one of the molds had leaked out half of the slip. So I thought I would plug the opening and flip over the mold to let it sit so that the top half could catch up.

I flipped it over.

Horrors I had not plugged the top well enough and rest of the slip poured out. Oh well it could have worked.

Making ceramics is messy, very messy. The best part is that during the summer the water clean up is not freezing cold. Time for Brawny.

Now for the Spy/Tiki Oasis painting. The first thing I realized was the the light source needed to be reversed. So I can't copy his tiki I have to re-think all the light coming from the left. I've not fixed it well enough so what you see is just the start. Lighter paint on the left and darker on the right. Nothing here is finished.

The hands probably show the reverse lighting the best.

Next I added the chest, lips and nose.

Psycho Tiki D is coming here today to pick up some ceramic orders from the Wish List so I better get ready. There are Bob's waiting to be cleaned up too. We have a daily schedule to make this work.

Thanks for the visit, Wendy

Wendy... Check out this new item I got off ebay. A brown WAR GOD MUG! Definately Time to get a new shelf for your stuff.

Wow! Thank you Wendy & Dan!

Among the Bobs that I have, yours is by far the best of em.

I'll shoot you another pic when I recover the subject Tiki from a local surf shop.

Awesomeness!

Mahalo

McTiki

bavtech and McTiki your photos just made my day. Thank you both and everyone else who fill my Wish List for photos. It's hard to say goodbye to the art I've made and these photos and comments make it so much easier.

Yesterday Psycho Tiki D came to pick up his orders. I never was able to make the Missionary's Downfall Bowl he wanted but he took the woman who caused all the problems. He got a Bumatay Bowl and a Zombie Torch mug that I'd made for Dan. Dan changed his mind on the color he wanted so sold!

I ran out of prepped slip for casting Bob's. The slip comes too thick to use.

Each jar is poured into a big bowl.

I mix it with water until it is just right and then we split it into 2 jars. With the jars only half full it is easy to shake them up before pouring through he strainer to use. Notice the drip Dan caught in the photo as it came off my thumb.

This many jars will last a week and then it is back to mucking it up.

When the Bob's come out of the molds I keep them in a big plastic bag until I clean them up.

Remember the leaky mold. Well when the Bob came out it was just thinner one inch at the top so I added clay.

Next I smoothed it out. Mug saved!

I finished roughing out the parts of the tiki. These are "place holders". Now I'll work on making it look like McTikis' tiki.

Now its back to work, Wendy

workworkworkworkwork!
You are the busiest bee around Wendy!

the spy painting is gonna ROCK when it's done!
i like the tiki you're working on there now!
and sooooo many Bobs!
Crazy good my dear!
:)

Kenny I've been told that you work non-stop on your art so thank you for thinking I do too. You are such a dear heart and good friend. I'm a very slow painter. I have to think more than paint. Hugs in August.

Roge has been hard at work making lamps and statues. He and Miguel came up with a round style lamp and we bought one. Dan just got it hung.

We also brought home a new Bumatay Sea-life lamp for the Buzzy Bedroom.


My favorite is the little puffer at the bottom. I told him making it into a necklace would be fun. He may make some nightlights. I'll let you know if this happens.

From lights to paintings I take some pretty poor photos.
This one shows the tiki blocked in.

I almost finished the tiki. I checked the light source and

darkened the side of the eye on the right. Later I'll add cracks and a bit of wood grain.

Now I'll stop on this painting for a while and get started on the Hapi Tiki painting for the Elroy Art show which is in conjunction with Kon Tiki. Photos soon.

Time to pour more Bob's.

I'm getting a good number on the shelf.

Dan put on Hawaiian War Chant music while we worked and he went nuts. He was slinging slip and over pouring. I had to whack him with the rubber mallet to get him to slow down. Cleaning up the slip mess is my job. Next time we pour it will be soothing hula music.

Kenny work work work means fun fun fun. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-06-22 08:14 ]

Wendy, Making Mugs! and Painting, And more Mugs!
always fun to check in on your thread.

Yay!

Atomic Tiki Punk and Babalu thank you for checking up on my progress. It won't be long before I see you both at Oasis.

Dan and I have been so fortunate to have made so many friends through tiki that it changed our lives. For most of our marriage we went to work and came home. We didn't go to parties or socialize. Tiki opened up the world for us and we have met the best people ever here and in our local tiki community. Thank you all for becoming friends that we treasure.

Tiki Oasis 12 has a Spy theme this year so I decided to hold back one of my projects as a secret. Now that I'm working on paintings, that's slow work for me, I'm ready to share my secret with all of you to keep these pages from becoming boring.

To start I will share the history that goes with these projects.Then over the next few days you'll see some ceramics I've made for Dan and what I will make available by way of the next Wish List.

If you are familiar with my Gallery page and page one of this thread you will be familiar with the photos I'm going to share here. I feel the need to put them all together into a story. One that to this day gives me joy.

Dan became a tiki collector after reading an issue of Otto's Tiki News. As he built his collection he would ask me to repair chips. Later that progressed to "I love this mug but they never made a bowl to match. Can you make one"?

That started the ShouldHaveBeen series of bowls I made in Sculpey Clay. A great way to learn tiki sculpting.

One of the first bowls I made for Dan was using the Frankoma Tiki mug design.

No molds just hand built so you can see the difference between one tiki and the next.

Traveling Jones who had lived in Oklahoma gave me the address for Jonice Frank of Frankoma Pottery. She was the original designer/sculptor for her father's company. She was the artist who did the Frankoma tiki line that we all love. The War God belonged to her. This is one of her original mugs.

For fun I sent a photo of the bowl I'd made for Dan to Jonice. To my great delight she called me. A friendship developed that lasts to this day. As a gift she gave me the copy write to the Frankoma Tiki line.

Since I was not a ceramisist I hooked up with Gecko to create the War God. I sculpted it and Gecko made molds and produced the mugs and banks.

I was so thrilled to have this in production that we bought a whole bunch of them and kept Gecko busy.

Next up came as a suggestion from Traveling Jones. He said why not make a Geckoma mug. One half the War God and one half Gecko'z trademarks. So I sculpted that and Gecko worked hard to make them into ceramics.

Now I've got to get to work so the next part of this story will come tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by during your weekend. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-06-23 12:34 ]

I LOVE history lessons! Especially ones involving tiki.

Thank you so much and here's a photo for you. My Bumatay is so cool!

Always check your thread out Wendy...and it typically has amazing things. Love the history info.

Wendy 101
Great class

WestADad, thank you so much for the photo. I'm glad to see the Bumatay necklace fits. Is your dog named Wishbone? He has such perfect coloring.

VampiressRN even though we are not together we are having a visit here. You make me happy.

hang10tiki I love visiting your threads too so keep posting often.

Now it is time to continue my personal Frankoma story.

I'd like you to meet Jonice Frank. Her First name is pronounced like her father's name John. She is shown her with one of her sculptures. She is both a master sculptor and a master mold maker.

Just go to eBay and bring up Frankoma and you will see the massive amount of creations made by this artistic family.

Both Jonice and I have a deep love of clay and what it can become. This photo was taken just before she sent the statue on the right to my home. I treasure both the statue and our friendship.

As I have shown on page one of this thread tragedy struck Frankoma pottery. There was a fire that destroyed not only the building but every single mold that they had made.

This is Jonice looking through the rubble.

Only the sign was left standing after all the debris was removed.

The factory was rebuilt and for many years to come ceramics were made but the tiki line was gone. Not many had been produced to begin with but now they had become such a treasure that the eBay wars had begun.

While Gecko worked on producing ceramics of the War God and Geckoma I continued working with sculpey clay. I wanted to reproduce the giant sized Frankoma War God and the Frankoma small tiki bowl for Dan's collection.

This photo is from a magazine called Pot and Puma put out by a Frankoma collectors guild. This is the Tiki Collection by Jonice Frank.

A friend of ours Joanne had both of these War God mugs and I photographed them at her home.

Another friend had a photo of the rare bowl.

I will continue this story tomorrow. Meanwhile here's what we have been up to.

I've finished pouring enough big Bob's for the next wish list. When ever I come across an air bubble at the top of a mug I dig it out as shown on the left. The tiny size of this hole is decieving. It can never be filled with glaze to hide it.

So dig it out and fill it with clay and smooth.

Now that the big Bob's are done we put those molds to storage and got out all the small Bob's and the bowl mold and the Bumatay molds. Now we'll continue to pour until I have a few of these ready for the next Wish List.

All of these are waiting for me today. I need to open them and to clean up the casts. There's always work waiting.

I started the priming (painting with Gesso) of the canvas for the Elroy Art painting. I'll work on it now while the Oasis painting rests. I need a rest too.

Until next time, Wendy

Just one of many things to love about the Cevola Experience is this: you not only get to be on the happiest thread on TC and you not only have the opportunity to get a beautiful work of art or two or three (or four), but Wendy builds you a bridge to some of the artistic individualists of Tiki's history, such as Frankoma, Bumatay, and the styling of Tiki Bob's.

Amazing.

On 2012-06-24 10:11, Professor G wrote:

Amazing.

Ditto. Wendy, that's my pup Lily, I never noticed the wishbone before.

Looking forward to more Bob progress, have a great week.

Wendy, I love the history lesson and your involvement in the story. I'm so glad you were able to befriend Jonice and that she gave you permission to the Frankoma line, what an honor. The War Gods are amazing and that bowl is phenomenal! Can't wait for the next episode...

I finished the next episode and then before I hit submit the computer froze and I lost it all. Now I've re-booted so here goes again. I may just save it after each step.

Professor G it is such fun for me to share each step of my journey but only because people think it is good enough to watch and post remarks. Thank you for yours.

WestADad I've decided that it is a tuning fork instead of a wish bone. Either way your Lily is a beauty.

Tavaura Tiki Joniece and I can talk clay because we both love it and that's a bond that can't be broken.

Please computer let me do this...

We are still working on making green ware for the next wish list. We finished 32 Big Bobs but I think Dan's got four mugs on his wish list that I will make to pay him for all of his work.

Now we have started pouring bowls and small Bobs. The small Bobs take a lot of clean up steps. The bowl too. I finally figured out how to open the bowl mold without it sticking and falling. I get Dan to lift off the pieces while I hold it in place.

Now I'll save this before starting the Frankoma/Cevola history story.

Heck, I just checked and none of the Frankoma post is showing up here. Later today I'll try a third time to put up the next part of the story. Wendy

Thanks Wendy, Love the history part to!

Thank you Atomic Tiki Punk. I'm going to try to put it up now.

Some of this story is on page one but since I want to keep it all together now I'm duplicating some information.

The Frankoma/Cevola Story continues...

Dan wanted me to make another Frankoma Tiki Bowl. I got out the photos of the small tiki and went to work.

I kept Joniece informed of my project by sending her photos. During one of our conversations she said, "I've sent you something special, when it arrives call me".

When Frankoma burnt to the ground it was such a loss. All the molds were destroyed and all the green ware on the shelves waiting to fire were gone. Everything except one small tiki that Joniece found among the rubble. It had survived the fire. This is what she sent to me. A precious treasure.

This tiki would have been one for a bowl because there were no salt or pepper holes in the top. Now that I had a real one I could see how far off the one I'd made from photos was.

I finished my bowl and Dan has it in his collection.

Far view.

Kingstiedye a friend we see every few months or so directed us to Mike a master mold maker. If I could make molds then we could become ceramicists. Mike wanted us to bring something that we could mold in two pieces.

If I brought this precious Frankoma tiki I could bring it back to life.

This is Mike and Dan.

Here is the little tiki being molded.

Here are a couple of finished tiki statues.

Here is the only bowl I've made so far.

What's up next? Check in for the Dan and Wendy show tomorrow morning!!!

I need a Dan and Wendy button on my remote...