MadDog Mike's Platterful of Pupule - El Tiki/Ben Wilson Wall Finished

Thank you Jon
Thought you guys might want to see Christmas in the Pirate Ship Tree House with Captain Santa :)

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-01-15 19:07 ]

Ahoy Captain Santa!

Very nice.

Mike, your piece for the album cover art swap is out of control! Very nice work!

U 1 KraZy Mo Fo Bruddah Mad Dog

Your upsetting the status quo, Mike!

You are a wonderful grandpa. Wendy

Love Captain Santa!!

Awesome
Merry Xmas Mike

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2013-12-25 06:54 ]

Great card, Mike! I saw that one online and wanted to replicate it but was too lazy.

Very well done. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Very cool captain Santa and card, you guys rock! All the best to all of you, in this new year :)

Thanks guys :)

I am a religious man and I believe the Bible admonition against worshiping idols. I don't worry much about Tikis because there is not really anyone worshiping them. But I felt a little uneasy when I went to make a Ganesh oil lamp for a Hindu friend. I am pretty careful about joining clay and seldom have kiln explosions. When the first Ganesh exploded in the kiln I figured it was a coincidence. But when the second one exploded I decided it was a sign. I won't be trying again :)

Number 1

Number 2

But I did try an experiment that worked out fairly well. I like to use Styrofoam shapes for slump molds, they work will but can be a bit rough in texture and need to be coated with tissue prior to each use. I took my Styrofoam form and covered it with plaster impregnated gauze (cast material), worked really well. It smoothed out the foam, eliminated the need for tissue, and the plaster helped absorb water from the clay.

You put a lot of work into those elephants. I hope your friend knew how much you wanted to do this for him.
Those tiny air bubbles that explode are what Tiki Hula and I are dreading with his AL DEAD bowl. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-01-03 00:13 ]

I noticed my last few posts haven't been very "Tiki", this one isn't any better. I am making these foam animals for a water wells for Africa fundraiser display. Warthog & gerenuk are about 2 1/2 feet long. Elephant is 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, his trunk will sway with help from an oscillating fan.



Edit to add the finished scene

The painted background is not mine (I can't paint :) ) The water is the pond is intentionally "muddy" to dramatize the need for clean deep wells in Uganda instead of polluted groundwater

But, the warthog has inspired me for a slightly more "Tiki" project for the Headhunter Harbor; I want to try a more permanent concrete over foam sculpture of a lying boar to hide away in a corner of my tropical garden. Scratched and stained concrete should make cool pig skin but not such great eyes or tusks. So I want to try to make those out of glazed clay, embed them in the foam, and concrete around them.

Anyone have any experience in concrete over foam?

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-01-15 19:09 ]

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-01-17 06:39 ]

Again the wild n KraZy mind of the Mad Dog hard at work

Awesome bruddah

Jon

Great idea- I haven't poured any concrete over foam, though I knew someone that sprayed Rhino Lining over foam for sculptures and it worked really well. I'd try some small tests, but I wonder how the weight of the concrete would work on top of the lightweight foam....

Thanks Dave and Jon :)

Dave, I know they do concrete or thinset or something over foam for mosaic sculpture but I've just never tried it. My son in law used to own a Line-X dealership and I had access to FREE Line-X but he sold the business. It works awesome over foam but it ain't cheap.

Rhino lining ain't cheap either.... concrete would be inexpensive to try out... and I'm sure we're all curious if it would work. Actually, I remember someone using concrete over foam in the carving forum a while back? (Maybe in Australia?) I might be remembering something wholly different, though....

Dave's right. When I was researching making concrete tikis for my backyard I saw someone who had put concrete over carved Styrofoam or something very similar.

I just saw the boar on FB so I know you were successful. I need to repair a giant tiki flowerpot I bought at Christmas Tree Shops that has since cracked. I was going to ask you for repair suggestions Mike.

Dan was looking over my shoulder and said, "that guy is always creating art", so true, that's a wonderful bunch of animals. You are so good. Wendy

Thanks ladies :)

I've been taking lots of step-by-step pictures and will post them when my piggie is done, hopefully this weekend. Started with the foam sculpture, added a couple of coats of mortar mix, next a coat or two of concrete vinyl patch with some pigment. Hopefully it will work :D

The Polynesian Feral Pig (Sus scrofa) seen here in it's adopted tropical habitat. He looks a bit uneasy, maybe he has heard rumor that he is to be the "guest of honor" at the next luau :lol:

I decided I wanted a near-life-sized boar in my tropical garden. A ceramic sculpture would have been a fun challenge for me with lots of texturing and glazing opportunities. But I don't have access to a kiln 3 feet long so I decided on concrete over foam with ceramic tusks and eyes. Years ago I picked up a truckload of free Styrofoam blocks and made a vertical heated wire cutter and a horizontal heated wire cutter to work with it. I started with four blocks of foam, each 6x6x34 inches.

I'm not so good at freehanding such things, so I found 3D CAD images of a boar a gridded it out onto the foam blocks.

I cut it out with the heated wire.

Cut all four pieces and glued them together.

Then took a SurForm rasp and finished sculpting the shape. The ceramic tusks and eyes each have a large peg formed onto them to embed them into the Styrofoam.

Here's where I veered off into uncharted waters having never done concrete sculpture before. I mixed up some mortar mix to the consistency of a thick milkshake and started spreading it on the foam (in the kitchen of course :lol: ) It covered the horizontal surfaces easily (back & top of head) but was difficult to make it stick to the sides. I ended up just smearing it on the sides, enough to get a thin coating. After this mortar was set, I applied another layer. The next layer was easier to apply, the dry rough concrete of the previous coat allowed the second coat to stick better. I used the second layer to build up some details on the face. Total thickness of the mortar mix was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

After the mortar mix cured for a day, I put on a final coat to smooth and color the boar. I used Quikcrete Vinyl Patching Compound which contains very fine sand and adhesion additives. I added 1/4 cup of Quikrete Charcoal Liquid Cement Color to 8 cups of the dry mix and enough water to make a thin slurry, about the consistency of cream of wheat. I spread it on with my hands then used a large paint brush to smooth it out. After the patching mix had set for a little while, I used a stiff brush to make some hair texture on the top of the head and down the middle of the back.

At some point I will put a concrete sealer on it. Since the pigment is embedded in the concrete and the ceramic is glazed he should look good in my garden for years to come

Edit - updated top picture

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-02-09 08:18 ]

Wow! That's pretty impressive Mike!

you....are....a...MADMAN!

you always bring the BEST out of the most unlikely materials!
YOU would be the innovative individual one needs on a deserted island
Hands down!

Mike! you are so ultra creative it's "ridiculi", that's the plural of ridiculous.

Thanks for the step by steps! U da man!

Awesome. I'm with Ken- you're always welcome in my camp when it's "that" time... :)

Impressive work, as always, I'm sure it'll be a hit.

I am always amazed at all you can do. Wendy

Well seen it on facebook Mike, and it still looking cool :) You schuld do a lot more off these

Great work MadDog, always interesting, never boaring.

never boaring,,
Get it ??
Yo piggy.
I'll dig the pit,
can you smell what's roasting ?

Spring starts March 20th. But here on the Anvil of the Sun Summer starts on April 1st, so we have 11 days for outdoor entertainment. I have been doing some upgrade work to the Headhunter Harbor. I had made a Headhunter mosaic end table several months ago so I made a matching one.

I had some outdoor wireless speakers that worked well but they were black shiny plastic and didn't blend in well. I built some covers for them with wood frames and fabric sides to allow the sound to come out, they fit just right under the tables. Because the tiles around the headhunters are glass, I figured some uplighting under the tables would be cool so I made a place on top of the speaker covers for some LED "hockey puck" lights.

The propane fire pit on my Guardians of the Flame table went bad and I couldn't find a suitable replacement. The hole in the table was specifically made for this fire pit so I salvaged the metal bowl and made a 3 wick Tiki torch out of copper pipe fittings, a piece of old road sign, and a Mason jar. It’s makes a nice small bonfire flame.

Picked up a cheesy plastic flamingo at Lowes and repainted it to look a bit more realistic. I also redid my "fish condo". The support for the upside down vase was a piece of PVC pipe but it was very visible. I replaced it with a clear acrylic support that looks much better

A bit of jungle trimming and some fresh flowers planted, I'm ready for my brief window of opportunity :)

WEll worth the wait MadDogMike. Keep it up and keep posting. You've been missed. Wendy

MDM cannot be stopped! Love the added table, fire upgrade, and... well... everything. Fish condo looks great- can they get some air/ filtration in there? Don't want them to boil over!

Things are warming up here slowly, I can only imagine out there... :wink:

Love those tables :)

You are so crafty Mike!

Cool tables mad one
I love the one I got from u in da art swap

Jon

As you can see he was delighted with your birthday card. Thank you always, Wendy

Mike, you always amaze me. Great idea with the under-table lighting! Love what you did to the firepit table. I think I prefer that to a propane flame.

• Dale

Holy Cow!
i just came across this thread yesterday.
needless to say i haven't accomplished much in the last 2 days.
131 pages of pure genius.
got to see ya learn how to work mud, have grandkids, sew, and build trailers and pirate ships, just to name a few things.
cant wait to see whats next and hope to someday have one of your mugs in my collection.
in fact i might even say you've inspired me, along with wendy, to take a ceramics class at the local college.
thanks for that.

I love the way you tackle projects Mike! and that birthday card for Dan was terrific!!

Keep the creativity coming!

YOU,Sir,are a Piece of Work!
Looking forward to seeing you at Mojave,old chum!
Love that Boar
and those tables....
you never cease to amaze,Mike!

You can't be more creative, no you can't, no no no no no,
Look at Dan's face! haha, I'm telling you, you can't,
people is going to explode if you insist hahah!
awesome work as always.
all the best to you Mike, cheers!

Wow, I love what you're doing with the place!

Top 'o the St Paddy's morn to ya!
Since today is opening (and closing) day of the one day Leprechaun Trapping season, I thought I would give it a go. If you Google "Leprechaun Trap" you will find many similar traps but I don't think that design is effective because none of them show any Leprechauns that they trapped. So I decided to take a more direct approach. Knowing that 2 of a Leprechaun's weaknesses are 4 leaf clovers and Bailey's Irish Cream, I set a trap with a four leaf clover as bait and drenched it in Baileys. Then I set it in the garden last night with a trail of Bailey's leading up to it.

And this morning look what I found:

Unfortunately, a dead Leprechaun won't tell you where his pot of gold is :( May have to try something else next year.

:lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol: :D
Just a quick polymer clay sculpture, I didn't spend much time on it so it's not all that well done.

David, Liz, Jon, Clara, Lori & Lori - Thank you very much.
Wendy - Glad Dan enjoyed his card.
Dale - The oil flame is more raw and primitive than the propane, and larger too. But the oil flame is too smoky and sooty to use for S'mores & such.
Muskrat - I have seen your work and you are no slouch in the genius department. Hope the ceramic class works out for you, the one I took has opened the door to years of ceramic enjoyment.

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2014-03-17 07:11 ]

U 1 KraZy mo fo
:) :) :)

Been busy working on a wedding and a big set decoration project so I haven't done any ceramics lately. But I spent 5 days in Mexico last week and I'm not very good at sitting still so I took a molded skull with me. I had made this trophy skull for the Cannibal Art Swap last summer

It was one of my favorite projects and I'm still bitter that I had to trade it away (just kidding Kinny :wink: ) So I decided to make a new one for me. Needed to do some "mud engineering" because I'm making this one differently. On the last one, the bamboo stake was ceramic and part of the mug so it could only sit on the stand. I have made a tunnel through this one so it can be impaled on a stake or sit flat on the table. I also made a separate chamber behind the eyes and nose so that dry ice smoke can come out of those holes



I think I will do a similar glaze to the last one, Amaco Opalescent over Velvet - I like that look :)

You make the best stuff you creative wizard. Wendy

Very cool MDM. Your last one was great so i look forward to seeing how this one turns out.