VanTiki Mugs: Octopus Time Lapse

What, no pictures?:(

I would love to see a before and after, good blue bad blue.

On 2007-11-01 17:59, teaKEY wrote:
What, no pictures?:(

I would love to see a before and after, good blue bad blue.

You got it! Ladies and Gentlemen of the Tiki Committee - allow me to present: Mt. MonkeyBusiness! An illuminated 2-stage mug. 1st floor: Tiki Lamp. 2nd floor: Volcanic shot glass with secret skull emblem. Cool blue monkey velvet with a molten fire interior!

I'll get some shots of him glowing away tomorrow morning. I can't tell you how cool he looks lit up! :) And teaKEY just for you here is a glimpse of the 1st glaze that I hated:

ew!

Mahalo for peeking -

Henrik "VanTiki"

[ Edited by: VanTiki 2007-11-02 20:30 ]

Cool. Grape ape, or should I say blue gorilla. I have to say the skull under the cap is a nice touch. I've been doing that sort of stuff from the first tiki. Its those types of touches that in some cases is a testoment as the mark of the artist. Something like that.

[ Edited by: teaKEY 2007-11-03 11:46 ]

Ya-hooo! I finally got some of my "mini" pickled heads of of the kiln last night! Very happy with the results. Here are some quick pics - I'll get better shots once my computer is back from the shop. again. dont ask. too painful. Looks like this year's batch of Pickled Heads will yield 3 minis (a possible 4th was started last night - but he may get tossed back into the pickle barrel) and 2 megas. Can't wait to see the 2 big heads all fired up!

Mahalo for peeking -

Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha Folks!

Been working away on a new style of mugs - and I am totally digging the way that things are looking! I present Iron Tiki #1 - a work in progress (still have a LOT more detail to add - metal plates, bolts, rivets, etc...) - I was gonna wait till the sculpt was done before posting pics - but I though you may want a glimpse of the work in progress

Mahalo for looking -

Henrik "VanTiki"

:D Frigg'n Nutz...& Boltz VT!!! :D

On 2007-11-12 15:30, TravelingJones wrote:
:D Frigg'n Nutz...& Boltz VT!!! :D

Mahalo Jonesy! I've really been enjoying this one. It is freaking HUGE! I forgot to take a scale photo of it - but it is more along the lines of a tiki pitcher than a tiki mug. The sculpt is done (save for some minor tweaking I'll do one it has dried out some more - taking forever now that winter is here!). Without further adieu - the photos:

Mahalo for peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Setting record highs for Hand built mugs!!!!! Love it, still very tiki which is surprising at the same time. The only concern is that tongue seems like its attached by a thread of clay.

WOW!
Great Work Henrik! You're always pushing the Craft with your off-the-wall concepts!
Mechanical/Robotic Tikis RAWK! :D

Mahalo Ken and teaKEY! I know I've said it before - but it is SO encouraging to get compliments and critiques from the amazing pool of artists that make up TC. I really appreciate it! :)

And teaKEY - about the tongue. Give me some credit! :) It wraps over the bottom lip and is firmly anchored to the base of the lower jaw. Of course, now that I have typed those words there will be a freak shrinkage-related stress fracture while drying that will cause the tounge to fall off!

Thanks again -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Yeah, I guess it is no different from the other parts that stick off like the brow and the brow looks totally solid. As a side story (and toally unrelated), my dad just made a kiln size peice and had it drying at the local pottery shop and was going down to put it in and it was all ready put in the kiln with the entire back of the peice wiped out. His stuff never breaks and I never got to even see what it looked like.

Absolutely, completely, undeniably....just amazing!

Henrik, you are an inspiration.

ch

teaKEY - that is terrible news about your dad's piece! Clay can be frustrating beyond belief on occasion. I still lament they day I lost two trepanning skulls to a kiln programming mix-up. So frustrating!

Cheeky Half - mahalo! I am so glad you like the nuts and bolts Tiki!

I am sculpting a slightly smaller version today. I the mean time, here is a scale shot of iron tiki #1 with my old friend Mr. Bali Hai lounging on the drying rack in the Sunday morning sun:

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

AMAZING WORK!

How do u do it? Your pieces are so ANIMATED! It's hard to think they just sit still on the shelf - looks like they'd be talking and growling and bouncing all over! Really really great work!

Tiki Shark

http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-11-18 14:56 ]

WOOOW, incredible, amazing, these mugs looks so unique and cool, love them all!

Mahalo Tiki Shark! Coming from the master of motion filled imagery that is one heck of a compliment!

Ramba-Zamba - stoked you like the mugs - hope you like this one too:

Iron Tiki #2! Slightly less huge than his iron brother, Iron Tiki 2 will happily chomp away at whatever you choose to throw in his cavernous maw!

Had a good time with these guys! While they rest on the drying rack I am going to attempt a few wall hanging VanTiki faces - could be cool, or could be a disaster! :)

Mahalo for looking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Okay folks - I've cracked open this year's Pickle Barrel and am very happy with the results (except for 1 pickled head disaster). Here are this year's pickled goodies -

First up - the disaster! This was one of my favorites - a larger head sculpted in a dark and rich clay body. I picked it up yesterday only to find that another pot had fallen on it during the firing! You can see the spattered glaze and ground-down area on the lower left. Ug! So - looks like this guy will be living on my shelf:

Next up we have the largest and most detailed pickled head of the season - I'm still working on a name for this guy.... chief wrinkles? The forgotten Warrior? I dunno...

and lastly I have a nifty set of two smaller pickled heads - the Long Lost Pike Brothers:

I'll be adding more info soon on my site. I'll post a link on the marketplace forum when the are ready to sell. Mahalo for looking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Got some good and bad mojo in the studio yesterday -

First up: the bad. I bisque fired the two Iron Tiki mug sculpts on Tuesday, and when I opened the kiln yesterday morning all looked well -

Until I peeked at the bottom of Iron tiki #2!

Gasp! Sadly this Tiki won't be holding any fluids. I blame myself - this was a complex build that should have been dried out extra slowly, and I removed it from the plastic too soon. I suppose the upside is I scored a great looking mug for my shelf :) Perhaps in the future it may be used for an art swap or auctioned as damaged good on eBay - but for now I'll just place him on the shelf above my computer and enjoy him (after glazing, of course). The first Iron Tiki made it through the firing with flying colors.

And now, the good news! I also got my finished mini pickled head out of the kiln yesterday and he is terrific. I did this piece as a xmas gift for my Brother and his wife. Hope he likes it!

Today I am glazing the Deep Sea Tiki #2 (finally!) as well as the 2 Iron Tiki mugs. They will all hit the kiln tomorrow morning and will be up on my site (and ebay) on Saturday for the last VanTiki mug offerings of 2007. I'm off to Lanai for my B-Day next week - can't wait!

Oh - one last thing. Some of you may remember from past posts my love of GeoCaching and my little TikiCoins. I've been working hard on TikiCoin series 2: Tiki's Stackers and the first silver versions are done.

The silver editions is very limited (only 10 pieces - and of those I am only offering 8 to the public), so you may want to hold out for the bronze version which I'll have done soon. More info on my GeoCoins site: http://www.geotiki.com

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Nice work mate :D :D Pitty about the iron tiki, thats got to be so disappointing! Since you wouldn't want to be reminded of that painful time, you can send it to me to rid yourself of the bad mana :D :D :D Pickled heads are great too - they would look really cool as a fish tank ornament - as would the deep sea tiki - cant wait to see it in full colour!

On 2007-12-07 19:28, hewey wrote:
they would look really cool as a fish tank ornament - as would the deep sea tiki - cant wait to see it in full colour!

Hewey - your wish is granted! :)

I just posted a thread in the marketplace with all the info about the new mugs. Soooooo stoked with the way they turned out. I thought I'd add a few "behind the scenes" shots of making the Iron Tiki here as this is the creating thread (most of this stuff is from the "studio notes" on my site - sorry if it is redundant).

Above you see the original concept sketches from my sketchbook (with a color test done in photoshop).

I made a bunch of custom stamps for adding detail to the sculptures using a bunch of nuts and screws from my shop an a bit of epoxy clay - but in the end I relied primarily on a socket wrench, an old nail, a chopstick, and a wood shim do do most of the finish detail.

A highlight of the project was getting a new tool for the studio: a clay extruder. A clay extruder is like one of those Play-Doh presses you had when you were a kid that you fill with clay, squeeze, and a snake of clay squirts out shaped like a star (or a circle, square, etc..). I needed to get the extruder so I could make I-beams quickly and easily. Using one of the blank dies that came with the tool, I cut out an “H” shape that produced a nice, clean I-beam that wound up becoming the robot’s brows, ears, jawbone, etc...

Applied a wonderful amount of rust and weathering to the two iron tiki mugs, and even did a bit of stenciling (see work-in-progress photo above) with some painter’s masking tape. The iron tiki are by far the most complex glaze application I've attempted to date. I could barely sleep last night with the anxiety of opening the kiln the next morning!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Nice progress/behind the scenes - I was wondering how you got those I-beams so neat....
Do we have to wait for the "1" to be fired on before we see the finished Iron Tiki? That pic is a bit of tease!

Man I love how you can go from gorgeous organic under the sea tiki to full on industrial tiki without blinking – awesome! The under the sea tiki looks sweet with all that colour, really nice job. And I love the rust and weathering on the robo-tiki too!

On 2007-12-09 18:45, Paipo wrote:
Do we have to wait for the "1" to be fired on before we see the finished Iron Tiki? That pic is a bit of tease!

Sorry! I put all the finished pics in the marketplace forum. I'll add a few here too:

Iron Tiki 2 (I'm keeping this one - the bottom cracked on the bisque fire)

and the stencil on Iron Tiki #1 - this fellow can be found on the Bay of E:

Looks awesome mate! The patina is spot on. I would love to see one of these done in the chrome style glaze, would look tre cool :D

Geez, I was looking for some info on creating tiki mugs and I stumbled into this thread.

That's like a little old lady looking for a paint-by-numbers class walking into Michelangelo's studio! Works of true genius!

Can you share any more about your construction techniques? Do you roll out slabs first, then trim around a pattern of some sort? I enjoyed the bit on the making of the skulls, very helpful.

With just a little more on the "how to", you'd have enough info here and on your website's logs for a great book on the subject. Maybe that would help get you out of that day job? What is the day job anyway, something to do with animation?

Cheers and thanks for an awesome thread.

Hey I'm kinda new to Tiki Central,i just found this forum, and i gotta say i love your work. I've been hand building for 17 years or so and i used to do a lot of low fire work, mostly sculpture. I've also created tiki mugs but i always went high fire with them. recently how ever i discovered a clay called Darcy's with mica. It's a rich dark red when fired with a hint of shine from the mica. It's also incredibly vitreouse for a low fire clay. I plan to finish them with a black wash.
What i really like about your work is the amazing color, those are under glazes are they not? And you have so much time in the construction of each piece - nice. They have a great graphic quality, they really pop! It's always good to meet a fellow mud head. So you sell your work on EBAY, I'll have to check that out, that and your web site.
Thanks this has been inspiring, I spend a lot of time alone in the studio so it is always great to see what other people are doing.

Sam

Mahalo for the compliments!

Moon Dog -
You are FAR too kind! :) As far as assembly techniques - most of my mugs are assembled with a variety of cut slabs or pinched spheres. Very basic hand-building stuff. For my larger mugs I'll build the main form over a PVC pipe for support during assembly. I did use paper patterns when I was repeating mug styles (when I started a year or so ago I offered several types of mugs that I built over and over for people). Since I've switching to one-of-a-kind mugs I still use paper patterns to rough things out - I have some thick card stock and some sizzors by my clay table that I'll use to test out ideas before cutting the clay. As far as a book, there are a ton of great handbuilding books out there - I wouldn't have anything new to add! :)

As for the day job - I enjoy that too. I work out of my house doing animation and illustration - a nice creative balance! You can see some of my day job efforts at http://www.bigdtv.com

Sam - So glad you like my work! I always get nervous when a clay professional checks out my mugs! The clay you describe sounds great! My mugs are actually all high fire (cone 5-6, and the pickled heads are cone 10). I do use a lot of underglazes on them, as I feel the bright colors fit into the tiki-pop style. I'd love to see some of your stuff - where can I check it out?

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Hey VanTiki,
I don't really have any work up anywhere these days, I'm transitioning out of 4 years in the film industry and into my studio. I have a web site samlongbotham.ca but i don't think that there is any clay work on it, it's mostly just my fiberglass scupltures. I'm going to rework the site in the near future. As soon as i creack my kiln open again i'll post some images, it might be after x-mas.
Nice to make contact with you, keep up the good work!

Sam

So I was pressing some tiles yesterday...

and I decided to stick a few together to try and make a Eggnog Worthy mug for me to sip goodies out of next week, and the "Bone Box" was born!

It turned out a bit big - I have a bunch more tiles to press tomorrow (as long as the batch above is dry enough for me to move off of the rack to make room for more) and I may try a triangle build mug as opposed to the square. I also want to try closer miter cuts to blend the skulls together more. You know. For the Eggnog. Ahh.. nothing like noodling the hours away pressing bathroom tiles! Just 30 more to go...

Very Cool.....Simplicity at its best!!! Keep it up!!

Nice skull mug box thing! :D

Aloha everyone and happy new year!
Wanted to update everyone on the VanTiki Studio goings-on. I am beyond giddy to try a bunch of new things this year, and I am ordering a few new tools for the studio that are sure to spice up the mugs I have planned. Other changes include a bunch of new clay bodies (to be picked up on Tuesday when the clay store opens again after its long winter nap) and some planned metal work (I know, I said that last year too!). I am going to be going nuts filling orders with my bronze TikiCoins next week - but the clay will be flying again in kailua before you know it!
Can't wait to see what everyone makes this year - I have a feeling it is gonna be a good one!

A very optimistic Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha all!

Happy to report that the clay is once again flying in VanTiki studio! I've just finished roughing out "Cannibal Idol #1" - and I took a few WIP shots of the rough sculpt:

Keep in mind he is far from finished! I'll be detailing this fellow with an overall stone texture like my other Idol mugs. Big thanks to Paipo for planing the cannibal seed in my brain! I'll be doing 1 more of these with a more "fresh" victim in the idol's mouth :)

As you may have noticed - I'm playing around with a bunch of different clays on this fellow - the skull is the calico clay I've used for my past mugs, the teeth are 2 types of porcelain (i for the idol, 1 for the skull), the idol itself is a brown sculpting body that will make the white/Grey skull really pop, and the topper is the brilliant yellow porcelain I used for the idol's beady little eyes. Now - this is a bit of an experiment, and things may end up cracking to bits as the piece dries - but I have high hopes! More photos as the Idol progresses. Oh - and sorry for the poor shots above - it is 9 pm and I couldn't wait till morning to get better light for photographing this fellow! :)

Mahalo for Peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Thats awesome! Cool design!

Brilliant. Is the big guy a mug? Is the skull in the mouth attached? A lot of power in that piece.

Impressive work!

Mahalo Hewey, teaKEY, and cheekytiki!

teaKEY - yep - it is a mug. A whopper of a mug at that! The skull is not removables - but it is rather detailed and looks like it goes way back into the mouth of the idol. I did some more texturing last night and the clay is drying as I type this for a final detail pass. I was stoked to finally get a chance to use a texture stamp I made in December. I wanted to get a good rough stone texture to use for some ancient idol mugs and undersea structures - so I went and molded a rough patch of asphalt in my driveway with some silicone caulking (using a coat of dish-washing soap as a release agent). Worked out really well!

I'll post photos of the finished mug soon!

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha Folks -

The Cannibal Idol #1 sculpt is finished! Just like my other recent works - this bellow is big Big BIG! Without further adieu, the photos:

I'll get a shot with Mr. Bali Hai for scale when the piece dried up a bit. Gonna dry this one verrrrrrry slowly with the hopes of avoiding nasty cracks. Mahalo for peeking!

Henrik "VanTiki"

a piece like this is ground breaking for tiki as a whole for sure. Just like BenZarts last pendent is. Pretty exciting.

Wow! That sucker is DEEP! I was wondering how much space you'd created behind the mouth and skull within to hold the liquid...
Thanks for the acknowledgment on the concept - it is slightly bittersweet to see the first "Skulleater" mug out there isn't of my creation (it is one of my designs that I am definitely wanting to take into ceramic) but I enjoy your stuff too much (and what you've done with the idea) for it to worry me at all. A little credit goes a long way when you've been inspired by others' work and I appreciate that.
This is a nice contrast to recent situation where one of my works was pretty much copied outright but the artist involved really made no effort to add their own twist on the design, nor to acknowledge their use of my concept (nothing whatsoever to do with tiki in this case).
Fingers crossed for the drying!

:o YiiiiiiiiiKES! :o Now THAT is frigg'n NUTZ!!! :o

Looks awesome mate, love the stone texture on it. The skull has a great style to it too.

I think you should stop calling them tiki mugs and call them by their true name – ceramic tiki buckets!

Excellent!!!

Mahalo everyone! I really like this fellow and I'm happy to hear you all like it too! :)

TeaKEY - I dunno about ground breaking - but it is currently back-breaking! I'm glad it gets lighter after drying out :)

Mahalo Jonsey!

Hewey - I agree! I've always felt funny calling the big sculpts "mugs" - how about "a mug for 2"?

Paipo - Glad you like it (and that you don't want to kill me)! Your skull eater is my absolute fav (along with the mini-marq in the pebble). Sorry to hear about your work getting ripped off. I'll be sure to mention you and provide a link to your site when the piece is finished (unless you would rather I didn't). Just so you know - the next cannibal idol will be skull free - as there will be a living (and afraid) face in the mouth.

Looks like the mailman tried to deliver my new clay extruder - but I was out doing errands! Poop. Now I gotta wait till tomorrow. Get ready for some BIG coil built mugs and sculpts. I am so gonna do a zombie mug!

Once again, Mahalo for the support!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha -

Just unboxed the new extruder! Man - this thing is bigger than I thought! What does this mean for VanTiki Studio? Well, if you thought my mugs were big before this - you'd better look out! :) Seriously, though, I am excited about the possibilities this thing offers up for wall sconces, large scale ceramic tikis, and big coil built forms. This weekend I have to do some serious re-organizing of the studio in order to clear up some wall space to mount it. Here you see Marzipan checking out the new toy:

Cant wait to use it!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Hey Van,

Very choice work on the cannibal...I think that this is one of my favorites of yours. Your style is loads of fun! I really like the way you integrate these two different clay bodies. Your going to have a hoot and a holler with that new extruder...watch out folks, Van's getting ready to put the funk into funky!...the shapes are going to get wild :)

Best...

Mahalo Babalu!

Yeah, I can't wait to get the extruder up on the wall and squirting clay (eew)! Been working on cannibal idol #2 today - the offering in this ones mouth is slightly more fresh :)

A work in progress - Still lost of stone work to add. Wait till you see its ear piercings!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Hey Van, Maybe sometime you should invest in a sand blaster too, or at least experiment with someone else's...It gives a real cool look to clay surfaces when you lightly hit (spray) dried greenware. It works great to use paper stencils in conjunction with a sand blaster so as to leave smooth surfaces juxtaposed to the texture that the sand blaster makes. I think this type of finish used here and there in some of your work would look really hot. I may have to build a little spray booth myself....major fun tool.