FYI -producing your own tiki mugs....

..i've noticed a bunch of you embarking on a quest to make your own tiki mugs either to sell, trade or use...alot of you have shyed away from using a kiln and rightly so..it's expensive. there is a way around it that is more affordable than you think....I do not own a kiln, however, I do have my ceramics fired at one of the many ceramics studios you will find in any phone book. It works like this...i make a sculpt and then make a plaster mold of it...this mold is then taken to the shop and for a very small fee(depending on the size and clean-up of the castings) they cast, clean and fire the piece for me....usually you will be charged a fee to (1) pour the slip(liquid clay) a fee to (2) clean the fresh casting and a final fee to fire each piece. this process will usually cost about $5 or less per mug. now you can paint them yourself for display or if you want to drink out of them, you will be charged a couple more bucks to fire the glaze ......i usually buy a jar of glaze and paint my mugs at home..then take them all in to be fired at once....now they are diswasher safe and safe to drink out of... As far as i know, this is the ultimate "poor mans" road to self-tiki mugs...it's the cheapest way for those of you strapped for cash or not willing to run your own kiln....most of these ceramics places teach classes where you can sit in and paint your mugs or learn how to make a mold...take advantage of it, though you may have to put up with a class full of bored houswewives with nothing better to do with themselves..(this is why i paint at home)....

Thanx for the advice man!

That is an angle i am possibly looking at too. The design I have in my head fro my first project I don't think will work with molds, but the firing might be my best option.

i'm confused....are you doing a single piece??

On 2006-05-31 22:17, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
i'm confused....are you doing a single piece??

To begin with I am looking at doing a limited run (say 10?) of hand carved mugs. They will be the same design but individually carved, basically the same way VanTiki is doing his works of beauty.

ahhh I have been thinking about the pottery-party-places since I was toddling around the net and found the franchise website for those operations and noticed they slip cast their own ceramics.
I will have to go and investigate them.