VanTiki Tiles - Ku Squared tile taking shape - 1/25

Aloha All!

Welp, after getting several "where are the 2007 VanTiki mugs?" PM's I decided I better update the Ohana on the goings-on in VanTiki Studio! Rest assured, I have not been idle :) I set January aside to finally get cooking on a project I've been wanting to tackle for over a year: TikiTile! Yessir - genuine hand-pressed high-relief tiles for your bar, kitchen, bathroom, or grass shack! (well - maybe not so much for the shack)

It all started with the construction of the VanTiki Studio Tile Press. It is based on a Tile Press design by tile artist Frank Giorgio. I made some modifications to beef it up a bit. Had a great time putting it together - especially since the materials only cost around $150 - and a store bought tile press in this size starts at over $700!

Next up - sculpting the tiles. I did a TON of doodles for tile designs (most of them were done while I spent many hours waiting in the stand-by ticket line when Prairie Home Companion came to Hawaii), and picked 8 favorites for my first tile set. Of those, I decided to sculpt only a few tiles (the simplest) to get a handle on the process before doing the entire series. Here are the first sculpts - all are based on my Jabber Pod mug. Two 4" Jabber faces, a 2" Jabber face, and a 2" wood grain field tile. All are sculpted in a soft oil-based clay made by Chavant (Chavant Le Beau Touche):

I made plaster molds of the above tiles (I was able to pull three molds off the field tile - whoo!) - and then had to wait a painstaking 10 days for the plaster to dry out enough for me to press clay into the molds. Sunday night I decided to give it a go - and things went very smoothly. The tile press worked like a charm (had to bolt it down to the table - it REALLY has a lot of leverage) - and the first run of tiles looked great. Had a bit of trouble with the high relief on the 4" tiles - but a little creative packing on pressing round 2 seems to have solved the problem. Here are some of the first freshly pressed tiles:

Whew! So now you know what I've been up to this month! Next up I gotta sculpt the rest of the "series 1" tiles and glaze the ones I've pressed. Not to worry - I'm still doing mugs! In fact - I've got a bunch of sketches that I can't wait to turn into clay.

Mahalo for peeking!

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http://www.vantiki.com

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What a great idea.

"You know what sells really well and is the easiest thing to make is a Tiki Tile. You can go into almost any art store and there they are. Its a ceramic art piece that you get to hang on your wall. If I ran a ceramic shop, this would be one of the first things I would do. Its hip to be square." Posted: 2006-11-16 10:08 am by teaKEY

TeaKEY's critikeys pg.4

Great minds, Great minds.
I been thinking of tons of things lately, I think I got ideas for two years now.

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forgot the backslash

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[ Edited by: teaKEY 2007-01-30 16:42 ]

Freakin genius's and theyr'e freakin imagination. Sweet tool! sweet idea man.

I'd rock a few of those!

Mahalo

McTiki

DANG! VanTiki done went factory on us? :o Well, not really..."handcrafted" still requires tools!

VT's Mind Circus travels into the next town, 3 rings and what's in the Big Top??? Send in da clownz!!! :D

SsweeetT! Flip-flOp-fLipPp...

Very cool idea man :) You could even hand paint/detail these and frame them for a wall hanging

These are SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!! Bitchin press too. Let us know when these bad boys are available.

NO KIDDING!!! Gotz to have a tile for da lounge....lookin' forward to it. Nice job VanTiki. :)

(squid...everytime I see that siggy of your it makes me laugh:-)

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support! I didn't want to show the tile progress until I had an actual finished tile - but I am so giddy about the whole darn thing that I just had to post! :)

I am gonna put a little notch in the back of the larger tiles so you can hang them on a wall if you wish. I know plenty of folks frame the arts and crafts hand-pressed tiles for their walls

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/missionguild/index30BuyDirect2Tiles.html

I think a more tiki-fied frame would be in order, though!

Can't wait to spring some of the other designs on you guys - some neat faces and multi-tile scenes. Curse this day job! Why can't I just push clay all day! :)

"Do what you love, the money comes later"

Bring it Van, bring it!

Mahalo

McTiki

I'm thinking some strategic placement amongst other tiles in our kitchen and bath remodel projects. These tiles might be just the push to get me into demolition mode! Kick it Van!

So all my mugs are packed up in boxes & we are getting ready to tear the entire kitchen & family room up & WOW at these tiles... Perfect & brilliant!! nice original with a high end look, like nothing else... Be great to include a few of these...

The word unique is overused so much nowadays it's like seeing RARE on an ebay Leilani listing -- BUT, your work and these tiles especially, is far and away the most differentiated and dare I say UNIQUE ceramic work involving tikis that I have seen. Really well crafted too.

PS

Depending on their placement I can see some of those Moai mouths working nicely as an integrated soap dish or cup holder. I'm thinkin' bar top, by the pool or hot tub, bathrooms.....

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-02 10:55 ]

blush - you guys are the best! Nothing makes me wanna push clay in the studio more than your nice comments! Been busy at night and on weekends continuing the tiles - here is a photo update:

top left: The ever-growing tile army on the drying rack. These guys are almost ready for the bisque firing. I just ordered 4 new glazes (in gallon batches - I don't even want to know what the shipping quote will be) for these guys - wanted something that would break and flow over the details and add depth. Can't wait!

top right: One of 2 pattern sculpts in oil clay. These are ment to be rotated when installed so you get a zig-zag pattern. Will be doing more tiki face tile sculptures next saturday.

Botton left: The finished zig-zag tiles ready to mold. I did 2 sculpts of the same tile with grain variations so there would be less of a "pattern repeat" when you install them. Finished molds can be seen stacked up in next to the tile press.

Bottom right: Zig-zag tiles molded. The mold on the left has set up and is ready to pry up, and the mold on the right has just been poured. I was able to pull 2 molds each off of the original sculptures - yaaay! The plaster molds will need to dry out for a week or so before I can press them. I'm shooting for sunday afternoon (been rainy around here - so that may not work).

Once again - Mahalo for the support!

Very nice work, as always :)

Aloha - TikiTile Update time!

Welp - I got a call a few days ago telling me I am back ordered on some glaze chemicals and I may have to wait three weeks for the stuff. Ug - the dilemma is: do I ship what they have and ship the rest later, or wait and save a ton of $$ by bundling everything in one shipment? As far as I figure shipping is the only real downside of living out here :)

Anyways - I guess the delay will mean I'll have more tiles ready to glaze! I'm starting another tile sculpture this weekend, and was able to press a batch of the zig-zag tiles a few days ago. Wanted to press more - but a) the molds were not quite dry enough just yet, and b) I gotta go get some more clay! I love the way they create different patters depending on how you rotate them. Here are a few resting on the drying racks:

I'll post more news as things progress. Can't wait to get some color on these guys!

Mahalo,
Henrik (aka VanTiki)

I say wait. Money is money but time is free.

These new tiles are a step in the next direction. cool.

Very cool designs and technique! The VanTiki Studio Tile Press looks greatly done too, can't wait to see the glaze part, congrats!

Tiki Tiles? ...I think the jury might be still out on this one !!!!

Van, you're a friggin genius! 1st you blow our minds with world class handmade mugs. Now tikitiles. Whats next? The handmade tiki toilet?

Looking just fabulous. Great designs on those last ones too. :tiki:

I guess not

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[ Edited by: teaKEY 2007-02-26 08:48 ]

Aloha All -

Worked on some new tile sculptures today - the spookedy skull tiles! They are a blend between two of my favorite stylized skulls: tombstone skull carvings of the 17 and 1800's and Mayan skull representations. Here are some shots of the sculptures coming together. Doing 2 at the same time - one has a few teeth missing. Please keep in mind that these are "works-in-progress" shots and that the finished sculpture is a ways off. Enjoy!

They are VERY high relief and I think they'll look fantastic grouted on a wall. Can't wait to get them finished, molded, pressed, glazed, and fired! Whew!

Mahalo for peeking -

Neat tiles van tiki!

[ Edited by: BlackFish 2009-09-08 04:14 ]

Ladies and Gentlemen, cross your fingers!

Just loaded the first batch of glaze tests into the ol' firebox. 4 different (and new for me) glazes - with 2 additional underglaze variations. Dunno if I got the dipping consistency right - and this is the first time I've used wax resists (as well as the first time firing up to cone 6). Will start the kiln tomorrow morning and proceed to chew off all my fingernails until the sun comes up on Wednesday. I'll post shots of the success/failure then :)

Fingers crossed :)

1900 degrees and climbing... . . Man, I wish they put windows on these things! :)

It is gonna seem like FOREVER waiting till tomorrow morning to open the kiln. must... not... chew.... fingernails....

Can't wait to see the skull tiles, I would love to use them in my office!

Alright-ey!

I cracked open the firebox this morning and found a fresh batch of tiki tile safe and snug on their shelf. The wax resist worked perfectly and none of the glazes crawled and fused to the bottom of the kiln (yaay!). Pleased as punch with the glaze results. Will do a second round of tests to bring out more deep green in the center top and left bottom tiles. I was unhappy with the brown (top left) as I thought it was too shiny for a tile. I do like the color, though, and plan on using it for mug interiors and the like. Funny thing is, as soon as I gathered the tiles together for the photo I liked the brown - in fact I like all the colors together and I think Ms. Vantiki and I may go for a multicolor installation in the bathroom!

Here are 2 angled shots so you can get an idea of the detail depth on the tile:

I'll be doing some more glaze tests this weekend. I did some underglazes on the first batch - but the ovelglaze was too opaque for the colors to show through. I'll try again with some of the lighter glaze colors. Will also glaze some of the smaller tiles, and mold the finished skull tile. Thanks for looking

Henrik (aka VanTiki)

I think my favorite glaze color and finish/feel has always been that green that you have on the face tile. Looks almost like aged copper there. But I think that the green /black turned out very nice. Almost like its shimmering green and its nice and even. Even is the trick to making it look like it wasn't an accident. And those wonderful accidents I call them "the hand of God".

Those look freakin' awesome VanTiki..

Nice man - they look super sweet :) That long wait was worth it!

Mahalo everyone for the good vibes!

I just put the first 8 glaze test tiles up on ebay for anyone looking to add some tikified ceramics to their home. I'll put a link up in the marketplace section too -

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=384113270&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=120095706929&lk=URL

VanTiki

Love your work - especially the faces. Any more tiles headed for eBay? Or are they going up on your site now?

those tiles just look cool as hell with their glazes. what an incredible bathroom they'll be a part of! the skull ones are starting out very cool, too. can't wait to see them finished and glazed!

On 2007-03-16 23:04, Fres-tiki wrote:
Any more tiles headed for eBay? Or are they going up on your site now?

Mahalo for the compliments Fres-Tiki! I'm planning on selling the tiles for a fixed individual price on my website soon. I may offer a few more sets on eBay while I "dial-in" my glaze formulations - but the plan for now is Tiki Tiles sold on the website and Tiki Mugs sold on eBay. Been Sooooooo busy with the day job that tile production has ground down to a snail's pace. Hope to make a mold of the skull tiles this afternoon - but I've been promising myself that for days now! :)

On 2007-02-16 12:59, TikiLaLe wrote:
Tiki Tiles? ...I think the jury might be still out on this one !!!!

I think the juries saying the verdict is in and tiki tiles are a great idea, esp. if executed in very fine manner.

SneakyTiki - you're the best!

I have a new small batch of glaze test Tiki Tiles in the hotbox now. Will be opening tomorrow morning if all goes well. Tried a few different applications, as well as some underglaze attempts (round two - the first try didn't show up thru the overglaze!) for the Zig-Zags. I'll post photos of the new guys tomorrow!

This is your captain speaking - we are currently cruising at two thousand forty-nine degrees Fahrenheit...

Mahalo,

Henrik (aka VanTiki)

On 2007-03-19 23:41, Sneakytiki wrote:

On 2007-02-16 12:59, TikiLaLe wrote:
Tiki Tiles? ...I think the jury might be still out on this one !!!!

I think the juries saying the verdict is in and tiki tiles are a great idea, esp. if executed in very fine manner.

As the unofficial jury foreman, I can tell you I just received the first eight artist proofs of these 'Tiki Tiles' and they are of superior quality! :D Vantiki's fine art products are all made by hand, with only the finest Hawaaaaaiiiiiaaaaan ingredients, mixed thoroughly and gingerly by wee menehunes that comprise of a happy tribal work force to get quality product out, in a prompt and professional manner! :D

So when these tiles are available again...JUMP at the chance to score some?!! Cause face it folks, aren't our days just a little brighter with a little more TIKI in it?!!! :D

Flip-flOp-fLipPp...

Van,

Arrrgghhh!!! I don't know which is worse...watching the numbers climb or descend. Looking forward to the new stuff!!!

• Helz

Aloha all -

Just unloaded Glaze test batch #2 from the kiln. Man - I hate glaze testing! It is like painting in ultra slow motion. Nothing like waiting two days to see if your little idea was a good one or a stinker! Happy with most of the results of this one - Went thicker with some colors (worked with some - not so much with others) and tried some under-glazes. Gonna do one more test batch of "elaborate" glaze application for all you high rollers out there (and you know who you are :wink: ). This set will find its way to eBay later today for those who want to pick up a group of TikiTiles at a good price. On to the photos! -

Mahalo for looking!
Henrik (aka VanTiki)

It sucks, I'm just sitting back watching these Tiki Tiles get made and doing well and I'm not in the game. I should really do a couple and see what they would look like next to yours. -teaKEY

On 2007-03-21 15:46, teaKEY wrote:
It sucks, I'm just sitting back watching these Tiki Tiles get made and doing well and I'm not in the game. I should really do a couple and see what they would look like next to yours. -teaKEY

Sounds like a plan! Can't wait to see your tiles!

Looking good my man! :)

Aloha Folks -

Got to spend some time in the studio this afternoon and was finally able to finish up the Spookedy Skull Tile sculpts - here they are in all their spooky-ness:

I cannot wait to press a few of these guys! Molding them tonight, and they I gotta wait 10 painstaking days for the plaster to dry out before I can press them. So hard to wait! I'll post pics as soon as I get a few of these guys pressed.

Henrik (aka VanTiki)

PS - For the curious: The clay is Chavant "Le Beau Touche" (man, that is a froofy name!) sulfur free oil clay.

The skulls are sweet man! :D

That top left one (latest batch) looks just like a well-patinated bronze sculpture. Nice work!

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 04:08:09 ]