PopTiki of Colorado - Gallery of Stuff

It seems like a while since we've posted out here, seems we always end up spending our time in the studio working on stuff. However, since Hanford was kind enough to build this new space, we thought it would be good to take this opportunity to post some pics of our past and current stuff.

When we first got hooked on the Tiki, we did a few carvings but then moved into making mugs (the journey can be seen here.

But for brevity, I thought I'd start by posting some of our older designs....

P-1 Volcano Mug

P-2 Tourist Cup

P-3 Tiki Bub

P-4 Tourist Bucket Mug

P-5 Volcano Bowl (This was a design we've had for a while, but finally just got it into production this year)

C-1 Biter Mug (collaboration with GMAN)

E-1 Fraternal Order of Moai Hot Rod Hula Hop 4 Event Mug

And here’s some of our newer stuff:

P-6 One-Ring Bamboo

P-7 Two-Ring Bamboo

P-8 Three-Ring Bamboo

P-9 PopTiki Logo Mug

P-15 Tourist Bowl

...and to continue on, here’s a look at the new stuff for 2010:

P-11 Moai

P-12 Ku

P-13 Standard Tiki Surf Club

P-13D Deluxe Tiki Surf Club

And finally….the pride of our 2010 collection:

P-14 Standard Hei-Tiki

P-14D Deluxe Hei-Tiki

We hope you enjoy seeing these as much as we do creating them.

Thanks for looking!

• Helz n' Pop

Terrific Web Page, thank you for the opportunity to buy your art, Wendy

PS I hope our box is on the way soon!

Indeed, you are using the spirit of both, traditional Oceanic art and mid-century Polynesian pop, and are creating unique and new designs with this tradition in mind! Not all modern "Tiki" artists know how to do that. My compliments!

Really enjoy your pieces..the moai especially.

Hope you share more and more often!

THAT KU AND DELUXE HEI-TIKI ROCK!
there's a nice sense of gentle humor running through a lot of these Clever creations!
Bravo!
A batch of Winners!
Thanks for sharing all these with us!

Yay!!! GROG like.

Thanks for sharing your work! I really like them, esp. the Moai and the tourist bowl.

Hokey smokes!

This is some eye poppingly good stuff!

Forgive me if I drool a bit here...
~Zero

Great work POPS! :)

It's also great to see you playing around on TC again!

Keep posting.

Yep, the Deluxe is swell.

I really dig the bamboo mugs (which I missed before). They have a nice Golden Age elegance to them, it's an aspect of Tiki that's often overlooked.

Glad ur going to Hukilau - i'd love to get a grey p-11 Moai - see u there - brian

First off, let me just say thank you to all of your for your kind words. We really appreciate that people understand our work, and like what we're doing.

When we're sitting around the studio discussing new designs, we're always aiming to make mugs that look as though they could have been used it one of the great Tiki temples of yore. Many times as Pop is working on a sculpt, he'll ask us..."Does that look like an old mug?" It's an aesthetic we've always loved, and are glad that people see that in our work.

To share a bit more, here's some pics of some of our one-offs and test proofs we've done recently.

First off is the first picture of our P-10 Little Bub that just came out of the kiln this week.

We're retiring the production style P-3 Tiki Bubs, but we still wanted to make the same design, so we shrunk it a bit to fit in your hand better. The one on the right is the P-16 Bitsy Bub that we're planing on having for next year.

And here is a few pictures of different glazes we tried on our Ku mug before settling on the one we chose.

And finally, a alternate version of our logo mug:

When I get a chance (probably after the Hukilau :) ), I'll try to dig back some more and find some more pictures of some of the older mug variations we did, and some of the carvings/non-mug stuff we did early on as well.

Thanks again for looking!

Helz

Our bitzy bubs just arrived and we love them. Thank you for the pins too. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2010-05-15 14:44 ]

And finally, a alternate version of our logo mug:

Now THAT is beautiful!

Excellent one offs!
It's always fun to see those..
Like looking at an artist's rough sketches and thumbnails...
you can see a bit of the brain behind the mug...
You kids have truly captured that aesthetic of the old time mugs of yore...

Poptiki of Colorado: Purveyer of Exotic Polynesian Pop Culture Provisions and Phenomena...Since 2005! Yep, I can say I knew'em waaay back when... :D

:tiki: QUALITIKI is JOB #1! :tiki:

Daayyum Pops,, You went and learnt how ta do this stuff,,, Respectably too!

Flippin Rad Mugs .

Many thanks for all of the kind words, it's nice to know that people like what you do.

Jonesy, you've always been our number one fan! We appreciate the support!

Ben, Thanks again for the hospitality and welcoming us into your workshop. We learned a lot and are privileged to have had the experience.

During our preparations for the Hukilau, and the debut of the P-14/P-14D Hei-Tiki mugs, we got to talking and I convinced Pop that since a Hei-Tiki is a pendant, and the inspiration for our mug came from the Maori jade carvings of neck ornaments, that we ought to tweak one of the mugs with some attachment points, so you can wear it around your neck. So Pop poured a mug, then hand bulit two small loops on either side of the head. Then, just to make it stand out, we picked a glaze we wouldn't normally use (keeping with our classic aesthetic), but caught our eye once at the local ceramic shop.

What resulted was this guy:

Close up of the glaze and the loops:

We also did a one-off in a clear glaze over the slightly off-white clay body, to give it more a bone look rather than the jade-ish green we did the run with. But he found a new home before I had an opportunity to get any decent pictures of him. But here's the one shot I do have:

But, things are settling down a bit, so it's time to get back to the studio and hopefully we'll have more stuff to share soon.

Thanks for looking!

-Helz

oh yeah. i am the proud owner of a bright green mug just like him. glad i could finally get down your asile at hukilau.

You make some amazing work! Will you have a table at Tiki Oasis this year?

Zero

Now that it's fall and all of the events and activities of the summer are through, we're headed back into the studio to start work on our 2011 stuff. Of course, the first thing you do is do a bit of house cleaning, so we've got a few one off pieces that we did that have been sitting around that we thought we'd show you guys:

The first one is a Glaze Test we did when we first started doing the Hei-Tiki. The eyes are a metallic glaze that gives a pretty cool effect.

We weren't enamored with the opaque color of the green so we ended up going with something else, but it's still a very nice look:

In addition, we tried a new method of glazing/firing our Tiki Surf Club mug that gives it a much more weathered/antiqued look that we really like a lot, so we'll be doing them like this going forward.

[

We also did a couple "Designer's Editions" of our P-3 Tiki Bub mug. This first one uses a glaze that has the appearance of motor oil, so we called him Oily Bub:

As you can see here, the P-3DE Oily Bub is larger than the P-7 Little Bub, and you can also see the difference in the glaze between the oily one and the standard glaze we use.

The other Designer's Edition we did uses a glaze that gives the impression of old cast iron, so naturally we called it Iron Bub:

and Finally, though not Tiki (yet), we did these mugs that my wife designed for our booth at the Denver Modernism Show, to go along with the Modernist Aesthetic of the show. Coming up, we're going to use this design as the base for several new mugs, including our version of a fogcutter.

So, now we're back to the sketching and sculpting, and looking forward to getting all messy with some new stuff for next year.

Mahalo for looking!

• Helz

great work i love your mugs

[ Edited by: WOLVER 2010-11-06 12:42 ]

I really like your Hei tiki.. very nice color glaze. :)

Do you have a physical studio that's open to the public? I'm in the Boulder area, and it might be fun to take a road trip.

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2010-11-25 17:19 ]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this but your PopTiki logo totally reminds me of Deadpool from Marvel comics.

I just wanted to say I love all your stuff, specifically the volcano mug and bowl and the modernist mugs. Most of all I like the fact that something is thriving in Colorado with tiki.

gabbahey

[ Edited by: gabbahey 2011-02-18 20:27 ]

Awesome as usual!
Love the glazes on some of these...
your quest for perfection is duly noted!
What a great batch of creativity!

Thanks again, all for the kind words. We have a great time making stuff, and when people like what you do, it's even better.

TikiTacky,

We do have a studio, but it's in the garage. We have days when folks drop by and hang out, and we'll let ya know!

Pocky,

I can see the resemblance. The logo was actually derived from a PNG Orator's Chair that is in the Oceania section of the Denver Art Museum (keepin' it local!). I don't want to post a pic of it here, as this is the gallery, but there's a pic of it on our website.

gabbahey,

Yep, there definitely a nice little Tiki scene going on here in Denver, next time you're heading this way let us know!

LLT,

Mahalo! It is a true compliment coming from such a great artist as yourself.

We've been out in the studio quite a bit the past few months working on our stuff for 2011. We're pretty excited to get a few finished up so we can show you guys!

Thanks!

Helz

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 03:07:41 ]

Love da M and M's

Marq n Moai

Your work is amazing, I have been a fan since the beginning and a proud owner of a few of your mugs.

Great job. I really like your designs and glazes. The Luau colored cat is super.
The buff set is spectacular. Wendy

Wow, Poptiki! The last thing I remember was the Volcano. Nice stuff! I'm particularly partial to your Logo Mug. Oh, and the Cat too! They're all darn nice. I'm very glad to see that you've got it going.

Hmm. I haven't snagged a mug in a long time.

Holy COW Pops, You are doing some AmAZING Stuff now adays! LOVE IT!

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 03:06:46 ]

Those skulls are amazing. Great work!

Outstanding.....

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 03:05:51 ]

AWESOME!! Love my Ku mug and the rest are on my list to get!! :)

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 03:02:16 ]

Nice Work!

N

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 03:01:13 ]

The skull with the jaw has a realistic look to it. Nice work!

Those are ballz-to-the-wallz awesome!!!!!!!!!!

I'm at a total loss of words. Always been a skull fan and a coconut fan, and you have combined the two. The decorated skulls are just sick, and I mean that in the best, nicest way. Love it all.

• Dale

I'm hoping you'll have some of these at HRHH. Because I have no willpower, and will have to purchase one.

Everyone that's seen my skull mug has flipped their lid.

(See what I did there?)

holy guacalome! Those skull mugs are beyond awesome! I love the fact that you drink from them through the upper jaw - what a fantastic idea!!!

The one offs are very impressive.

How would one acquire one of your amazing skull mugs???