On 2020-01-16 08:40, OceaOtica wrote:

but the mugs will stand the test of time Wendy

Hear, hear!

Looks like photo uploads have been restored, so I'm looking forward to more updates.

Have you seen this Tiki With Ray video posted a month ago? You and Dan mentioned starting about the 8:45 mark:

https://youtu.be/EaP8YuieYtY

OceaOtica ahhh, you are so right. What was I thinking? Hopefully our art will outlast all of us and be kept in collections.

Hamo I will have to check to see if it's one I've seen before. He has just done Vance's and it's posted. We were there to introduce them. Tiki With Ray surprised me afterwards by doing an interview with Vance and I showing some of my pieces in his collection. I was really goofy because I was caught off guard. I asked him to be kind when editing.

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Now to test posting. It worked. Thank you Hanford and MadDogMike. Life is fun again!!!

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I finished this black velvet painting and it has shipped to Lynn McGuire here in California. I'm hopeful to never do these tikis again. I have done a total of eight. That's enough to be advertising for Disneyland but I don't want to exceed the limit where they will send their lawyers after me. I did check with many sourced before I started these and was told it was OK. Who really knows.

It sat like this for awhile and then

I added glitter stars that will sparkle as you walk past.

I added some blue to the tikis nose and then

yesterday it shipped out to it's new home.

One day when I retire from ceramics I will just do black velvet paintings. I have a lot to catch up now with TC being off for a bit.
More to come soon, Wendy

I like the glitter stars! Glad you can post again :)

Love your painting
Awesome

MadDogMike I like that they sparkle as you walk across the room looking at the painting. Thank you.

hang10tiki thank you for the photos you took for me. They all helped.

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Just for fun I decided before I get back to regular posting I would put all my Black Velvet paintings into a group and post them. Here is every one I've ever done since 2011. I'd never done one before that year.

2011 Vacation on Easter Island. Given as a gift to Sean Kline for Brenda's Tiki Hut.

2011 Rapa Nui Chapter Bought at the Tiki Oasis 11 art show.

2011 Easter Island Tiki Oasis 11 Art show. I don't remember what happened to this one. A mystery!

2011 Night Torch Bought at Tiki Oasis 11 Art show. This is huge around 3 1/2 feet by 3 feet. Went to someone in Portland, OR.

Then I saw this photo and fell in love with these Disney tikis.

2016 Tiki Oasis Art Show. Buyer unknown to me.

2017 Wish List. Wish of Gregory Ramirez.

2017 Wish List. Wish of Duane Orzol aka Tiki Psycho D

2017 Wish List. Wish of Jefferey Bannow

2017 Tiki Oasis Art Show. Buyer unknown to me.

2018 Wish List Karen Schell.

2018 Wish List. Wish of Jeffrey Konyue.

2018 Wish List. Wish of Stephen Seaton.

2018 Wish List. Wish of Lynn Bloom.

2020 Wish List. Wish of Lynn McGuire.

In the past orientation didn't matter when posting. I still don't know how to correct these even though I been told how in the past. Oh well. Thank you for the sideways visit. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-01-19 09:15 ]

[ Edited by: MadDogMike - Rotated pics - 2020-01-21 10:59 ]

Posting photos has gone down. ) = :

Hi Everyone, I am gearing up to start on Phase Five of Wish List 8. The many orders that I have filled and these that I have not were sign ups that came in as early as 2017. My apologies. I'm just one person with a husband who does some heavy lifting. I just keep plugging away. I have managed to fulfill many wishes since that time and I'm ready to go again.

This list may have people on it that have the Wish to cancel, bless you if you do. I have a long waiting list that will start when these finish. I am posting this to facebook and tiki Central to try to reach everyone. I need you each to contact me with a personal message if you want a project. I would then respond with a price.

If you would like to cancel just post a message here.

I do not do projects in the alphabetical order. I do them according to my mood for the day. That way you have a happy artist working for you.

Some projects that I don't feel that I can pull off I will be honest about that. I have had some failures in the past that taught me what to turn down. I've had failures that are worth re-visiting again because they should have been OK.

Along the way I do my own projects and some extra mugs. First dibs by those on this list.

2018 Wish List 8 Phase Five only has one more person I need to talk too!

Taboo Dan where are you?

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-01-22 08:15 ]

Wow
Those black velvet paintings are great
Kool to see them all again

That’s quite the list of upcoming projects u have

Cheers

hang10tiki thank you, I did more than I thought. I will transition from ceramics to just BV painting in the future. Right now I am contacting each person and saying do you want a project made or would you just like a hug instead when next we meet. I love to have cancels. This doesn't show the list for Hot Tub Hula Girls or the waiting list. I need lots of cancels!!! Wendy

Wendy, I rotated those pics. Check them to be sure I put them in the right places :D

MadDogMike you are an angle. Thank you so much. Now I will put them onto my Gallery page so I can refer to them in the future. You just gave me a gift that gave me such happiness. Hugs, Wendy

If you have been making cookies for the last 5 days
It’s ok to post those pics
:)

Dear Jon, oh how fun to write this letter with that heading but Dear hang10tiki is more appropriate. I have many photos to post but alas no cookies. I've been doing paperwork for the Wish List Binder as I prepare for Phase Five. Today I will begin to sculpt and then the posting will resume. I need some cookies!

Here is the best cookie recipe for cookies and easy too. I have written the double batch on the left side too. However over time I just started dumping ever ingredients except for the nuts into a huge bowl. Dan mixes it all with his hands and then we add also add the dates. We also make them with dates and pecans or walnuts. I've also made them with olive oil rather than butter. It all works out.

You can make this a big or little soft cookie or bake it longer for a crunchy cookie which we love best. They freeze, they are good for a breakfast. The dates are chewy and the nuts are healthy. We love these cookies but no time for baking.

Cheers, Wendy

It's time to start catching up again. The paperwork for the Wish List is so hard. I have the binder prepped again so now I can post.

The coconuts and huts were dry and it was time to sand them and prep for firing. It's so cold out I dressed in many layers.

I used a stiff hairbrush to remove all the debris from sculpting with a wire brush.

I stacked my turn wheels so I could stand up to work.

Slowhandtikiman's necklace gets sanded.

Dan uses the air compressor to blow off all the dust. This is good. It keeps the inside of the kiln clean. Also less dust to scrub off after firing.

One by one they are getting done.

I loaded three levels and the last one I figured out how to make every last one fit. I was so happy. This is the bisque firing. It shrinks the clay so that when the glaze goes on it sticks. So every item is always fired twice, bisque and then glazing.

Two days later I opened the cold kiln and removed all the pieces. Not even one cracked. Yippy, I did the happy dance!

Out of the kiln and into the kitchen. Way to cold to scrub them outside.

Slowhandtikiman's necklace was first.

To do this I fill up both side to the sink. One side for scrubbing and one for rinsing. Then when the scrubbing side is this cloudy I empty and rinse it well then refil. Then the other side us used for scrubbing and the newly filled side for rinsing. Back and forth.

When done they go on top of a new plastic table cloth and are covered by a new plastic table cloth. NO DUST can touch them before glazing.

While I dry and sand and fire what's already done I am back to work sculpting the Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five.

Cheers, Wendy

Ray just posted his most recent interview with you, and it's great. Next time get Dan on camera, too....

https://youtu.be/YKzDKeJIW6k

Hamo thank you so much. Without you I would forget to save these to my Gallery page. I've just done that.
I wish Dan would be with me for interviews but he doesn't care to be on camera. We are going to watch it
now for the first time. I want to see if he left my "word" error in or took it out.

Wendy

Cookies, more mugs and Wendy on film
What a great page
Awesome

hang10tiki thank you. Here are some photos from that day (November 30th 2019).

Vance and Jenae Klinke. Two of the nicest people any one could meet. We love them.

We got there before Ray. I just noticed the two shelves of my art at the bottom right!!!

Ray arrived and was introduced.

Vance did a great job of putting his Gecko collection together. His rooms are wonderful.

Ray set up to film.

One photo and then the camera was on and Ray joined us. Look for Tiki With Ray on Utube. He has dozens of these interview.

A fun day tiki day for sure, Wendy

A great interview with Ray Wendy, you are a natural!

Cy you are so kind. It was fun being there with Vance and Ray. Dan had fun visiting with Jenae during the interview and if you listen closely you can hear them in the background. It wasn't a closed set!

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Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five

Back to work on the facehugger alien for Jose Mendez. I've not seen the movie.

I had some on-line photos to work from. I warned him I couldn't do a perfect copy. Here's the start of this project.

I needed a head for the thing to cling too and all I had was a Ren Clark head. Jose agreed and I went to work.

First off the thing covers the entire face. I can't trap air so I had to fill it all in.

Side view.

It has a tail that wraps around the victims neck so I started on that too.

Back view. I also cut off the remaining neck so the mug has a nice opening.

Then I began to build the main structure of the body.

This thing is getting heavier and thicker. I'm not sure it will survive the drying process. It will take a month or two.

After this I let it sit in a plastic bag overnight to let it firm up.

Cheers, Wendy

Another day has arrived and it's time for more steps to be done on the Clark facehugger mug for Jose Mendez.

I began the process of building up the shapes of the main body.

I just kept on adding and shaping clay.

Once side then

the front and

the other side.

Now it was time to start on the hands or tentacles or legs. It's one creepy creature.

It's fun to play with clay, Wendy

Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five progress report.

Jose Mendez's facehugger on a Ren Clark head is underway.
On the third day of sculpting I added the "fingers".

I made individual pieces and then added them on.

The head shape is different from the photo so the "fingers" are not in the same places.

Photos are terrific ways to see defects such as bones that are thinner on one side or the other. Compare the two on each side of the main body. I will have to go back and add more clay.

I will again set this project aside and let the parts firm up so that

I can carve in more detail

fine tuning each part.

What an interesting wish. Wendy

Wow
This will be an epic mug

Just did a quick 2 day Phoenix trip
Hit about 15 antique stores

Finds:

Cheers

hang10tiki it's so fun that you find those Carolina tikis. The last tiki, PNG? looks like a Tiki Bob I just carved, same detail. Wendy

Back to Jose Mendez's wish for a facehugger mug. The final sculpt has been done and it's slowly drying.

Each area is carved and then "sanded" with a wet brush.

I carve away clay and then I add it back where needed.

"Sanded".

Done and drying but I will check with Jose to see if he's happy or if it needs tweaking.

I have another fun project like this one coming up soon. Wendy

Jeffrey Queen bought a Tapa mug from me last year. He requested another one or two. So he gets first choice. I started these because the mugs were drying out after being in plastic bags for a year.

Mug number one.

I start with a blank that I can have fun carving.

After I clean up the mug I carve my name on the bottom.

Then I "sand" it with a wet brush.

Then the fun begins.

The carving and "sanding" with a wet brush is done.

This is fun for me. Glazing these in multiple colors is not enjoyable but when they come out of the kiln they make me happy.

Cheers, Wendy

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[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-02-06 19:41 ]

Mug number two for Jeffery Queen.

I should write a book on the joys of carving clay.

I hope you are all having as much fun with your hobbies as I am with mine. Wendy

Tapa mug for Jeffery Queen number 3.

It takes time to just clean off all the mold lines and to smooth the mug before carving.

I start off by carving in the boxes.

I do different shapes and later decide what design to carve in each area.

Each time an area is carved I "sand" it with a wet brush.

Then I just keep thinking up the next design.

The mug is finished being sculpted.

Only five more to go. Wendy

Tapa Mug number 4 for Jeffery Queen.

Tapa Mug number 5 for Jeffery Queen

There's a lot of space to carve on a tapa mug. It's fun to make each one different in some way. Number 4 had my first fish.

Cheers to good day, Wendy

Tapa mugs number 6 and 7. I forgot to take any photos of number 8 so these are the last sculpting photos of this Wish project.

Tapa mug number 6 for Jeffrey Queen

Tapa mug number 7 for Jeffrey Queen

The missing Tapa mug number 8 is for Jeffrey Queen.

Time to move on to new wishes which are??? Wendy

Awesome
Love these

hang10tiki I appreciate your comments so much. Thank you.

Who has been to see us since the beginning of 2020? These are our fun tiki loving guests.

Psycho Tiki D

Scottie

Joanne

Scottie

David Thorsrud

Scottie

Heather and Steve Crook

Scottie and Scrabble

Kevin White

Scottie

Robyn

Scrabble

Who else will come for a visit. We are always ready to meet new people and to see our friends. Cheers, Wendy

Humans 7
Cats 7

hang10tiki you are good at math!

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I am currently working on the wishes but first I'll do a bit of catch up photos.

Our neighbor had three palm trees. He took out two last summer when they started dropping too many things into his pool. We were so sad he didn't take out the last one.

We pull out hundreds of baby palms each spring that come from his tree(s).

This year we found one we missed. They sure grow fast. I crawled in the bushes and kicked it over and

Dan dug it out.

I feel sorry for it but nope can't leave it.

One down and the search continues. Cheers, Wendy

PS today we voted and we turned in our taxes, we can now celebrate Valentines day in peace

2/14/2020 Valentine's Day with my sweetheart Dan.

Dan surprised me by taking me to a special place on the Sacramento River.

In the parking lot we took a selfie.

This was the first time we have worn our Christmas Tommy Bahama shirts with an almost Hot Tub Hula Girl on them.

At home he gave me a handmade, by him, Valentine's card and

I gave him some tiki reading material.

Here we are at the same place in 2010!

We had a wonderful day. We hope you did too. Wendy

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[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-02-15 13:14 ]

You two are adorable.

Awesome

Hamo thank you so much that is one of my favorite words!

hang10tiki what's awesome is what happened yesterday!

I post Dan' digging up a palm tree one of hundreds we fight each year because of a neighbors tree that is close to our fence. Then yesterday I was working clay and I kept seeing something go past my peripheral vision. But when I would look there was nothing. So I got up and went outside. Yippy!!! I will miss the view but not all the yearly babies.

What I was seeing out the corner of my eye was the falling fronds.

There is a man in a yellow t-shirt in this view.

At this point I thought he was just pruning because they had that done every other year.

But nope the top then came down and piece after piece until...

it was all gone. Now for a few more years we will remove the baby trees until one day there are no more seeds to germinate.

I miss the big palms but we are all about ease of maintenance. Cheers, Wendy

As we continue to downsize the tiki collection we also move things around so that the house is still decorated tiki.
Here's our latest project.

Mitch Tobias came years ago to photograph the collection. Now these

mugs and wooden tikis have all been sold.

So we had a large empty area. So what did we do? We put Dan's Salt and Pepper collection on these shelves.

He purged all the duplicates he was willing to part with and put them into our perpetual garage sale. Need any?

Then we began to place them on these three levels in our hallway. Up and down the ladder a hundred times at least.

If we had a matching mug we put it in place too.

Those that wouldn't fit have remained in the tiki jungle room.

Salt and peppers are the one thing he decided to keep. But the duplicates are now in our perpetual garage sale.

We are still totally tiki in our home décor. We are just not collecting any longer and selling the collection.

It's fun too because we have met many new tiki people as our collection goes from our home to theirs.

Wendy

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[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-02-16 08:43 ]

Oh my
That’s a ton of SnPs
I thought I had a lot
Wow

Cheers

Almost forgot,
what a coincidence about the palm tree.

And I know you like coincidences.

Cheers

hang10tiki he had more s and p's than we knew. Spread out in the collection they didn't look like so many. Yes! I did love this coincidence.

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Progress Report on the Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five. I have made a whole lot of Tiki Bob's for peoples wishes. I will show them all one at a time. I glaze them then according to the persons place on the Wish List they will get to choose.

To start I have made five Santa Tiki Bob's. Here is the first one. They are not numbered but I will call this number one for my own reference.

I started by making a cone of clay and then hollowing it out.

I worked so that it was the right diameter for the mug. Then using slip as glue I stuck it to the top.

The I cut a strip of clay and added it around the top again glued with slip. Then I used a tool to attach it better by dragging more clay to the hats side.

I wet my hand and then I stretched and bent the clay into position.

The mug was a bit top heavy so I added a bottom rim at the base of the mug.

Time to add the beard and mustache.

I did some fine tuning.

No flash.

After the mug firmed up in a couple of days under a loose plastic table cloth I cut a hole in the back of the mug.

Cleaned up the rim and inside the mug.

One down many more to go. Wendy

Making Santa Tiki Bob number two.

There's a lot of mess in clay projects. Especially if you shake a jar and the cap is not screwed on. My clothes and chair were much worse than my face. I had to stop work, clean the room and take a shower. Clay is very dirty mud. My 99 cent store glasses protected my eyes very well.

Each Santa is from a different mold so they will each be different along with the fact I had build the face.

A different day the back was opened up.

Each day is fun when playing with clay, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2020-02-18 09:28 ]

Backing up to the Wish For Jose called the facehugger. It was time to work on it some more.

The whole piece is now firm. I fine tuned the front and then

I lay it on it's side. I needed to dig out clay so that the round pieces and behind the creature were not so thick. I sure don't want this one to crack.

I removed as much clay as I could reach in the thick areas.

Thomas Nardinelli a ceramics instructor from Lodi High School told me to poke holes in the thick parts to let it dry better. So I just did that, no matter what it will make an interesting effect when I glaze.

Hey hang10tiki I had a good one. I am reading a book published in 2010. This paragraph just came up! I do so love co-incidences.

I am back to having fun clay-days, Wendy

Not quite as adorable as the other day....

What's really impressive is that before cleaning up you selflessly thought to take a photo for us.

Hamo I thought the clay lines on my chin looked like Maori tattoos the women do so I could resist sharing.

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Progress Report on Wish List #8 (2018) Phase Five.

Santa Tiki Bob number three.

I add the beard and then I ask Santa how he wants it carved.

Then I do it his way. You never want to get on Santa's bad side.

The sculpting is done.

It feels like Christmas again. Wendy

Face-hugger AND Santa Bobs?! What a great update :)

Sandbartender just about as far apart projects as I could think of to show! Thank you.

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Santa Tiki Bob number four. The march of the Santa's continues.

I have to admit it's really fun to stretch the clay into this point and then to bend it.

A few days later the opening was cut and smoothed.

Only one more Santa to go. I hope you will visit tomorrow for the biggest and the best of this group. Wendy