Looks like a kiln full O fun

My latest Wendy masterpiece arrived safely:

Many thanks!

A kiln O fun is right! I got to help unload it on Sunday and I couldn't stop complimenting Wendy on how amazing her work is.

And the Al Dead bowl was in there too - did it survive or did it crack in half or even explode into a million pieces!? Stay tuned to find out....

I'm away from this thread for a couple of days and I miss a contest!!!! Boo-hiss!

We're in the middle of gutting our kitchen (yuck) which keeps me busy and I've been busy making movies with the students at school so I haven't had a chance to visit. It's good to see you are as busy as ever!

March 24

A dear friend of ours has passed away. He was here on Tiki Central using his real name Steve Soto.
He was kind and loving. Dan first met him in high school and re-connected through tiki. I wish you
all could have known him. Someone posted this photo of him with the first ceramic I ever made.
It brought back a lot of fun memories.

=================================================================================================================================
Life goes on...

littlegiles all crazy fun. I work more hours retired!

hang10tiki this is step two. Make em, bake em, glaze em, bake em and check em and ship em. Lot's left to do.

ebtiki got the first Tiki Bob bowl I ever made. Dan came up with his own design which will replace this one on his shelf. I'll share it when it's ready.

TikiHula Dan's still happy how you helped me while he played records.

LoriLovesTiki sorry Lori. At least you'll have a great kitchen as your prize for all the hard work.

Polynesian Paddy March 24 so sorry but the contest closed Monday night. Now we are waiting to see who wins. Thanks for trying.

============================================================================================================================
Today I started a South Pacific Bowl. I had attached a Frankoma War God to the bowl but it didn't look right so I cut it off.

That left me with a War God with no backside. So I built a wall across the bottom and then put in a clay plug which I squished around to make a floor. This will hold a tea light.

Then I cut out the eyes.

Cleaned up and ready to dry.

I'll eventually show the bowl from which this was removed.

I'm taking the rest of the night off. I worked from 8 am until 7 pm and I'm beat.

Cheers, Wendy

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Steve and the loss of your friend, but what a great way to keep his love of tiki alive, continue making the art that he and so many of us love!

I think the tealight holder is a very cool idea. I wonder if those Frankoma War Gods are too heavy to be made into nightlights??? I could see you cutting a hole in the back and mounting one of those night light fixtures into it. Just a thought. I have a couple that are made form old china cups that are cool and a tiki nightlight could be quite fun.

• Dale

ps....just realized my date guess is gonna be WAYYYYYYYY off....silly me was counting posts and doing high math and not even thinking about views. Ugh! LOL Someone is going to win a great prize.

[ Edited by: littlegiles 2014-03-20 08:04 ]

Ebtiki- u grabbed up another great Wendy piece, welcome to the Bob-Bowl club.
Wendy- I didn't know Steve but it sounds like he was a great guy who made a huge impression on a lot of people
TikiHula-hope the HUGE bowl makes it out of the kiln ok

Early congratulations to kingstiedye, looks like the 1,000,000 should hit today...

Jon

---

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

And it did

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2014-03-20 09:12 ]

1,000,000!

Congrats Wendy on the big 1million!!!! You certainly have legions of dedicated fans!

littlegiles so many fun things to make and so little time. I wrote that and then thought of Steve. He loved purple and I made him a special purple Bob bowl. He had bought a purple chunk lamp with my tikis but I don't think he had hung it yet. So little time.

hang10tiki I'll post photos later today of opening the kiln and of Mike's bowl. We are on our way to an appointment. I got up at 5 am and it was still 700 views away from the million.

kingstiedye WOW WOW WOW YOU DID IT. YOU ARE THE CLOSEST TO THE DATE. YOU WIN THE MUG. CONGRATULATIONS TO US BOTH, YOU LIVE NEARBY AND NEED TO PICK UP YOUR RAT FINK STATUES AND THIS MUG TOO. I DON'T HAVE TO SHIP IT!!!

Friends, thank you all for entering the contest. The funny part is the kingstiedye has this mug coming up on Wish List #4. Now I may see a cancelation. I'll have to ask him.

See you all later, Wendy

Does 1,000,000 views mean this thread has gone viral?

Way to go Wendy!! Congrats on your 1M views!! If anyone deserves it, you do. I can only imagine the amount of work you put into your items and then on top of that you get on here, share pics with us and how-tos. Such an inspiration to so many.

BIG HUGS!! One day I'm gonna get one of those hugs in person!

• Dale

Damn! GROG was SO close!!

views do not equal posts, views do not equal posts...... Congrats KTD

On 2014-03-20 09:24, MaukaHale wrote:
Does 1,000,000 views mean this thread has gone viral?

Good one-

Grog, you continue to be one funny caveman.

Congrats on the win- & to Wendy as well- save a lot in shipping that beautiful piece!

WOW WOW WOW

Congrats Wendy (who LOVES numbers by the way) on one milllliiion dollar....I mean views!

Keep on rockin!

And congrats to KTD for picking the date!

congrats on the million!

Happy million Views to a lady who is ONE in a Million!
:)

Happy ONE MILLION! Quite a milestone! May you reach TWO MILLION! :) :drink:

I am also sorry to hear about your friend Steve. My condolences.

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2014-03-20 18:35 ]

Time for the Billion contest
:)

MaukaHale the only people with the view virus lurk on Tiki Central.

littlegiles I am very fond of hugs. We will be at Kon Tiki and Tiki Oasis this year and every one there after. I do hope to meet you in person one day. I always like to hear that viewers like my step by steps. So many of them are repetitive but once in a while I think up something new.

GROG you may not have won this contest but your new rocky moai bowl is a winner. It looks great!

Holler Waller I think KTD will be knocking on my door tomorrow or Saturday or I'll see him at Dr. Tiki Mojo's party on Sunday.
I do have number of posting contests once in a while. Hummm maybe one for when it reaches 5000, should I?

TikiAno saving on shipping was a win for me. It was also a fun contest where I didn't know the answer until it happened.

TikiHula see you Saturday and see your photos below! Thank you I do so love numbers.

muskrat thank you too. When I started this thread in the summer of 2010 I remember being so excited when I reached 10 views a day.
Now I wonder who all the people are who do look. I was at the ceramic store today and the owner said that he mentioned he knew a tiki artist and the couple said that must be Wendy. I wish I knew who it was he talked to. It's just good old fashioned fun.

little lost tiki you always have wonderful words flowing out of you just like all the creativity I see in your art. You are so dear.

tigertail777 thank you he was a very special man who we will miss very much. I plan to keep posting so we'll see if it takes me another 3 1/2 years to hit 2 million. How many tikis will I have made by then?

Even if you don't attend Tiki Kon I hope we can meet up with you. Is that a possibility?

hang10tiki alas I think I'm too old to make it to a billion. But I'll try.

Thank you ebTiki for this photo.

===================================================================================================

Thank you for the congratulations and kind comments. I eat them up. I appreciate all of you. You are my friends.

===================================================================================================

Wish List #4. The kiln is open and it's time to wash everything inside. This time Dan got to relax and Tiki Hula helped me out.

Two tubs, one to scrub in and one to rinse in. Even though Dan had used an air compressor to blow off the dust from sanding
more dust comes from the mugs shrinking as the fire.

Tiki Hula unloaded the kiln and I scrubbed everything. I'm showing lost of photos with lots of angles so you can locate your project. Not everything was dry so if you don't see it yours will be in the next load.

Filling the tubs with water.

Opening the kiln. He sees his ALL DEAD bowl.

The patch that was made for the top had a separation line that I'll try to fill. At the worst when it glazes this line will show. It will still function fine as a rum holder.

Top shelf view 1.

Top shelf view 2.

Wendy washing view 1.

Wendy washing view 2. How did that happen? Oh, I wanted you to see that I use a vegetable scrub brush and a sponge on a stick.

He's happy that using Magic Mend did fuse the head to the bowl.

Bottom shelf view 1.

Bottom shelf view 2.

I am so happy that I've finished scrubbing everything. Dan came out and carried all the trays into the house but first

a whole bunch of views. Can you find your project?

Now with my furniture covered and more tables brought into my home "tiki factory". They will dry and when I am ready I will start to glaze them. That will probably start on April 1st. Before then I will be asking for some of you to let me know the colors you wish for on your project.

Thank you all for making my life so much fun, Wendy

---

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-03-20 21:50 ]

I see mine...

I see mine...oh wait...sorry, I just see some that I want. I don't have one this time. :(

This next part is always my favorite, watching these amazing sculpts come to live with color.

• Dale

I'm late to the program Wendy, but HUGE CONGRATS on being over one million views. That is over one million times you've added happiness to someone's day! That's a big, big thing!

Congratulations on the 1 Million views! :) Yeah!

And my deepest condolences on the loss of your friend Steve. :( It's so sad to lose a friend and it happens way too often.

I'm glad someone screen grabbed the million views- impressive!

Looks like you'll be busy glazing for a bit! Look forward to seeing the progress!

hang10tiki even I had to search for some of them and I just washed them.

littlegiles mine too but I still have work to do. It's a matter of dust. I'll explain in a bit.

DooWop it makes it fun when the numbers go up but comments here are a real joy.

LoriLovesTiki that's where I was headed because I loved junk foods. I was lucky to have volunteered for the heart study in time to work on reversing the blockages in the blood vessels to my heart. We will miss him forever.

TikiAno glazing is the scary part but the most fun too.

======================================================================================================

Here's a lesson in ceramics. Dust destroys glazes. One speck and the glaze crawls away from it leaving a defect. So before I glaze I have to finish all the sculpting of projects. Then I clean house really well and let the dust settle. Then I start to glaze.

Right now I have several Wish List #4 projects that didn't make it into the kiln. So I've been working to use up all the casts that I had made. None of these things are ordered but Dan has already claimed a few. I want to fill up the kiln and to fire again before I glaze.

I'll show you what I've made from the misc. casts. It's been fun and I'm getting closer. My goal is to fire by the end of next week and while the kiln cools to clean up all my clay mess and dust in the house.

======================================================================================================

Here's one of my fooling around projects.

I started with one of my Ren Clark heads.

I cut out the inside of the mouth which wasn't very deep.

I made a new mouth interior.

I attached it.

Smoothed and sealed it. I liked the depth.

Then I made hair on his head and carved his eyes.

Next I added Moko and turned him into a Maori warrior.

I had a fun clay day. Cheers, Wendy

That's awesome

WOW! He is quite impressive. I love the open mouth and the face tattoos. Ok, how cool would it be to use the mouth for a bit of flaming rum. Might make it a showstopper for a party. :)

Confession time....am I the only person that tries to figure out what Wendy is watching on TV while she works? HAHA

• Dale

Dale- you are not the only one...

They sure do like the caveman channel

On 2014-03-22 07:05, littlegiles wrote:

Confession time....am I the only person that tries to figure out what Wendy is watching on TV while she works? HAHA

• Dale

What Jon said. No- though I prefer to play along w/Jeopardy (when it's on during the Wendy/ Dan show).

Looks like Grog had a stint on a soap opera :)

So everything came out of the kiln intact and in great shape! Wendy's work is impressive, but even more so when you see it grouped together. I really enjoyed unloading the kiln. And after that I picked glazes for the Al Dead bowl - woohooo!

Wendy's Maori severed head mug is so good, but just wait until you see the other one she made - it's a chicken severed head mug....no no its way cooler than that :)

TikiHula, you had an early preview of the kiln opening,
U lucky guy

Jon

hang10tiki I'm smiling at you.

littlegiles the flame in the mouth would be something to see. One day Tiki Hula will light up his AL DEAD bowl and he'll share photos. But first it has to be glazed.

hang10tiki I love GROG showing up on my show. He is a star.

TikiAno it is always the same show. I tape it for as much as 6 months, 5 days a week and then when the time comes to work at that table I play this show non-stop. It's good background noise.

TikiHula it was fun to see you this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. I think I'll share some of that time tonight.

hang10tiki yep but I make him work hard for all this fun. I'm a task master.

======================================================================================

Hey friends don't miss the zerostreet contest. All you have to do is check out his art and make a comment. He's going to draw three winning names. He has great prizes. I entered right after MadDogMike.

======================================================================================

It's so much fun to have Tiki Hula come to play. We also go out to eat. Here's our weekend.

Dan is still getting free birthday deserts. This one is from Black Angus. They also gave him a free meal. It's worth it to sign up for the birthday clubs.

We go out to lots of meals with Mike. We found out he loves whipped cream.

We went to a vintage trailer show and saw a portable bar that was pulled by a small scooter.

Close up.

Time for a selfie.

Mike surprised Dan with a Hawaiian Eye mug for his birthday.

The rest of the Wish List #4 items had dried so it was time to sand. It's getting hot and sunny so after we brought out the

first batch the men set up a shade cover. I should have done this last summer. I was always chasing shade.

You can't see it but now I'm in the shade and ready to go to work.

I took the worst of the mugs from the time the workman spilled water in one of my trays and didn't tell me. There was no saving this one so I took a hack saw to it to cut off the damaged part.

Bottoms coming off nicely.

Next I cut off the top.

My plan was to saw it into halves however

I wasn't careful and when it came through the side I clunked the bottom and broke the girl in half just like the saw and the girl in the box trick only I killed the girl.

I got a good side with the zombie and I rounded the bottom and added hole so it can hang from a chord.

Now I started to sand the Zombie Torches and found that one bottom had a large piece of plaster imbedded in it. I have to remove it so it won't blow up. I dug it out.

Then I filled it with Magic Mend. A little at a time for the course of a few hours.

This is where I left off after a whole lot of sanding.

Saturday night it was back for more whipped cream.

=============================================================
I did a whole bunch of work today but those photos are still in the camera. Here's a party we all attended
at Dr. Tiki Mojo's home. It's his 50th birthday and we got to celebrate it with him.

Pineapple upside down cake, yummm.

Music by a Mai Kai Gent.

Tiki Hula, Mai Kai Gent and Dr Tiki Mojo.

That's it for tonight. See you again soon I hope, Wendy

Wow Wendy!!

Everything looks so cool.

Each time I come to this thread I am blown away. Keep up the great work.

Got to get me a pair of those earrings.

Yep, it's certainly cool to see the whole process from start to finish - She puts so much work into each piece - a lot more that I ever thought. Glad Dan's around to help out.

And we have fun with our food at dinner :)

I'm so excited to start glazing, hopefully Sunday!

---

"But why is the rum gone?!" -Capt. Jack Sparrow

[ Edited by: TikiHula 2014-03-24 15:14 ]

Love this thread! It always makes me smile! :)

Love your tutorials...looks like you had a great time at Dave's.

Chippy you are such a fun guy, thank you.

hang10tiki we are fans of your art, both in carving and photo shopping. Dan wants the cast now. Thank you for the Old Faithful geyser vintage post card. I saw that geyser go off so many times. In the cold mornings it looked that huge. You are a sweetheart.

TikiHula are you coming on Saturday or Sunday? Either could be the right day.

LoriLovesTiki and when I read these messages I'm smiling too.

VampiressRN it was really fun. We missed you terribly. I went off my no oil diet and had some hot chips and chicken. That was wonderful.

=======================================================================

Update on the progress for the Sacramento Crawl Mug 2014.

We buy our jugs of slip in gallon jugs that are only half filled. The slip is always too concentrated to use. By having the jugs half empty I can pour in water to make it just right.

I mix the slip with my hand so that I can tell when it's perfect.

The molds had to dry a long time. We tried it outdoors and

in the kiln shed. Eventually they were ready to use.

I hadn't labeled one yet so I did it now with a carving tool.

Now I have two molds ready to pour into.

While Dan poured I beat the outside with a rubber mallet.

Then Dan did his cleanup chores.

Two hours later it was time

to pour them out

and

turn them upside down.

The next day we opened them for the first time.

It was fun to see that they had turned out.

Leaving the mug in part of the mold held it while I cleaned some of the mold lines off.

I used my scraper tool again to cut part of the top off.

Then I cut the rest of the top off. Always wet your tool as you use it to prevent dragging.

Cut off and viewing it from the top.

The very first two mugs out of the molds.

I checked the mugs and found that one had a tiny part missing. So I carved a piece out of the mold so that it would have it in the rest of the casts. I then added clay to the mug to replace the tiny missing piece.

We went shopping for more slip.

Dan did his happy dance for you.

I got ready to mix in more water.

I decided that the mugs needed more carving on the sides. So I re-do every one of the mugs by hand.

I even re-carve the lettering on the bottoms.

I always do everything I can to make my art look it's best.

Here's a finished Sacramento Crawl mug.

We have been casting two a day when we are home since 2/25/14. Tomorrow will be 3/25/14 and we will pour mugs #49 and #50.

Each of these photos show more mugs on the shelves.

I have been doing these along with the Wish List projects and

the kickstarter project for Tiki Atari.

We live in a tiki decorated house and

we make tikis.

We love our tiki friends. We have good lives that are interesting because we found our niche.
I hope you all stay tiki too.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-03-24 21:05 ]

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-03-24 23:03 ]

Time to put the lime in the coconut

Wendy, I read your posts and every time I do, I smile big and think what a lovely person you are! You and Dan live in your Tiki house and create mugs and both of you are always smiling. I know you work so hard on your mugs and art to make them perfect for everyone. You make dreams come true for people. You are like a little fairy godmother. :)

The new coconut mugs are wonderful!

• Dale

You have a "Lovely Bunch of coconuts." "Singing roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch."

On 2014-03-24 23:19, hang10tiki wrote:
Time to put the lime in the coconut

Jon beat me to it once again!

Wendy, the mold looks great. Every time I watch you guys pour molds it makes me want to try it out. Soon, soon.... for now I'll take notes from you. :)

Thanks for posting and keeping all of us smilin'.

Wendy contrats on a million views, I see you are already well on your way to the next million. I think you should cut the mouth out of a severed head and replace it with a plexiglas window, then you can see the drink inside his mouth :wink:
Glad to see Mike's bowl survived firing, excited to see how that turns out.
Jon, thanks for the earrings - I think they make me look damned handsome :blush:

Ano- :)
Mad Dog- :)

On 2014-03-24 20:59, danlovestikis wrote:
Always wet your tool as you use it to prevent dragging.

I always do...

On 2014-03-25 06:37, littlegiles wrote:
Wendy,
You are like a little fairy godmother. :)

And Hang10 - GO!
:)