Wendy Cevola - New colors of the Frank mug by Frankoma now available.

Wendy, wow, what an adventure- and I'm not only talking about Dan's butt frozen to the dinosaur!

Bummer about the weather, but that's what happens on the east coast ("April showers bring May flowers"). And yes, happens in May, too!

Wendy, that bike ride was a long time ago, I doubt you'd recognize me- I had more hair, and no glasses. Plus I was 16 or so? Maybe younger?

I've never been to Quebec but would love to go. Great pics!

Awesome pics

Found this slide
Had to share it

Looks like a monkey playing a piano
Sign says
" The Monkey World Jungle"

Florida I think
:)

TikiAno we all used to have more hair. I'm using CVS brand Rogaine to keep what I have left. All the hair that grew in is curly! So now I have hair but it's frizzy looking. How about a photo from your youth and an update on Tiki Ari.

hang10tiki I bet he plays it better than I could.

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I thought it would be fun to put all of these together. Our room attendants were terrific.

It was such fun to see these show up in our room.

I made one for them!

The last day I got a jolt. I didn't see this one until I turned from the mirror and went face to face with it. I jumped and screamed and scared Dan!

I made them thank you cards and gave them each an extra tip for making us feel special.

I did not have the plaque that MadDogMike made so I took a photo and shot this picture as we arrived in Quebec.

Tomorrow we are in Montreal. Well our photos are. We are home and working on the tiki wish list. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2017-05-18 08:47 ]

Awesome! Love the towel animals. I bet the room attendants had no idea who they were dealing with!

Hmmm... time to start a Tiki Towel thread, Wendy?

Those towels are fantastic! So glad you enjoyed your time off, Wendy!

On our last vacation we had these

Thur
On the way to Tiki Caliente
Stopped by ETs
Wow
Coolest home Tiki Room I've seen

Tiki Caliente

CY in the house

TikiAno after hang10 worked his magic I love those towels even more.

HopeChest coldest trip ever but we still had fun every day. I just wish our colds would go away. I've been back to clay work and my hand is still doing way better. I'm hopeful HoteChest.

hang10tiki your photos of Dan and ET and CY are so good I'm tempted to not post tonight but I want to finish the trip so I can get back to posting clay work. Keep on showing us all the fun you are having at Caliente. I hope it's cool in Palm Springs. It was 92 in Sacramento today.

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Here are the last three days of our trip to the East Coast and Canada. All fun but its great to be home and mucking in clay again.

We have made it to Montreal where we will stay for 3 nights.

This is what the port looks like. There are roller coasters across the river.

We said goodbye to the ship and ran through the rain to the bus for our tour.

On the bus I couldn't take photos out the window. They all looked like

these. Oh well. We are just killing some time getting to know Montreal and waiting until we could check in to the hotel.

This was the only stop on our bus tour.

Beautiful.

We liked our hotel a lot. The Omni Not Real. This was the view from our room. What we did for 3 days was eat at Ruben's 3 times and at the Universal 3 times. Then we would go back to the hotel and try to get over our colds.

In a shopping mall we found a Barbie Doll exhibit. You donate money to Make a Wish and you get to tour. It was over the top.

Here are just a few of the dolls.

Dan bought this one and brought it home.

These wild mail boxes are the standard in all of Canada that we saw. Easy to find but they look so out of place in these old areas and neighborhoods.

This trip was us celebrating 39 years of marriage. The hotel gave us Champagne. We gave it to a man on the street asking for money. He lit up, we made his day.

The island of Montreal is having their worst floods in a hundred years.

On a walk we saw ourselves in the window TV.

Dan also froze his bottom in this photo.

Computers as a work of art like The Thinker.

I like these two photos at the Montreal airport because you can't tell we are still ill with the colds.

I spent some of my Canadian money on candy and put the rest in the Make A Wish container that I found later on.

Leaving we could actually see some of the flooded areas.

Several hours later we landed in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

This is a huge airport. Usually you get off the plane and you are at your next gate. We walked for 30 minutes to get to our next gate.

Once there we ran into Bill. We worked with him at Sutter Hospital. What we didn't know was that on the same plane was also Dan's high school girlfriend. She came up to him when we got to Sacramento and were waiting for luggage.

Our weeds did really well while we were gone and they were not given any water.

Dan took them down front and back yards. Someday we will figure out what to do.

Thank you for vising here and watching our trip. Wendy

Another great Cevola trip in the books
Great pics
This one made me laugh out loud

A few more pics at Caliente

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-05-20 08:38 ]

More

Wow
Great meal
A must stop
Had a great conversation with the owner
Many great Frank Sinatra stories

Lord Fletcher's

hang10tiki you are doing such a great job of letting us feel that we are there. I'm going to wait for your last photos to go up (to keep them together) and then I will post clay work. So when you are done let me know at the bottom of the last post.

It's so good to see everyone that went. We ate at that place one time long ago. I thought it closed.

CY is rocking it this year. His art is so unique.

Hugs, Wendy

Wendy, great pics. Ditto Jon on the Wendy/ Barbie pic.

Jon, looks like you're having a terrible time. Sorry to miss it, was planning on going but work kept me away. Bummed to miss it, hope cy did great. I'm not sure what Chris is wearing (a rashguard? Looks almost like a wetsuit top, not a t-shirt?) but I'll ask him in person soon. Ha!

Wendy- that's all the pics. It was great to see everyone.
Ano- yep, tattoo lookin rashguard :)

Cheers

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-05-21 17:26 ]

hang10tiki NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You can't be done because where are the photos of Janelle?

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Months ago I made a few things that I'll be sharing now. I also made two more wishes. One I had missed on the list and a second one was for Dan. He said I was working him so hard he needed to be paid.

First up tonight are a couple of Tiki Bobs that I altered into Mid-Century Cats.

My models were my wooden cats.

Then I altered Tiki Bobs face.

Clay is just so much fun, Wendy

She was shy :)

I like the cats

And I think that was our last Tiki Caliente

---

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

[ Edited by: Hang10tiki 2017-05-22 12:40 ]

hang10tiki no fair, photos are like a visit and we miss her. We love cats but no pets for us until we decide to quit traveling.

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

It's time to share some catch up photos.

When I'm in thrift stores I watch for wooden beads that will work for my necklaces.

It's time for me to donate art to the Luau on the Lake silent auction for charity. I used some of those beads for these Zombie Village necklaces.

Dan and I were out thrifting and ran into Cole Unger's wife Jenny. That was a treat.

A thank you to Zero Tiki for the get well card. Now that I'm back to work the numbness if back to on and off. I will see a hand surgeon in June.

Dan makes CD's every day. He has many projects. For example all the best music of 1965. He decided that it was time to organize his binders of music.

We went to a Global sale and found some treasures. These are copper/enamel dishes from New Zealand.

PNG stake. Africa Mask. Hula girl in grass skirt.

When we were in O'Hare airport we saw this mammoth dinosaur.

Big Toe bones.

Then at the Global sale I found this super big and heavy war club. It's made with a real bone. Maybe a dinosaur toe bone?

About 3 feet long. Wrapped with leather.

What country do you think it's from by looking at the designs.

Could be a horse tail or human hair, I couldn't tell.

I have finished sculpting the missing wishes and I'll show them soon. It's wonderful to be in a new phase of sanding and firing the projects.
More photos soon, Wendy

There was one Wish on the list that I missed. So As soon as we were back from our trip I went to work on it.
This is for Jeffrey Bannow's home bar. It is a combination of a passion fruit and a wave.

Here is the fruit which also dictates the color of the mug.

My reference wave which also helps with coloring the mug.

I choose the mold which would work best. I soothed off all of the coconut texture on the outside.

I blew up this balloon with it inside the mug and made it have lots of pressure. It job is to keep the mug from collapsing as I roll it around the table to make the shape that of the passion fruit.

After I positioned the fruit on the turntable I also in addition to rolling the mug I began to add clay to form the shape of the tip of the fruit.

Now it's getting there.

I used tape to flatten the end with the opening into the balloon. This allowed me to now add clay to close it off. Since the balloon can be pressed to make room for a brush I did that and smoothed the clay inside the mug also.

Little by little until this end was closed up.

After the clay had firmed up again after a few days I started on the wave.

I go slowly and carefully so there are no air pockets between layers of clay. These would explode in the kiln.

Then I carved the name of the bar. This is a combo of the fruit name and the Hawaiian name for wave.

Jeff decided that he wanted the stem so that it looked more like the fruit.

Next I cut the opening at the top of the mug that will be large enough for ice cubes even after it shrinks from drying and firing. I popped and removed the balloon.

All done.

At the base of the stem are some dead pieces of leaves. All the leaves are placed to prevent the stem from breaking off.

On 2017-05-23 07:47, danlovestikis wrote:
There was one Wish on the list that I missed. So As soon as we were back from our trip I went to work on it.
This is for Jeffrey Bannow's home bar. It is a combination of a passion fruit and a wave.

Love it - can't wait to have a drink out of it!

Lookin good

Jeff Bannow, I'm so happy that you are happy. Do you want the inside of the mug yellow? Do you want the name of the bar left purple or done in white or yellow since it is carved into the fruit?

hang10tiki I still have more projects to share that happened because of the Wish List.

Wendy

Wow, great name for a home bar- and fantastic sculpt! We have a lilikoi vine, and love them to bits (Wendy, Tiki Ari is also a huge fan of both eating and hunting for lilikoi that have fallen off the vine (when ripe)). Look forward to seeing this completed!

Since I know Wendy will ask, here are a couple photos of the boy attacking a passion fruit:

Sucking it down, as I learned in Hawaii many years ago...

Love the idea of using a balloon to hold the clay up and preventing it from folding in- Wendy, thanks again for another ceramics tip that I will definitely use! I've used foam blocks, towels, and more, but a balloon makes the most sense!

I hope your hand gets stronger and better- hopefully you can continue taking it easy even after your cruise to give your hand a break- though I know that may be tough since you work nonstop on all of this amazing work!

As requested, Wendy, here's a recent pic of Tiki Ari (at the Bali Hai, at the recent "Tiki Trader" event (where I vended)

On 2017-05-23 21:03, danlovestikis wrote:

Jeff Bannow, I'm so happy that you are happy. Do you want the inside of the mug yellow? Do you want the name of the bar left purple or done in white or yellow since it is carved into the fruit?

hang10tiki I still have more projects to share that happened because of the Wish List.

Wendy

I think yellow inside and white for the lettering would be great. Thanks!

Ano- dang, lil dude Gettin big

Mornin Wendy, how's the wrist?

TikiAno what a fun morning to wake up to these photos. I will smile all day thinking of him and the fruit photos. Thank you so much.

Jeff Bannow that would be my choice too.

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

Update on the Wish List #7. During the last year...yes year...I started casting last June for this Wish List and began the project in September. Since I started so early on both the Wish List and the Sacramento Crawl mug I have a ton of Catch Up project photos to share. While I do that I have started to glaze what has already been fired. So much to show and so little time. I will get it out there day by day.

So here is the first catch up.

I have had problem with making lids for my huge Maori lamps.

I would hand build the disk and then when firm do all the design carving.

I would dry them in and out of a plastic bag and right about the time they were done drying they would crack. ARGH!

So I decided that maybe I was trapping air in the clay when I made them and that casting would be better. So it's time to sculpt a lid and to make a mold. So I started with a mix of Romo #3 and #2 and some Monster Clay.

To save my joints I use a wooden "thumb".

I save lids that I can use as templates. I mark the clay for cutting.

The so I don't slip I use one as a brace as I remove clay.

I constantly smooth the clay.

Looking at it I decided that I wanted the ring in the center to be larger.

I added a ring of clay and

smoothed it into shape.

Thinking about mold making I changed to shape into a pyramid.

once I was done adding clay I used my label scraper to cut the top flat.

All done. Now how will I make a mold for this?

I flipped it over and smoothed the top.

I will need an opening in which to pour in the slip so I made a cone of clay.
I set it in the center of my lid.

I added clay at the bottom.

I mushed it into place locking the cone to the lid.

I smoothed it around the base.

Almost looks like a space ship with a beam to steal cows!

Now the lid is ready to mold along with my new Rapa Nui mug. I bisque fired the mug since the sculpt was made from carving regular clay and not sculptors clay. Now it is hard and can be molded.

Now I'm off to work, Wendy

Wish List #7 back in time...this mold was made during the winter.
These making the mold steps are not as complete as other step by steps I have in this thread elsewhere. For example I'm not showing the snakes being run up all the seams of the mold boxes. I'm not showing the painting on of the mold soap on every mold piece.

WEAR A FACE MASK THE ENTIER DAY. THE SMALLEST PIECES OF PLASTER DUST STAY IN THE AIR FOR MANY HOURS. THESE ARE WHAT WILL GIVE YOU COPD.

I always put Dan to work making the snakes that will seal the box sides from leaking plaster. Keep these sticky wet with a water spray bottle during the day and also keep a plastic bag draped over them.

Here I am making the layer of blocks on the bottom mold board.

This shows the layer under the sculpt of the lid.

I had a layer of blocks under the sculpts and how I build a layer around each sculpt.

Since I do it this way it saves time and clay. I will only need a quarter inch layer of clay on top of the blocks.

TOXIC MOLD SOAP. Without this all the pieces will permanently stick together. I routinely do 4 layers letting it soak in and then lightly blotting. Wear gloves and a face mask.

Each layer is like this then after a few minutes I blot it with a paper towel.

The clay has been added to the top of the block and dents pressed in as locks.

We were too tired to continue. Since I had already but the layer of clay on the blocks and along the seams I needed to

wrap up the molds to keep the clay from drying out.

The next morning the clay was still moist. I ran a wet cloth along the seams between the box sides to make sure the clay was still sealing these areas.

Now after 4 Layers Of MOLD soap it was time to pour the last piece for the lid mold.

The clay is removed and 4 LAYERS of MOLD soap is applied to the plaster. If I forgot this the mold would not come apart EVER!

The box is put back together and the plaster is poured in to make the last piece.

Two more pieces poured. The last one for the lid mold.

Time to remove the clay and to prep for the next RN mug piece.

If it looks like there is room for plaster to go under a mold piece I carve away some plaster so that there will not be any sharp fragile edges on a mold piece. This makes the pieces come together like a right angle or sides of a box.

The lid sculpt is removed and the mold looks just right.

The last piece of the Rapa Nui mold is poured.

The last mold piece to make for the Rapa Nui mug will be the bottom. I dug out the clay.

4 layers of mold soap on the mug and the side mold pieces. If plaster touches plaster you must have this barrier.

The plaster was poured in and after it became hard I used a rasp to make the bottom of the mold flat.

Even with four layers of mold soap that I allowed to soak in before blotting some areas still stuck and broke off. It will just take some time to recurve these for each mug I make.

Out in the kiln room they will dry with fans blowing on them 24/7 for several weeks. If it were hot weather this would go faster.

I have step by steps for dozens of molds posted on these pages. So little by little I back off from showing some steps because of the time it takes to post each photo. But if you are starting out with mold making you can find many examples on this thread.

I will also answer questions posted here. Cheers, Wendy

I'm all caught up now with your thread Wendy! Sorry you had such bad weather for your trip. I've never been to Canada. Although I live in NJ I hate the cold! I'm jealous of you Californians. :)

Wendy- wow
True dedication to your craft
I would have trouble turning on the fan
:)

LoriLovesTiki thank you. I'm so grateful that anyone spends time to look at my posts. We don't have snow in my area but it's Southern California with all the unending great weather. We had a fun trip. It was very different from any others. In fact when we went to Alaska it was much warmer and sunny too.

hang10tiki HA! you are the same but with wood which is much harder. That reminds me to go check up your bar and carving threads. So many fun things to do and so little time.

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More steps on making lids for my Maori Lamps and the new Rapa Nui mug.

Here is a repeated photo to show the Rapa Nui alphabet I copied for this mug.

The molds have dried for weeks and now it is time to do the first casts.

I put the Rapa Nui mug together and then

the lid mold. I strapped them. Will they leak or be fine?

No leaks. I don't like coming out to top off molds so for the molds that don't have excess depth at the top I put a funnel in place. I seal it with clay and then fill it to the top. That way as the mold removes water it pulls more slip into the mold. NO BABYSITTING and top offs.

We dump out as much left over slip as possible and then remove the funnel.

The next morning we opened the molds.

Are these lids cursed? Its not even out of the mold, still soft clay and there is already a huge crack!

I tipped the mold over and the lid came out onto the plastic covered board.

Once this cone top is firmer I will cut it off.

I dug out the cracked area and used clay of the same consistency so that it will shrink at the same rate and

I filled and smooth the crack.

I made a mistake that will cost me extra time when I finish each mug. I made the opening extra big for pouring out the slip.

That would have been fine but I should have made it the same size of the mug for at least at 1/2 inch first so that cutting off the excess clay at the top wasn't so close to the designs. Now I add clay to built it up. That takes time.

The backside of the mug cast better than the front. But with clay anything can be done to fine tune the project.

Out of the mold I cut the top off.

I can see all the designs and I will use a tool to re-carve each one.

All cleaned up.

Here is a second mug where I left the top edge rocky in shape.

Here are two styles of the backside. On the second one I raised the Nui and put a fish underneath.

There's more to come tomorrow, cheers, Wendy

Dig this one
Good job

hang10tiki thank you. I hope you are off this weekend and having fun.

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39 years ago I married Dan Cevola on a Saturday. Today we play!

My mom met him when he was 5 years old. She instantly connected with him and he with her. 20 years later she introduced us.

We married in my moms backyard. I made Dan's outfit from a pattern for a Croatian Wedding outfit. We loved foreign clothing.

Mom did a good job.

Every day I am happy to be married to my sweetheart.

We are going to our most nostalgic pizza parlor from when we were dating today and to walk through a flea market that is still next door. So off we go.

Hugs to you all, Wendy

Wow
Best Cevola post ever
:)
:)
:)
:)
:)

Wow, indeed!

HAPPY Anniversary! What fantastic photos.

Absolutely beautiful smiles, plus beautiful outfits. I am usually 100% opposed to facial hair, but have to say Dan was truly rockin' it.
Cheers (Pizza party!)

Happy Anniversary Wendy & Dan!

Great photos, great couple, hope you both had a fantastic day celebrating!

Awesome photos! Happy Anniversary!!!

hang10tiki AHHHHHHHHHHHH

bamalamalu we had a wonderfully perfect day and when it ended I started glazing the Wish List! Thank you.

hang10tiki you are such a cute cartoon.

TikiAno it couldn't have been better.

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Here's our 39th wedding anniversary photos.

First we went to a flea market that we haunted when we first got married. In later years it started just selling new things. Today I got to cross an item off my have to have list. I found a real boat steering wheel for $20. Mint condition.

Then right next door to our favorite pizza place Roma's. Owned by an Italian family. I should have taken the photos before I covered the pizzas with parmesan and salad dressing. I hid from view all the goodies. Yes we brought most of it home.

At stop lights I prevent boredom by reading license plates. I finally on this day found one with my old initials. I used to be Wendy Eve Dawson.

At home we exchanged gifts. Dan got his SHAG book and

I got an Egyptian cat that I had forgotten about. Ever since Dan bought me a bust developer machine for Xmas I pick out my own presents during the year. I forget about what I found and then I do get surprises.

From EBay I found these shakers. We hope they are vintage. The stoppers look old.

Then Dan really did surprise me with another mid-century cat in a size I hadn't seen before. It made my day. Two cats one for our Egyptian bedroom and one for downstairs.

We also exchanged love letters. We have a real love match. Thank you all for sharing the day with us.

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Back now to Wish List #7. I still have a few more things to show that were made a while back and are still drying.

Getting back to the lids for the Maori lamps. I decided that the first cast had cracked because I left it in the mold overnight which is a form of drying. So the next four I cast I removed from the mold within 3 hours of casting.

It worked. I was later able to carve them and then to bisque fire them without any cracking. Yippy!!! Now I have more lids than lamps cast.

---

Dan works for tikis. I have to make things he requests so that he'll continue to be my heavy lifter. So right at the end of casting he requested a mermaid bowl after seeing the one I made for Nelson Osorio.

I cast the large bowl.

Then I cast four of my Bumatay fish. I like how some molds look 3D when photographed.

I thought that a mermaid should have fish surrounding her.

Once she was done, Dan didn't want scales on her tail I

attached her to the bowl along with four Bumatay fish.

After a couple of days of slowly drying it was time to fine tune the fish with more detail.

Dan wanted a ring of tapa carved around the sides.

All done and ready to continue drying.

Thank you all again for your visits and comments. You all bring such happiness into my life. Wendy

Looks like you guys had another fun day
Great pics
Love Dan-0s new bowl

I've never seen those salt n peppas before
Nice find

Interesting
I picked up a new ice machine
Look want came out
:)

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

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-05-28 08:39 ]

Found em

Love critiki

Just popping in to say aloha to everyone and Happy Anniversary Wendy and Dan! Got to visit TC more often, but as you know I keep up with you on Facebook :)

Love the Ku S&P you found! Just when you think you've seen it all...

hang10tiki thank you, it was a fun bowl to make.

hang10tiki you would make a great detective. Did the post say if the place is still open?

TikiHula Kohlacharms has many things we've never seen before. It's not possible to collect it all. I like collections that are of all one place or artist. Like Chippy's Tiki Bob collection. Good to hear from you here or there.

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

Here's part one of my story of failure.

Owen Wright on fb designed an elaborate project for me to make for him. I tried but it could work out as designed. So I made this for him instead.

I took the pieces that I had started for his project and used them to make other things. Here is part one. I can't share his plans because we may try it again on the next Wish List #8.

He wanted this little tiki that Sophi Loren was holding.

To make it I cast a mug and then cut it up.

I rolled and sealed a nice tube for the moai's body.

Then I just started building by adding pieces of

clay,

The head is solid. It works as long as this is dried for weeks in and out of a plastic bag.

He has really bad posture but he's as close as I could make him to the picture with Sophia.

A long time ago to make the handles for a cannibal pot I would make each piece separately. Now I put the clay on and carve it.

Then I finish it off. Faster and easier.

I add the flames while it is upside down.

Now he is all done and

ready to dry. The coconut cannibal bowl with moai.

Cheers, Wendy

Looks like Sam's by the sea is open

That CocoMoai or is it a Moainut looks great

Happy Anniversary!!!

Looks like you 2 had a great time. Not sure we want to hear the story of the bust developer machine :)

Hang10 - I have a little wooden mug from Sam's. My friend in the navy has been there a few times and says it is pretty cool!

Treg- awesome (pic)

hang10tiki I thought it must be or the shakers would have had more bidders. I like CocoMoai or just call him Stew.

lunavideogames ha ha.

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:)