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

Spider Bob awesome

GROG (said in Elvis's voice) Thank Ya Very Much.

hang10tiki Bob be fun and happy to be appreciated.

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

Progress Report on Wish List #8. The kiln is opened but it is too cold and wet outside to wash them.

Top Shelf.

Middle Shelf.

Bottom Shelf.

Nothing cracked and everyone is fine so, OH NO I had to bring them to place on my dining room table.

Here they will sit until we are able to take them back outside to scrub.

I started these back in October. This year I'm making batches from start to finish so that they get shipped out faster and I don't have so much being held in my home. I just need the weather to co-operate.

It's all fun, Wendy

PS set your clocks ahead

Lots of goodness came outa dat kiln

Funny as I was scrolling down
that picture of Dan from 2 days ago
caught my eye

It made me think

“Hmmm, looks familiar”

I know:

Dan-0 looks like he’s at the happiest place on earth

hang10tiki good one but he needs teeth too. Wendy

I don’t recall ever seeing Mickeys teeth
but your wish is my command

hang10tiki I will have to see if I can find a sweet Mickey smile because these photos of Dan are scary!

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

Progress Report on the Sacramento Crawl mug and Wish List #8.

Last year I did all the sculpting, then all the firing, then all the glazing and then all the shipping. It meant I worked for a year before anyone got their art. This time I am going in waves. I do a lot then go through all the steps to finish and ship then I start again. I'm on wave number two right now. Soon I will begin to glaze.

For California it's cold so I put a heater on full behind me and I wore a jacket, gloves and protective gear.

I have a lot to sand. Dan is outside taking each piece to blow off the dust as I work, then he puts them in the kiln. Glazing these goblets is scary because they take so long to make and they are fragile until fired.

The bottom level filled and then the top level is

filled. This took a lot of hours of coordinated work. I decided to sand the rest of the dry pieces for the next firing because rain is on the way and that shuts us down.

I lost concentration and pulled this bowl to me without thinking and I broke off the side I was pulling. Such a huge bummer!

MadDogMike showed me this product years ago and it's a staple on my shelf. I've learned not to hurry it. I "glued the two pieces together and let it sit for 24 hours to completely dry.

I used this melon scoop to "sand" the pieces. It was just the right shape.

The repair clay takes up space so when the piece was put in place it didn't fit perfectly. That's OK. I let it sit for 24 hours to dry.

Time to sand and carve to fine tune the bowl. I put on my protective gear.

The inside and top edge needed to be sanded.

I use the mesh type of sandpaper and I removed a lot of clay until it was smooth.

The outside looked the worst. I sanded it way down until it looked right.

Then I carved the rough surface so that it matched the bowl again.

Now I flipped the bowl over and did the same, sanding and

carving. It's now ready to fire. Hopefully this worked and the bowl has been saved. The best part is that this is a bowl that I made without selling it to anyone. So if it fails no one but me is disappointed.

I had four Sacramento Crawl mugs waiting to be cleaned and since they were on the kitchen counter I decided to "spook" Dan when he came downstairs for dinner.

Cheers, Wendy

Progress Report Wish List #8 and on the Sacramento Crawl Mug for 2018.

The kiln was opened when cool and each item examined as it was removed.

Nothing cracked!

We carried it outside to prepare for scrubbing them. One speck of dust equals one glaze skip. We fight against that.

I use the sponge on the inside and the brush on the outside. That's the best I can do.

I scrub and Dan rinses, that's why we have two water sources. We keep the lid on these until we are done then we bucket the water to our shrubs. Water is precious.

The first scrubbed Crawl mug!

These were all brought into the house and covered with a clean plastic sheet.

Keeping busy is really easy! Wendy

Work work work

Don’t forget to stop for cookies

Look at all those bathing hula beauties.

Just noticed you’re at the nice round numbers of 7200 posts on TC, which averages to 1.25 posts per day since you started. Thought you’d like to know, since you like numbers.

hang10tiki I'm always happy to see you pop up here.

Hammo that's so fun. I clicked back on a prior page to see what the number of posts were at that time and found that every post changed to 7,200. Thank you for pointing this out to me. I better get to work and make it 7,201!

Progress Report on Wish List #8 and the Sacramento Crawl mug for October 2018.

We carried all of these dry mugs from the garage to the shed.

As usual I fine tune and sand the mug and Dan takes it to blow off the dust with the air compressor and then he

loads it into the kiln. Here is the bottom level full. Time to put the next shelf in place and to keep going.

The first mug I made I used regular sand paper. So much I think I spent $30 to do 50 mugs. Someone saw my photos and told me of mesh sandpaper. It last a very long time and

when it fills up with dust you just tap it against your garbage can and it falls out.

Top level is full and I started the kiln to do the bisque fire.

But we didn't stop. I told Dan lets keep going until the shed is full of sanded mugs. Then we are ready to keep loading and firing. Rain was on the way and once it comes we can't work outside.

We kept it up until

the shed was full. Then we called it a day and headed inside to take showers.

I try to assembly line. But this time it's in batches.

Cheers, Wendy

More progress on the Sacramento Crawl mug. The photos look like others because the steps are all the same steps just different batches.

Unload those that are fired.

Re-load the kiln and set to fire.

Wash those that are unloaded.

Protect the art from dust.

Back to work. Wendy

Hey, how did that one slip by without comment?!
Only one possible name for her.

You need gloves
Your hands look raw

Philot Dan named it Tiki Boob. Is that what you were thinking? Wendy

Wow! Tiki Boob looks amazing! :D

Philot did Dan get it right?

hang10tiki I'm going through a lot of hand cream to prevent cracking!

zerostreet thank you, Dan loves those things!

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

Catch up photos. Dan was out washing up after pouring a mug so I took these photos of my kiln shed.

I made this sign for him years ago.

Now while thrifting I found a lot of metal sculpture for the outside walls of my shed.

Remember last summer I painted these to spruce them up.

This was only $5.19.

The beautiful fish have glass bodies and they were only $3.19 each. Goodwill has some great bargains.

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

Progress Report on the Maori Lamp for Mondo By The Bay aka Karen Schell.

Dan said this mold is the largest we will ever make and hopefully all molds will be smaller from now on. After he said that I made the volcano. Poor Dan.

Opening the mold for the lamp.

I did the sculpt as a blank so that every Lamp will be hand carved and original. Or a lesser expensive uncarved one.

Here it is with the mold lines cleaned off and waiting to be carved.

Even the sides and back are blank.

There is also the option of adding clay around the sides as shown here.

Here all the clay has been added.

Flash photo. I will even carve these added pieces when they are firm.

Deciding the design takes awhile. Then I start.

I add indentations as to where the design ends.

Carving is the part I really enjoy.

I use a wet brush to "sand" it smooth.

The top is done.

I like to deepen the interior of the mouth.

Time to start on the back. Huh, the top of my table looks like a continuation of my carpet only with clay smudges.

Back at it tomorrow. Wendy

Lookin sweet
But
That’s not a lamp
It’s the biggest tiki mug ever

Glad to see you finally gave Dan a break from volcano molds with that tiny Maori. These lamps are some of my favorite of your work.

hang10tiki The worlds largest tiki mug. Good Idea!

Hamo his muscles are really growing with each mug we pour!

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

Progress Report on Wish List #8 and the HUGE Maori Lamp for Mondo By The Bay.

I have to first figure out the design and then go to work.

"Sanding" with a wet brush.

Getting there one carve at a time.

There's still a long way to go. Wendy

Coming together
Your “super carve” is awesome

The flowers are out

hang10tiki thank you I love to carve clay. The flower is beautiful.

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

Wish List #8 the HUGE Maori lamp for Mondo By The Bay is finished being carved and it's time for it to dry.

All I had to do was carve and carve and carve.

Last year I made some lamp lids ahead of time so I could just pick one out as I made the lamps. I did this because they are a project all on their own.

Now it will slowly dry in and out of a plastic bag until time to sand and fire.

Cheers, Wendy

Progress Report on Wish List #8 and the Sacramento Crawl mug. One step and one day at a time and it all gets done!

Gotto Go it's time to work some more, Wendy

Progress Report on Wish List #8

Sometimes I take on a project not knowing it I can pull it off or not. I still don't know about this one because it's not dry yet. It could crack. It's also not tiki but it is a fun subject that many of us watched on TV as kids.

This will be the I dream of Jeanne project. The bottle and the girl. They don't fit together they are each stand alone art. I will even have to get out my sewing machine at some point to make pillows and a vail.

Here's the inspiration that Abdo sent to me. He drew the photo of the bottle.

I will have to hand build the bottle to I bought this vase to use and a support.

This will turn into one of the really hard project this time around. Cheers, Wendy

Great detail
Especially Dan-0

IDofJ
This is going to be good
One of my favorite shows

The Moari carving turned out great. The Jeannie is quite a change of pace. Nice to all the fired pieces; can’t wait for glazing to start.

This will be the I dream of Jeanne project. The bottle and the girl. They don't fit together they are each stand alone art. I will even have to get out my sewing machine at some point to make pillows and a vail.

"I Dream of Jeannie" project----(ticket number one.)

stand-alone art-----should be hyphenated---(ticket number two)

pillows and a veil----Vail is a city in Colorado----(ticket number three)

The Spelling Police :)

[ Edited by: grog 2018-03-21 08:29 ]

Great supercarving, Wendy, as always!

Good to see Grog back and spell checking again! :)

Good luck with hand building the genie bottle! I've always wanted to throw a form like that, but alas, my throwing skills aren't there.....

hang10tiki I do so love to carve, you too. Your swap project is excellent.

Hamo I'm looking forward to having poured and cleaned all the volcano's and then moving into a glazing phase. That part is another challenge.

GROG as my mom would say, "just slow down and get it right". I would say, "don't forget the spell check". For a cave man you sure know your stuff.

TikiAno I could never center on a potter's wheel either. My sister was a professional potter and well known in Oregon. I just did it with globs of clay.

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

Wish List #8 I Dream of Jeanne update.

I have never done this before. I saw how MadDogMike has done it so I decided to try his method. I think I should have looked it up again before starting. I had problems. So I covered the bottle with tissue paper. This would burn off in the kiln leaving behind the clay. I put on a few layers and let it slowly dry for a week.

It was time to add the clay but I started to worry. I thought how can I this come off the bottle with the clay?

I tried to cut the tissue paper with a knife then a razor blade. It was a mess. Who knew tissue paper was so tough to cut. MDM must have used one layer not the dozen that I put on.

I gave up trying to cut it off and just wrapped the whole thing with plastic wrap.

I pounded out a lot of clay. Keep in mind one air bubble in the clay this whole project will crack or explode. I started by adding it to the bottom of the jar.

Next I began the sides.

This clay is very soft. I would add some and then it would sit in a plastic bag over-night or is it overnight? GROG I need you!

The next day I would build it some more and then another day would go by.

This is a long process. I won't give up. Wendy

Wish List #8 one step at a time for the I Dream of Jeanne bottle.

This takes many days here are a few of them although it looks like one.

I filled all the dents I could find and then I

bagan to build the bottom.

The clay is very soft so I have to be careful not to add so much that it starts to bend down.

It's around a foot to go around the bottle one glob at a time.

I smoothed the bottom to lift it and then

I added clay to the top.

I smoothed and lifted the bottom again.

It's time to evaluate the bottle.

Top view.

This time I used a tool to shape and smooth the top.

Then I used a wet paper towel.

I'm finally seeing the bottle at I had hoped. Wendy

So excited for the "I Dream of Jeannie" project, but then, I get excited by all your projects.

I am a little disappointed that nobody has photoshopped your head onto Jeannie's body yet, but I'm sure it's coming. Can't leave something that tempting undone for long. HAHA

littlegiles what a nice comment. When someone writes it inspires me to keep on going. I'm happy that this will be a one of a kind because it has it's hard times which I will share.

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

Wish List #8 the I Dream of Jeanne bottle steps continue.

Using the drawing as a guide I added rims.

Next I shaped the top which messed up the rim. Sometimes with soft clay it's just back and forth.

This bottle is to be an open sided art piece so you can see into Jeannie's home. After fixing the rim I cut down the side.

Then I began to cut and remove clay.

After looking at it I could tell I wouldn't be able to get my hand inside to remove clay so I

cut the opening even larger.

I messed up the top and had to do it a third time.

The clay is way too thick but I knew this and I will carve out the excess clay when it is firm. I found an air pocket. See the small hole. This would have blown up my project in the kiln when fired. I am so lucky to have found it but so scared that I could have more lurking in there someplace.

This clay is very soft so I can't yet remove the inside jar.

Many more steps to come, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-03-23 12:51 ]

I was wondering how you were going to get the bottle out of the Genie Bottle. I thought maybe you were going to rub it three times to get your wish.

MaukaHale that would be so nice.

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

Wish List #8 The I Dream of Jeannie bottle. More steps and more days of work.

It's time to take the bottle out. I pulled the sides apart. It's still very soft.

I can already tell that the bottle will have to go back inside or the bottle will collapse. I decided that I didn't need the plastic wrap so I cut it off.

This is where I'm yelling Dan Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp! I couldn't let go.

So he came and took all the rest of the plastic wrap off the inner bottle and helped me put it back inside to support the top.

Days later it was firmer so I took out the bottle.

I decided that all I could do was smooth the inside.

It started to collapse. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! So he held the top upright with a plastic bag while I finished the smoothing. I will eventually carve out a lot of the clay so this is busy work.

This time I supported it with balloons. First this one and

then a smaller one on top until the top

was straight up. Now I sealed the top together so I can't ever put the inner bottle back in place.

I hope you are all having a very fun Saturday night, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-03-31 09:24 ]

Working on my tax return.

MaukaHale so sorry. We already got our $300 refund.

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

Wish List #8 the I Dream of Jeannie bottle continues it's extremely slow journey.

Last time I missed a couple of photos. I keep messing up the top and I have to start over again

This time I carved it to match the drawing better. I'm going to try to not ruin it again.

It had been a few days with the clay firming up some more so I took out the balloons and started to carve.

Nope too soon. I'm afraid that when this happen it could crack so

I put the balloons back in and waited another week for the clay to firm up.

Good Night, Wendy

I know you can do it Wendy!!!!!

MadDogMike since I'm behind in posting I can say that in the end it finally firmed up. Thank you for the encouragement. Dan and I are about to pass on, as a gift, one of our treasured MadDogMike works of art. You'll see what's going on below. The work is the Voodoo piece and it's going to the Voodoo lounge of Dr. Tiki Mojo aka Whylee Ravaen. It's a perfect fit. We have loved it for a long time and now like Mr. Tiki it's going on a trip 2 miles from our home. Thank you always.

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

TIKI GARAGE SALE NEWS. On April 14th from 8 AM until 1 PM (NO EARLY BIRDS). Dan will be selling tikis and misc. from his collection. We truly have run out of room and if he wants to continue to have fun he needs to let go of some items to make space. I will be posting more photos along the way as we prepare. This will be a big sale with everything priced super low so that it will go.

Send me a personal message if you need our address in Elk Grove, California, just 16 miles south of Sacramento.

We went to Trader Joes to get boxes that we can fill and then unload in the Garage.

I HAVE A SYSTEM. BRING YOUR OWN BOX WITH YOUR NAME ON IT. AS YOU FILL IT WRITE THE AMOUNT FOR EACH ITEM ON THE SIDE OR PUT THE STICKER THERE AND I'LL JUST ADD IT UP WITHOUT TAKING IT ALL BACK OUT OF THE BOX!!!

Our neighbors cat who visits us each day was shocked at all Dan is giving up.

Unorganized but this is the first step.

Dan's job is to bring it to me and then I place it and price it.

Now it's coming together but we will have double this many tables by the time of the sale.

While working we had a big surprise. We just had new neighbors move in this week. His parents too. The wife is due in two weeks for their first child. Well when a fireman came out carrying a baby 10 minutes after they arrived we knew she came early. This was super fast. A few minutes later they were gone. The father of the son came over to tell me that it went so fast the fireman barely had time to catch the baby as he came in the door!

Setting up has gone well so far and so did the delivery of a new baby girl. What fun.

We picked this date to not conflict with Easter weekend and the crawl on the 7th in the bay area. I hope we picked a good one. This is not an open house. We will be in the garage selling so no tours this time.

Hope to see you all there. More photos as we prepare. Cheers, Wendy

Wow. I’m kinda tempted to fly out from Colorado for a chance to make some of Dan’s collection my own. But then how to get things home? And is it even worth it without the possibility of a tiki jungle room tour? Hmmm.

Hamo we would love to meet you but the day of the crawl is not going to work. Dan has put his foot down that this is a sale and not a party. There will be many people to meet so it will be social. Dan remembers past tiki garage sales where we collapsed after and we were much younger back then. So welcome but you will only see the garage if you come. )= : Wendy

Progress Report on Wish List #8 and the I Dream of Jeannie bottle for Bulkmar.

I checked out the drawing for the bottle and set to work.

I cut into the clay. I went all the way around from side to side.

I didn't like how it looked so I did it this way with a much wider band.

I have to make a top for the bottle that will hold a diamond on the top.

I will share what I did but sitting here now I think I've found a better way to me it work out. So I'll make another one tomorrow.

It's fun to have ideas during the Wish List. I just never know how things will turn out until they are done.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-03-31 09:26 ]

More photos of tikis in the garage sale on April 14th, 2018 at 8 AM until ! PM.

Dan wants it to be worth the gas to drive here from all around us so he's letting go and pricing low!

The wooden tikis.

Behind the wooden tikis there are more tables loading up.

He is searching for mugs to part with from tiki places, events and runs.

From the other side.

Those tables are almost full then he plans to more on to fill up these tables. This will be a big sale.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. Bring me your best hugs, Wendy

Wish List #8 the I Dream Of Jeannie needs a stopper for the bottle. His drawing show the diamond on the top so here's how I did that. In the end I think I'll go back and make another stopper with the diamond on the side and he can decide which he likes best.

When it firmed up I dug out all the excess clay so that it will not crack as it dries.

Empty.

I think I'll go start on the stopper now. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-03-31 09:27 ]

The sale is growing by the day. Dan is really letting go because we couldn't move in our home freely! We have been collecting for 21 years.

Here's some more photos of our progress.

Dan is going through his collection shelf by shelf. He has a lot of hidden mugs that he's pulling out for the sale.

He puts them on trays and then brings them to me in the garage and I price them. Sometimes he changes what I did but not often.

Here's the start to fill these three tables.

I'm giving up my three books.

Then Dan said, "hey I'll go through my books too". So here are some with more coming!

I used to do eBay auctions and I collected a whole bunch of Made In Hawaii Jam's World rayon shirts in men's sizes s, m and l. In a shop they are $100 each and very well made. I've decided to sell them for $5 each.

I filled this table and then

I added two TV trays for lighter items across at the other table.

I got these all set up and Dan said he couldn't see the price tags so I pulled them down and put them on a table. Things are changing constantly as we set it up.

I'm about to begin glazing so I don't need my pour table so it's now covered with tikis.

Dan's giving up his United Airlines tiki. It had a hole in the bottom so I filled it with plaster to make it bottom heavy. Now it doesn't tip over like so many do.

A few days ago when we were setting up the fire department delivered our new neighbors baby girl.

Today she was brought home from the hospital. We were ready with a present and also a welcome to the neighborhood.

When Dan said, "I'm continuing the purge", I said, " since I could use more tables for my ceramics let's go buy a couple more.

Now Dan will work to fill these up to capacity. If you need our address to find us in Elk Grove, CA just post a request here or in personal messages. I swear our prices are extremely low. You can buy from us and re-sell at events.

I will continue to post more photos as we continue to bring out more items.

Cheers, Wendy

Oh boy, now I’m seriously considering a road trip to Las Vegas and California, culminating in your garage sale....

Hamo two of our favorite places. We love Las Vegas for the antique stores, buffets at Wynn, Bellagio and Planet Holleywood and then the best part of all visiting hang10tiki.

We love where we live too. But remember the sale will be exhausting so we are not doing home tours. We are ripping the house apart looking for tikis Dan can part with and that will continue until the sale.

For those coming by air plane, we will have some boxes but everyone else must bring their own packing materials. I don't even have newspaper.

Cheers, Wendy

Whew; my fever broke and I’ve come to my senses. As much as I’d like to go, a road trip to Vegas and Sacramento is not a good use of my time or resources. I’ll plan something another time.

Hamo been there done that. I'll miss seeing you.

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

Wish List #8 the I Dream of Jeannie bottle requires step after step. If only I could rum this bottle and wish for it to be done.

To make the bottle stopper I got out the bottle itself. That was lucky for me because I saw a super tight hairline running 4 inches across the bottle. The clay is so thick that I was able to dig it out until there was not crack.

However as an extra precaution I took Magic Mend and rubbed in over the area where the crack was located. I hope this works.

Last night the bottle stopper looked like this and was soft. I left it out all night and

today it was very firm and dry.

I began to carve it to fit into the top of the bottle.

Getting there.

I checked out the photo again and found that when this

stopper shrinks it will pull back leaving a ledge that will suit the design just fine.

I can't leave this as a solid piece or for sure it will crack. I using the tool below I drilled though the center.

I carved the top to fit this small diamond.

The huge diamond will not go into the side of the stopper. So I not only carved the place to set the stone I'm using this as an entrance in which to dig out more clay to hollow the top.

Time to end my work day and rest. We pulled out another 50 mugs for the garage sale today. The purge is going well.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2018-03-31 09:31 ]