rvictor's tiki lab

So I got a few things back from the kiln today...Have a lot left in the workflow being processed...but any finished product is cool.

First I want to post some photos of a mug that I posted earlier. This was mug #5 (the Hukilau double sided mug) which i was having some issues glazing. After multiple applications of a glaze that broke too much for my liking, I asked for advice. We suggested that I try the Concepts glazes, so I went and got a color that was very close and applied 3 coats.

Well Wendy, it worked really well and I am really happy with the results. The glaze is now thick and even like I was hoping for. Great advice, your such a pro.


Cool. I'm happy with it now.

Next up was mug #8, the Maori Man mug...I did an undercoat glaze with a black undercoat wipe off for the exterior. The interior is a "Outer Space" Duncan crystal glaze (no pictures of the interior). This was my first attempt at the black wipe off and I like what it looks like. I may end up doing this effect allot as it really enhances the details.

Its funny when I think about it but I can already see my carving changing even as I finish some of these mugs...and how I want to clean up allot of the imperfections as I move along. This is such a hands-on, iterative, learning process...and it's both fun and relaxing, I am starting to wonder why I didn't think of this sooner?

Oh, and I did the wipe off on the shrunken head mug...it came out cool. Cant wait to post pictures when its done....well, time for bed. I guess I have a day job.

At some point, somewhere I mentioned putting up pictures of my sketchbook...I was drawing using some tiki matchbooks this morning and I thought that I might as well post some stuff from my current sketchbook. Most of my sketchbook is a jumble of studies and original.

Practicing the three Cannibals...

And some moai...

A gecko study...but I removed the big toe.

The Palm Tree...

Random...

Concept for a Tiki Bar Sign...

So...there are some examples...most of the sketches are messy...I don't like erasing for some reason.

Aloha...hope all is well. Been keeping busy. Currently have one new piece in the works and trying to close out some things in the work flow. Our class is going to be giving us assignments for the new year like masks and mold making (can't wait). I just can't wait to make my first mold. Any suggestions of important things / key tips to remember that will save me pain and heartache with regards to mold making???

Wendy - I have looked over your posts and appreciate all that I have been able to gleam from them, which was surprisingly quite allot. You take impressively good notes and I bet you were a great student.

Last night I picked up all work I did over Christmas break from firing. There was allot of bisque...but a few glazed pieces arrived at the end of the line (well...IMHO anyways). I logged on this morning to share them with you...I'll have to be brief as I have to make my way to work soon.

First up...the skull cups.

Then mug #9. I have been calling this one the "Zelda" mug as my kids think it looks like one of the video game characters. I did this one in a Duncan Courtyard Mediterranean Olive color. I like the way that the glaze looks...breaks and all and it feels really good in your hand. Not too smooth and not rough at all.

The shrunken head mug came out really cool I think. One of the artists in my class liked it allot, and there were a few people checking out my work going in for firing that said they liked it allot too. Hope you all like it as well. It came out better than I imagined it would when I carved it. It also has a reservoir within the mug to hold 151 so that you can light the front of it on fire. I can't wait to put a drink in it and take some photos.

One last thing...the work in progress I mentioned...here is the rough sculpt. I will be working on more over the coming days to practice better finish work.

Thanks for taking the time to view the post. Suggestions or ideas are welcome.

Aloha!

Very cool work RVICTOR!

You do both clay and drawing exceptionally well. I'm impressed. I'm glad to help but already I can't remember what I told you. I did just post a message on the Swap page about your glaze skip. You are progressing so fast with so much style. I think it will be fun when you come up with your own cannibal mugs.

I could just tell that as Joniece Frank of Frankoma Pottery says, you have the joy of clay within you. It never goes away.

I really enjoy watching your work, Wendy

CY-Thanks...glad you like it and I appreciate your words. Keeps me going.

Wendy - Cannibal mugs? Your referring to the standard three Tahitian Cannibals (Mai-Kai, Bosko, Geckoz, etc.) right?

Wow
Great stuff
Dig the cannibal drawings and shrunken head looks sweet......

Keep it up bruddah

Thanks hang10...

Logging on to post some updated Volcano Mug Photos.

Taking this one to work...I mean who has anything like this at work? No one in my office.

I'm right handed and drink my coffee pretty fast...so, as you can kind of see from the second photo, I made it like a pitcher so I can throw down the java. We'll see if it works as intended.

kind of played around with the trees. I think I will sketch them out a bit between now and the next time I carve them so that they look more natural.

RVICTOR I feel this odd connection to you. Dan asks me to make a mug with a handle and before I even consider it you have done it to perfection. This has happened a couple of times now. Weird.

The box with the mug and goodies came and I gave all but the mug to Dan. He's worked them into his collection.

I didn't let him see the mug because that will be a special gift for him when it arrives. Thank you so very much. You are a terrific artist and our mug is perfect. One day when it's glazed in his favorite colors I'll post it. Months off right now.

Cheers, Wendy

I like that volcano beer stein (or coffee cup), very cool! And the shrunken head turned out great too

Wendy & Dan - Thanks for posting and letting me know you got the mug. It was nice to see the pictures. You both are very caring people and I am glad to have run into you. Maybe the connection was supposed to happen for some reason. Maybe we can collaborate on something in the future? Sounds like fun to me.

Maddog-glad you like it!

Killer mug
Cheers

Wanna see something cool?

Finally...some additional mug and art supply storage...thanks to craigslist.

Hang10 - thanks for the compliment.

Aloha. Been a few days since I posted last...and right now we are working on making clay faces in the potters workshop. At this point my face is looking something like either Zeus or Christopher Walken. I'm not sure...but either way its starting to creep me out. Maybe if I tweak it a bit it'll look a little less serious.

I am exploring doing small scene carvings...I eventually would like to get to the point where I do something like Crazy Al's Kona Club mug. I think that one is one of the best ever made.

So I made a few small carvings based on a series of sketches I had in my sketchbook...nothing too fancy cause they would be too hard for me to carve.

The first couple look like this....

Same picture twice...oops.

The other like this...

The idea is to make little pendants to wear that have beach scenes...so you can take the beach with you wherever you go.

Mahalo.

I can see that in an eight by ten wall hanging. Very nice.

I just did almost the exact same thing last week.

We have our first collaboration coming up when I glaze the mug you made for Dan.

Everything you do turns out so well. I've done a whole series of life size heads from different countries. I'll be really interested in seeing yours. C. W. did grow into a scary man.

The necklaces are great. I'll have to check out Dawn's creations too.

Cheers, Wendy

Hiltiki - Thank you. I will definitely think about trying it out on a larger scale.

Sophistatiki - Love to see what you are referring to. BTW - My wife is the one who ordered the Kauai Riviera in blue ciracao around Christmas time. We live local in Lynnwood. Thanks for the painting...I found a really cool frame for it and it's displayed on the new hutch in the dining room. I'll post a photo sometime soon.

Wendy Bird - I guess your right about our first collaboration. At your request I'm posting the pictures of the head carving. I took some artistic license in class on Wednesday after the teacher started talking about making hair...I turned Christopher Walken into a Mid-40's farm-to-table small business owner...something like you would see in Portlandia.

Actually...I think the most interesting part of making the face was how we stabilized it so that we could shape it. There was a half moon brow piece, two balls under the eyeballs and a bridge down the middle between the brow and the chin. This was all covered with plastic before laying the skin over the top and building up the facial areas. Interesting process...I wonder if it will work for tiki masks?

Also, I figured I could post some progress photos of some mugs...

Here are progress photos of the Shrunken Skull Tribute Mug...It's just underglazes and I am currently planning to cover it with clear gloss so that the orange and yellows stand out a little more.

...and the Bosko Tribute Mug after the second layer of glaze was applied. I decided to do this in Moonstone grey with black wipe-off. Not sure exactly why but I like this color combination.

Again, Mahalo for looking.

Really like the Bosko mug.
Great job!

I sent you a PM

Wow you've been busy. I didn't know you were taking a class. When I made all my life sized masks I found a vintage Fostoria Americana bowl that was the perfect shape. I covered it with paper towels that I rolled for a basic face shape and then taped them down and kept a layer of plastic wrap on it that help to keep the clay from sticking to this base. We all have our learned techniques.

Good job on all your projects. I give you a "like" a thumbs up and a Cheer to continue, Wendy

Wendy--the mask support you spoke about seems like a better idea if you were to produce several. I like it. I also appreciate your support. BTW-I may have called it a class but it's somewhat informal (no curriculum, no start/end, but we do get assignments if we want to learn) so they call it a "workshop"...but for me it's like a class cause there is someone there advising me as I go. Here name is Janet Stills and she's a pretty great ceramics artist in Edmonds, WA.

The mask was on of those assignments...next is mold making. Can you tell I can't wait?

I also have a few projects I will be working on after the mold making. I've agreed with someone to make a custom mug...you'll figure out who it is once I get started....it'll be a dead give away. I've come up with a few sketches and have figured out what i'm going to use as a mold so far. Need to refine my working drawing...looking forward to it.

I have been going off on the diorama beach scenes lately....just kind of and off-shoot of my drawing studies...I'm really focusing on the drawing allot lately as it seems to be getting much better much faster than I expected it too. Allot can be said about practicing every day but it just can't be stressed enough...the daily practice has sort of an accelerating effect I think...

I'm also currently developing an idea for some pendants (to wear) that I am really having fun with right now. Sometimes the ideas flow too fast and I can't keep up with all of it. Sometimes I'm structured in my work and sometimes I go all organic to see what comes out. I think that I could really be an artist full time because I would work at it really hard.

Well...enough talking "pontificus"...I will promise to post more photos soon.

Wonderful projects. I'm going to have fun thinking about who that person could be. Enjoy the clay life, Wendy

Wendy--the mask support you spoke about seems like a better idea if you were to produce several. I like it. I also appreciate your support. BTW-I may have called it a class but it's somewhat informal (no curriculum, no start/end, but we do get assignments if we want to learn) so they call it a "workshop"...but for me it's like a class cause there is someone there advising me as I go. Here name is Janet Stills and she's a pretty great ceramics artist in Edmonds, WA.

The mask was on of those assignments...next is mold making. Can you tell I can't wait?

I also have a few projects I will be working on after the mold making. I've agreed with someone to make a custom mug...you'll figure out who it is once I get started....it'll be a dead give away. I've come up with a few sketches and have figured out what i'm going to use as a mold so far. Need to refine my working drawing...looking forward to it.

I have been going off on the diorama beach scenes lately....just kind of and off-shoot of my drawing studies...I'm really focusing on the drawing allot lately as it seems to be getting much better much faster than I expected it too. Allot can be said about practicing every day but it just can't be stressed enough...the daily practice has sort of an accelerating effect I think...

I'm also currently developing an idea for some pendants (to wear) that I am really having fun with right now. Sometimes the ideas flow too fast and I can't keep up with all of it. Sometimes I'm structured in my work and sometimes I go all organic to see what comes out. I think that I could really be an artist full time because I would work at it really hard.

Well...enough talking "pontificus"...I will promise to post more photos soon.

Aloha once again...it's been a while since I have posted any photos...been working on my sketchbook...and figured I would post some more photos from that today.

A few from my practice of village scenes...I've been working on these allot lately.

A few tiki sketches...almost to the end of book 3...Next time I should use a bigger sketchbook...but I am pretty attached to the small travel size (take with me). This is a drawing that I did when I was listening to a music program at school (when my kids weren't the one's playing that is).

A couple quick sketches...searching for my own individual style.

Working on tikis and scene composition right now...need to work on drawing plants. Please feel free to post photos of or links to other peoples work that you may like...where you feel they have either good composition, or similar style, or draw something in particular really well (for example plants, huts, backgrounds, etc.). I think that an important part of studying is what tips you can learn from others, so whatever you can add is much appreciated.

Oh, and I apologize for the duplicate post...does anyone know how to erase them?

Will post more as time allows...life is getting in the way of art...but I still l carve out the time.

Mahalo.

awesome sketches, rvictor! I think you have a distinctive style already. Love the tropical plants you did. those are really cool.

Me like

Keep up the good work

:)

I'm enjoying your thread. Nice sketches and nice mugs.

Like your drawings.
Quiet Village is cool.

Aloha. Posting a "hint" progress photo of a project I have going on...can anyone guess what it is? It should be pretty easy. More to come. I want to make sure it survives the kiln before I post too much.

Eye can't tell :)

My spousal unit thinks it's a BOB

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2015-02-18 08:55 ]

Eye can't tell either!

Hint #2

A limp...NO, it's a coffee cup handle with an eye. Wendy

A fat dog with a crooked tail? :wink:

Hint-the photos are taken of the object sitting on its head (upside down=object is in drink mode).

Woooo wee you got some amazin stylized mugs

Cheers

Great work!! I love the Bosko mug :)

"Ack, Ack, A-Dak"

Onemoresean guessed it! My next project was to make a custom Royal Order of the Water Buffalo mug.

Being new at this, it was challenging to figure out how to pull it off. I remember Wendy Cevola saying that she liked the challenge that her requests presented for her...so I took a request on when a certain Tiki Ali'i approached me with the idea.

For reference, the barrel of the hat is about 6"x5" right now. It's not fired yet so it will shrink a bit during firing. I built it larger than I wanted it to be to account for shrinkage initially...so I think it's going to work out fine as far as size.

Before I started, I did some brief sketches...and developed a set of build criteria (like the mug interior volume, making it possible to set it down during drinking, the size of the horns and how any hand size would fit under them, alternate holding methods, drinking vs. storage modes, how it will be glazed, how it will be dried, shrinkage, etc.). What I found out really quickly that it wasn't going to be as easy as I initially thought. But I recalled Wendy saying how much she liked the challenge of her custom projects and I remembered her Homer mug...I figured why not.

The hardest part so far was to figure out how to support the piece while it was drying and becoming more cohesive. After it was done, my instructor informed me that I could have used slip to join the pieces once they dried a bit. That would have been allot easier than what I did...

Kinda funny in hindsight but it worked...so I moved on. I had some grandiose dreams for this mug but ended up having to reign it in a bit to be able to pull it off. I just got more nervous as I went along, so when I figured out i reached a point that met the intent of the assignment I felt it was better to stop and finish it rather than take a risk of breaking it. I kind of like how it came out...

I was going to wait to post photos until after firing...but I figured that I was committed to finishing this project anyway. Hope you all like it. Not that I have plans to make any more of these...it's a one time project done in barter (no monetary compensation involved).

So one final question...can any of the tiki ohana out there guess who this mug was made for???

Totally forgot - Thank everyone for participating and the kind words

That mug looks awesome!

Well that was a super fun project to see in the works. Great supports. I'm ready to watch whatever comes up next.
Wendy

This is awesome!
Great job Robert.

Wendy-thanks...I watch you all the time too. Love the Rasta Bob your posting on now.

John-Glad you like it. Im taking it in to get fired tonight and picked up the glazes this weekend. Prayers for the kiln god.

Interesting piece.

Hiltiki-thank you. Do you mean interesting as in "different" or interesting as in "I may be sending you a cease and desist order soon "?