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VanTiki Mugs: ShelfTiki #1l! 12/5 |
VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 901
From: Hawaii
|  Posted: 2007-10-16 8:28 pm Permalink
Aloha Folks -
Time for a VanTiki Studio update! I've finally had A chance to wire up the "Tiki Fire" for the 2 light-up mugs that I'll be glazing this week. I'm no electrical whiz - but VanTiki senior sure is, and he helped me out with the power needs for properly wiring a neat and simple LED flicker set up developed here:
http://www.spookyblue.com/halloween/flickerlight/spookyfire/
and improved upon here:
http://homepage.mac.com/nephilim/imagineerieing/spookyfire.html
I wired up three neat flickering doo-dads, which I dub the Tiki Fire Mark 1, 2, and 3. Here is the "brains" of the Mark 2 model during construction (and yes, your eyes do not deceive, this switch was apparently made in "Taiway"):
Next up we have a side-by-side shot of the completed Mark 2 and Mark 3 Tiki Fire devices:
And finally a look at the oh-so-retro Tiki Fire Mk. 3 in the palm of my hand. You know Goldfinger had one of these in his desk drawer. 
They look really neat flickering away - even in the bottom of a normal tiki mug (though you wouldn't want to add rum)! I'll get a movie on the VanTiki site as the mugs progress. Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"
P.S. If you wanna make a few of these for halloween (and I highly suggest you do!) be sure to follow the note about adding a 150 ohm resistor to the non-blinking yellow LED on the spookyfire web site.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 901
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2007-10-18 11:56 am Permalink
Aloha All -
Took some shots of the "batch o' pickled heads" I have shaping up at my weekly pottery gathering! All are a bit cell-phone camera fuzzy - sorry!
Here you see a "before-and-after" of three bisque fired heads getting a wash of iron oxide. Interestingly, two of these heads are the black mountain clay, and one is a light clay body. When high fired, I'm told the black mountain clay will be quite dark. In the bisque state the two clay bodies are nearly identical. Is is just me of does the middle head have a hint of Brando-a-la-godfather?
Here you see a large freshly sculpted pickled head in black mountain clay. This is a BIG pickled head! I really like this guy (I am totally keeping one of the large heads!). Ended up sculpting a head in the lighter clay body last night in the same scale. I've put the first three heads on the "fire me" shelf - but there is no telling when the next major kilnload/firing will occur. Soon I hope!
Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2007-10-18 8:05 pm Permalink
Nice work Van. One of these would look cool with a nice mutant green glaze, like it's been pickled in radioactive liquid 
Where are the sunken tiki mugs at?
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www.kustomkultureaustralia.com
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 901
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2007-10-18 8:48 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2007-10-18 20:05, hewey wrote:
Where are the sunken tiki mugs at?
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Funny you should ask! SneakyTiki will be happy to hear I just spent all afternoon glazing his small sunken tiki. I'm firing it tomorrow morning, along with the light-up stone god and the light-up Mt. Monkey Business mugs. Sneaky's mug is WAY overdue (sorry!) - and he has been super patient. I've used it as a glaze tester before I glaze the large Sunken Tiki (no worries sneaky - it is a really good test!).
I'll post photos when I crack open the kiln Saturday morning!
As for a green glaze on the heads - I totally agree! Unfortunately they fire at cone 10 over there and most of the green glazes they use are on the ultra-thick side. Someday I'll get access to a wheel where I can throw with my own cone 6 clay and I can then glaze and fire the heads in my studio where I can be a happy little control freak
Mahalo,
Henrik
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Babalu
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 19, 2006
Posts: 2498
From: Lemon Grove
| Posted: 2007-10-18 8:59 pm Permalink
Love the heads Van! Nice work. I can't wait to see the light up mugs! Good job on those little housings for the LED's too.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 901
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2007-10-19 4:37 pm Permalink
Mahalo Babalu!
Fired up the kiln this morning - it is all done firing and I now get to wait the Long Wait till things have cooled down enough for me to open it up and see how things turned out. This is the HARDEST part of ceramics for me - I hate the suspense and the unknown. I know lots of ceramic artist thrive on it - but I go nuts!
The glazed bisque ware before turning on the kiln (Fire God, Mt. MonkyBusiness, and Sneaky Tiki's sunken tiki a.k.a. "octohat"):
I'll get the photos of the finished mugs up tomorrow (if all goes well)!
Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2007-10-19 4:53 pm Permalink
Even though you posted a crappy pic of it (  ), from what I can see the octo-hat looks awesome, sooo colourful! ooooooohhh the suspense!
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timidtiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2007
Posts: 180 | Posted: 2007-10-20 10:12 am Permalink
WOW - Pickled Heads! I really need one (or should I say "another one"). Please let me know when you have some available. Great work.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 901
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2007-10-20 2:58 pm Permalink
Aloha All -
The firing went well! Allow me to present the Stone God #4: Fire God!
A huge mug with flickering LED fire goodness! Here he is flickering away in the dark (tough to photograph)
and a scale shot:
I'll posted the auction info in the marketplace. There is a video of the flickering flame at my site (as well as more photos):
http://www.vantiki.com/VanTiki/Fire_God.html
we also have SneakyTiki's miniSunken Tiki mug! Nothing like getting something done months after the tiki-swap ended. My sincere apologies to Sneaky:
Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2007-10-20 5:30 pm Permalink
Tell you what, if I was sneaky, I'd be VERY happy
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Paipo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 22, 2006
Posts: 1886
From: Aotearoa / NZ
| Posted: 2007-10-20 9:45 pm Permalink
Yeah, I'd wait 6 months for one of those! I imagine sneaky will be a very happy man regardless of the time this took. Man I like that a lot. Now how can I get a custom-made sunken moai with an octopus encrusted top-hat?
Ditto on the LED powered stone god - DIY ingenuity and problem solving at its finest. I hope you get a bomb for it on ebay!
Last but not least, the latest bunch o' pickled heads remind me of former PM of NZ, Robert "Piggy" Muldoon:
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Sneakytiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 31, 2003
Posts: 1795
From: Boise, Idaho
| Posted: 2007-10-20 9:59 pm Permalink
I love octotikihat! The stone god looks like some bizarre mating of Ankor wat stone head and Easter Isle Moai, I likee!
PS
I saw this Astonishing new plastic Vantiki original on the floor of the Goodwill (unboxed).
I present to you "Mt. Tikisoki" have a tiki sake in it...
Talofa!
S
T
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To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra
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Sneakytiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 31, 2003
Posts: 1795
From: Boise, Idaho
| Posted: 2007-10-20 10:03 pm Permalink
"When he erupts, everyone gets soaked".... that's not phallic or anything... somebody save the children!
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To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra
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little lost tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 12, 2006
Posts: 7457
From: Orange,CA-right near the Circle!
| Posted: 2007-10-23 08:58 am Permalink
Great work all around VT!
Sneaky is one lucky bassard!
The detail on the octopus and the encrusted tiki and sea life...and the glaze....
MASTERWORK!!!!!
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Sneakytiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 31, 2003
Posts: 1795
From: Boise, Idaho
| Posted: 2007-10-23 3:22 pm Permalink
When I saw the finished pix my eyes rolled open and I was ready to Blow aqua squirtz all over! 8===D -------
Seriously it was uncanny how much that big Mt. Tiki with big teeth looked like a Vantiki.
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