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VanTiki Mugs: ShelfTiki #1l! 12/5 |
monkeyskull
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 08, 2004
Posts: 260
From: Seattle
|  Posted: 2006-07-13 12:39 am Permalink
VanTiki,
I love my Trepanning Accident mug and must have a Pongo Log too now. One question though -- one of the pre-glaze pictures made the teeth look a different color, but it doesn't look this is preserved after the glaze. I'd like to get one in either case, but by any chance are you doing any with different colored teeth? I really like the effect of this on the skulls.
P.S. I'd love to see what you could do with a monkey theme. You know, I'm just sayin....
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-13 11:08 am Permalink
Aloha all!
More studio goodies - this time a crop of three moist clay Pongo Logs freshly plucked from the dark jungles of VanTiki Island:
MonkeySkull - good call on the teeth difference in the wet clay. I make the Pongo teeth out of porcelain (just like your Trepanning Accident), and while the difference is subtle after glazing I plan on trying a new application with one of these guys to highlight the tooth-i-ness.
More pics soon!
Mahalo,
VanTiki
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-14 11:07 am Permalink
Yesterday I added a sad looking pair of Trepanning Accidents to the drying table:
Mahalo,
VanTiki
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2006-07-14 6:44 pm Permalink
Monkeys are always cool
some more killer mugs in the making... 
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Tiki Duddy
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 04, 2006
Posts: 759
From: Manitoba, Canada
| Posted: 2006-07-19 11:29 am Permalink
man are those cool. vantiki you have some skill going there...i mean you have ALOT of skill going there. good job and keep it up
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-25 11:14 am Permalink
Aloha All,
I've been meaning to do some tests on the Pongo Log glazes to accentuate the porcelain teeth, and MonkeySkull was kind enough to encourage me to finally do it! Here is the Pongo Log painted with Velvet Underglazes:
Now, the photo is of raw, unfired glaze. The neat thing about the velvet underglazes, though, is that they don't change color during firing. The dilemma I currently face is weather or not I should clear-coat the entire mug, or just the inside. "Food Safe" standards require the entire mug to be coated with a gloss or semi-gloss glaze. This would darken the colors (think of when you apply a polyurethane coat to wood) and take away the neat "velvet" finish that the underglaze is named for. The upside of coating the whole thing is it would be a lot easier to clean and would feel a lot smoother in the hand. I could just coat the inside - but the mug would be difficult to clean and would not be "to code" on food safe standards.
I have a feeling the little angel on my shoulder will win this one out and I will clear coat the whole mug. I'll post photos of the fired mug soon!
Mahalo,
VanTiki
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Paipo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 22, 2006
Posts: 1886
From: Aotearoa / NZ
| Posted: 2006-07-25 2:51 pm Permalink
These are outrageous - easily some of the coolest mugs I've ever seen. I love the fact that you hand build them individually. Great work!
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teaKEY
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 09, 2004
Posts: 3663
From: The thumb !
| Posted: 2006-07-25 4:24 pm Permalink
I think that clear just on the inside for at least a few. Their are a lot of vintage tiki mugs this way. A mug only really gets used on the inside. Even if the outside did get dirty, you don't drink from the outside. Second, if it looks better that way, most big collectors may only display your mug and if its the best look and the artist choice of finish then don't compromise . Although, A mug still has to be a mug to drink from even for display proposes, most of the time. If just to look like it could work.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-27 12:10 pm Permalink
Okey-Dokey,
Welp, I went for a clear coat over the whole mug. Felt safer that way, knowing the mug was "to code". If it looks good, great! If I hate it, well.... I guess I will just do the inside only for the next glaze test. Here is a shot of the Pongo log and two Trepanning Accident skull mugs with the clear coat. Using the clear coat is always a tad scary for me - I spend forever glazing the mugs with underglazes, and once they look perfect I dip (or brush - depends on the mug) them in this vat of what looks like thick milk. Then the mugs look like you see in the photo. Icky marshmallow mugs. I load them in the kiln and begin worrying: did the underglaze run? will they turn out? did I forget a spot?
I start the kiln (like I did at 6:30 this morning) and cross my fingers. You muggers out there know the feeling of opening a kiln after a final glaze firing. Kind of like Christmas at the dentist's office. Most likely you will get a bunch of cool stuff - but you may wind up with a very painful/sad experience!
Mahalo!
VanTiki
PS - the glaze firing will be done in a few hours, and I will be openng the kiln tomorrow morning. Will post photos of the success/failure then!
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-28 11:30 am Permalink
Failure! Ohhhh... woe and sadness! Rum Demon, perhaps only you will understand my pain! I opened the kiln this morning to find that my test glaze pongo log had tipped over onto one of the Trepanning Accident skulls! They were fused together like some sort of Tiki nightmare Siamese twin. Argh! To top it off, I didn't apply enough green to the test glaze, and it didn't come out anywhere near as bright as I wanted it to. Sigh. After breaking the mugs apart I sanded the rough spots and took these shots. First up, the Pongo Logs:
next up is the rest of "batch 4" - The skull on the left is the damaged one, and it will be joining the center Pongo Log from the above photo on my "Shelf of Shame" (cue thunder rumble).
The good new is the rest of the batch 4 mugs look good. Whew!
Mahalo,
VanTiki
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TikiJosh
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 01, 2005
Posts: 735 | Posted: 2006-07-28 11:58 am Permalink
Those are seriously awesome! The skull mugs are sweet! Reminds me of my days teaching primate evolution lab. I gotta get one. I can't believe I haven't seen these posts before! Where have I been? Oh yeah, at work.
Seriously, the sculpting is out of this world. The shape of the skulls is so realistic, it amazes me. I was thinking at first that you were using a real skull as a mold. I can't believe you sculpt those by hand! Amazing!
BTW, the arch that forms the cheek is composed of two bones actually, the temporal process of the zygomatic bone (good job Van Tiki, remembering that much) and also the zygomatic process of the temporal bone.
Sorry, don't mean to show off. I gotta get one of those mugs. Hopefully the missus will get me one for my birthday this year!
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[ This Message was edited by: TikiJosh 2006-07-28 12:21 ]
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teaKEY
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 09, 2004
Posts: 3663
From: The thumb !
| Posted: 2006-07-28 12:01 pm Permalink
Although maybe you lost that velvet feel to your Pongo Log Mug, it looks like that middle brown one is the best with all the depth in color. Your work and craftsmanship is not lost and everyone can still see all the detail and extra steps that you put into tiki. Not just your tiki but tiki as a whole.
wait let me get this straight, that brown one is the one that fell over. If it is , still the best looking mess up I've seen.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 908
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2006-07-28 12:24 pm Permalink
Quote:
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wait let me get this straight, that brown one is the one that fell over. If it is , still the best looking mess up I've seen.
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Hah hah - yep - it is the brown one. You are too kind! Hard to tell in the photo, but if you look closely at the right side eyebrow and the middle of the nose you will see a bit of white where the glaze broke away as I pried the fused mugs apart. Very frustrating! This mug and one of the 2 skulls are too damaged to sell, and will therefore be used by me
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[ This Message was edited by: VanTiki 2006-07-28 12:27 ]
[ This Message was edited by: VanTiki 2006-07-28 12:27 ]
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monkeyskull
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 08, 2004
Posts: 260
From: Seattle
| Posted: 2006-07-28 10:08 pm Permalink
Wow, that brown Pongo looks *fantastic.*
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cheeky half
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 22, 2002
Posts: 790
From: Tucson, AZ
| Posted: 2006-07-29 06:29 am Permalink
Don't despair VT, that brown glaze is off the map! Sweeeeeeeeeeet!
cheeky half
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