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VanTiki Tiles - Ku Squared tile taking shape - 1/25 |
VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years) 
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
|  Posted: 2013-06-11 11:49 am Permalink
Sandra Dee the mugs survived with flying colors! I'll be glazing them in the next week or so. They look great so far (and a little smaller)!
Wendy - Mahalo! I can't wait to see you and Dan at Oasis! We need to have a breakfast or lunch gathering to talk all things clay!
A friend of mine stopped by the studio yesterday to learn about tile pressing, and to give me hand while doing so. We pressed a nice stack of tiles and pendants - and I can say with GREAT relief that I've pressed all the tiles and pendants I'll need for Oasis. The remaining 65 days will be spent on mugs and a *secret* project (or two).
The Idol X-Ray molds dried out in less than a week - I was SO stoked to start pressing them!
Here is a nice shot of shrinkage. The clay I'm using shrinks about 10% from wet clay to fired clay. Most of the shrinkage happens in the initial air-drying of the clay. The original master sculpture is on the left, and a fully air-dried pressed pendant on the right. A tad smaller, and a great size for a pendant (if I may say so myself) 
I'm having fun modifying some of the tiles after pressing them. Kind of a "semi-original" tile - a curious mix of molded and hand-built. Here are some of the "ancient temple skulls" after the bisque firing. Pressed from the Spooky Skull tile mold, they have been eroded, aged, stone textured, and cracked. I'm quite pleased with them!
Speaking of modified tiles - I also pulled the two MEGA MOAI pendants out of the bisque firing. They are modified pressed tiles from my Cracked Moai mold. To say that they are big is an understatement - nobody will have trouble seeing the pendant around your neck:
While they look massive - they turned out to be not-too-heavy. I carefully hollowed out the backs to help keep the weight down. I was so stoked with the bisqued pieces that I pressed, detailed, and hollowed out 3 more yesterday afternoon!
I am totally keeping one of these for myself!
Mahalo for peeking -
Henrik "VanTiki"
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Polynesiac
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Jan 29, 2004
Posts: 2079
From: San Pedro, CA
| Posted: 2013-06-11 3:39 pm Permalink
Wow Vantiki, you're creations never cease to amaze me! I love that giant Moai pendant! is that one only available at TO? or might it appear elsewhere for sale??
Maddogmike pointed me in the direction of some of your youtube timelapses and they are great! I really enjoyed watching the (very fast paced) process!
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VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-06-11 4:18 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-06-11 15:39, Polynesiac wrote:
is that one only available at TO? or might it appear elsewhere for sale?
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Mahalo Polynesiac!
Stoked you like the Moai and enjoyed the videos. They are fun to make, and I plan on making more in the future (sadly the camera I used to make them petered out, so I gotta figure out a new setup).
As far as the MEGA MOAI (and all the other goodies I'll be working on for the next 2 months) the goal is to "premiere" them at Oasis, and then offer them up on my etsy store or ebay. There are 5 MEGA MOAI pendants, and I think I'll only bring 2 to Oasis, I'll keep one, and I'll offer 1 on my etsy store.
Of course, now that I think of it, it's bad luck to plan the future of any ceramic piece that has not been glaze fired - so I'll stop all speculation about the sales till I have the work finished
Henrik "VanTiki"
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Woodtiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 20, 2013
Posts: 73
From: San Mateo,CA
| Posted: 2013-06-11 4:36 pm Permalink
Wow, these are great! I love the Idol X-ray. Moai is cool too, might give one a neck cramp  Can't wait to see them glazed.
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SandraDee
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 11, 2011
Posts: 829 | Posted: 2013-06-11 5:32 pm Permalink
Oh yes my friend!!
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VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-06-26 1:46 pm Permalink
As often happens, I had a bit of inspiration pop into my head just as I was about to fall asleep the other night. Luckily, I was able to remember the idea the next morning (this happens less often) and last night I acted on it!
SO, all 5 of the MEGA Moai pendants are out of the bisque kiln, and thanks to the wonders of Hollowing Them Out™ they are surprisingly light for their size. As I mentioned earlier, I was planning on keeping one of them for myself - but my late-night idea of how to make the pendant *even cooler* prompted me to press one more. Unfortunately, I only had paper clay in my studio. It pressed just fine - but it is a $$ clay to use for tile pressing. I diligently hollowed out the back of the near leather hard clay this morning, and I also carefully hollowed out two eye cavities. I need to let the clay firm up a bit more before I move on to the next step. Whatever could I be up to?
 
Henrik "VanTiki"
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SandraDee
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 11, 2011
Posts: 829 | Posted: 2013-06-26 2:05 pm Permalink
If you have light up eyes in there it would not surprise me!
oh and how long are the oversized moaid pendants?
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VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-06-26 2:15 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-06-26 14:05, SandraDee wrote:
If you have light up eyes in there it would not surprise me!
oh and how long are the oversized moaid pendants?
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Clever girl! You'll just have to wait till Oasis to verify your hypothesis 
The bisqued MEGA Moai pendants are 6.5" long - and I know that sounds like a brick, but they are actually not heavy at all! I'm going to glaze up the first batch and wear one around the office for a day to see if it causes any neck damage. Can't be any heavier than a sperm whale tooth, and folks galavanted around the South Pacific wearing those things night and day, right?
Henrik "VanTiki"
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Gene S Morgan
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 18, 2011
Posts: 342
From: Midwest the navel of the USA
| Posted: 2013-06-26 9:24 pm Permalink
Boy those are monster pendants, but I like them. Did you ever try to slip cast instead of press mold? Then you would not have to hollow them out. ... Just a thought ....
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GROG
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Jun 21, 2006
Posts: 6615
From: Tujunga
| Posted: 2013-06-27 12:38 am Permalink
That Mega Moai is a good size for a flask. Hollow it out, attach a slab on back (or hollow out two and "slip" 2 of them together back to back) put a hole in top for a cork. And Ta DaHHH! Mega Moai Tiki Flask.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-06-27 12:01 pm Permalink
Mahalo everyone!
I took advantage of the paper clay properties, and left the MEGA *mystery* Moai pendant on a bakery drying on my desk under the ceiling fan all day yesterday and last night. It is now nice-n-dry, and has not warped or cracked at all. I may be re-thinking the pressing of the full sized Cracked Moai tiles (from which this pendant is pulled from). The big problem is paper clay is much more expensive than standard ceramic clays. I'll see how this test pendant fires and glazes, then will re-assess the pressing process.
Gene - I've never tried slip casing in my studio. The big pendant is actually part of a 4x8" tile that I trimmed down after pressing. I don't think slip casting would work well for the thinner parts of the tile molds, and I suspect it would take WAY longer to do it that way. I can pop the pressed tiles out of the molds in less than 5 minutes - whereas I have a feeling it would take longer than that for the slip to set up thick enough on the mold. I could be wrong, though! Someday I have a feeling casting slip will work its way into my studio
GROG - GROG just win the Best Idea Of The Day™ award! I am going to do exactly what you suggest! All I've got in the studio at the moment is paper clay - but that may be just the stuff for this. Sticking 2 together would be awesome! I'll If it works well, I may be able to make one for GROG - WIll you be at Oasis this year?
Henrik "VanTiki"
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GROG
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Jun 21, 2006
Posts: 6615
From: Tujunga
| Posted: 2013-06-27 1:30 pm Permalink
Glad you like GROG' idea. There's a good chance GROG will be going through or recovering from heart surgery when Oasis is taking place, so most likely GROG not make it to Oasis this year. 
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Tiki Shark Art
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Aug 31, 2006
Posts: 3330
From: The volcanic Big Island of Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-06-30 05:52 am Permalink
Awesome... as always....awesome! Your quality is flawless, I am humbled by it.... da' best!
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Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."
- Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 4374 | Posted: 2013-06-30 07:48 am Permalink
Your art and GROGS suggestion really would work well together. The union of artistic minds and alcohol, could be a hit, Wendy
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VanTiki
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 990
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-07-01 12:29 pm Permalink
GROG - your idea LIVES!
 
Super stoked with the way they turned out! I would have made more, but I ran out of clay!
Mahalo for the great idea, Grog!
Henrik "VanTiki"
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