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VanTiki Tiles - New Pendant Sculpture! 6-4 |
VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 928
From: Hawaii
|  Posted: 2013-03-22 3:04 pm Permalink
Happy to announce this morning was the first day of pressing the Cracked Moai tiles!
I got through half of the 12 Artist's Proofs - and I've settled on an edition size of 50 for the final tiles.
As you may have noticed, the tiles are all *slightly* different! There are a total of 6 mold variations in the edition, so the Moai look nice and natural when lined up together - no glaring repeating crack patterns! I'm testing glazes on saturday, and will be pressing tiles FULL STEAM next week.
I've learned that the larger the tile, the greater the pressure it takes to press them. I have to do a couple of pull ups on the arm of my tile press for each tile. A nice bit of studio cross training!
Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"
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zerostreet
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Feb 06, 2010
Posts: 1712
From: http://www.zerostreet.com
| Posted: 2013-03-22 3:22 pm Permalink
Awesome tiles!
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TikiAno
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 07, 2012
Posts: 280
From: San Diego, CA
| Posted: 2013-03-22 5:33 pm Permalink
Those are just right.... what are the dimensions of the tiles? (I looked back quickly, am curious). Love the variations, too- can't wait to see them glazed.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 928
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-03-22 5:43 pm Permalink
Mahalo Zerostreet!
Tiki Ano, The wet clay tiles are 5"x10" - but they will be shrinking about 10% - they are quite hefty, and they sure eat through my clay pile when pressing them! I, too, can't wait to see them glazed. I loaded the first round of test glazes into the kiln last night - I used 4 of the master tile sculpts for the first round of testing:
I'll use the 12 AP Edition tiles to do the final dial-in on the glaze. I'm applying the glaze with a spray-gun, as the tiles are big and I want to avoid any un-evenness due to brushing. Some of these glazes promise a nice break over textured surfaces - but we shall see what they do in my kiln on Saturday.
Henrik "VanTiki"
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6489
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2013-03-22 10:19 pm Permalink
Looks great Henrik. I especially like the one with the big cracks and the hunks missing. (first pic, left side)
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Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 3661 | Posted: 2013-03-22 10:36 pm Permalink
Those cracks look so real that I have to ask...do they go all the way through?
Your projects are always different and fun. Wendy
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GROG
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Jun 21, 2006
Posts: 6262
From: Tujunga
| Posted: 2013-03-22 10:37 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-03-22 15:04, VanTiki wrote:
I've learned that the larger the tile, the greater the pressure it takes to press them. I have to do a couple of pull ups on the arm of my tile press for each tile. A nice bit of studio cross training!
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A lot easier on the arms pouring slip. 
Goodlooking stuff, dude! GROG like.
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GROG miss Tiki-Kate
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Will carve
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2011
Posts: 375 | Posted: 2013-03-23 06:52 am Permalink
Thanks for stopping by the other day.
I always enjoy seeing your tiles & mugs.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 928
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-03-25 12:21 pm Permalink
Mahalo everyone!
Mike - these have chunks missing as they were the master sculpts, and suffered damage when I pulled them out of the molds. I just cut away the messed up parts and blended the missing areas into the cracks 
Wendy - the cracks are for show only Although I did get a bit of cracking on the underside of this first batch. I did a fast glaze fire, and I think I need to do a slower program in the future. I also need to put a sprinkling of grog on the shelves to help these heavy tiles slide around during the firing.
Grog - that slipcasting stuff is WAAAY too complicated!
Will Carve - my pleasure! I love seeing what is taking shape in the carving threads.
And now the update:
SO, you should all know that I HATE glazing. I am a control freak, and there is noting I hate more than spending tons of time on a sculpture only to cover it with something that *may* make it even better or *may* fill in all the detail and look atrocious.
Sadly, glaze test round one fell mostly in the latter category. I want the Cracked Moai to look like stone - but I also want interesting color. I tired a range of glazes that were supposed to have a satin or matte finish,and that would "break" over textured areas (meaning they would shift color or intensity around areas of texture). When I opened the kiln, I was sad:
THe glazes on all 4 tiles were too shiny, too think, and overall too icky. I do like the feel of the brown glaze (2nd from the left) for a future mug - but not here. The satin turquoise on my whale shelf did turn out great, and I also LOVE the satin clear glaze over underglaze washes on the 2 pendants. I think that my be the direction I go with the Moai.
Mahalo for looking =
Henrik "VanTiki"
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GROG
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Jun 21, 2006
Posts: 6262
From: Tujunga
| Posted: 2013-03-25 12:58 pm Permalink
GROG HATE GLAZING TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GROG sympathize with you, Henrik.
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6489
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2013-03-25 2:55 pm Permalink
"Hate" is such a strong word, but glazing definitely seems to be the process with the least control. I think you should try the foil saggar firing
_________________
Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House
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Hale Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 19, 2004
Posts: 1607
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2013-03-26 03:34 am Permalink
Tiles look great, man. Makes me wish I had a tiki kitchen to have these as part of a large tile mosaic.
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TikiAno
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 07, 2012
Posts: 280
From: San Diego, CA
| Posted: 2013-03-26 1:45 pm Permalink
Am I the only one who enjoys the insecurity of glazing? Oh well.  Henrik, I look forward to seeing more, trusting whatever the final glaze choices will look great. (I do like the look of the blue tiles- though I can see how they look a bit different from your non-glossy work. I love the whale shelf, too!
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tigertail777
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 25, 2004
Posts: 523
From: Oregon
| Posted: 2013-03-27 02:32 am Permalink
I actually really like the color of the far right one from what I can see of the photo....for what it's worth.
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VanTiki
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Nov 25, 2005
Posts: 928
From: Hawaii
| Posted: 2013-04-24 1:16 pm Permalink
Wanted to toot my Tiki Horn: Adobe has made vantiki.com the featured site of the day! Super stoked!
http://muse.adobe.com/site-of-the-day
In other news, I landed a bunch of animated commercial contracts - hence the quiet clay studio. Hope to get the glaze tests up and running again this weekend.
Henrik "VanTiki"
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