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News and Troubles of Jürka's Tiki Factory |
MadDogMike
Grand Member (7 years) 
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 7517
From: The Anvil of the Sun
|  Posted: 2013-09-03 4:19 pm Permalink
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!
First mugs from the kiln! As far as your green glaze, some glazes intentionally do that. Here's an example, Duncan IN1603 Autumn
As far as drinks, do whatever makes you happy - even brandy and cola if you have to. You can do without the paper umbrellas if you make a nice fruit garnish. But here is a list of simple drinks of few ingredients that are considered more "tiki".
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When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-03 4:39 pm Permalink
Thanks for the link! But I've always liked "the real thang", so...  When thangs go on, I will make a big expenditure and buy "everything" I need... So far... no cola-and-stuff... I don't want to give wrong aura to them... They belong to real tiki bar... So... there must come a real tiki bar... It will, I'm pretty sure... How and when... that's still question...
About that green glaze... Yeap, this particular glaze intentionally does it, yeap... but it still looks not good... especially if it is located not much natural places... It like shows with a finger that "look, the guy didn't put glaze in this and this and exactly in this place!" Little brown spots and edges would be totally okay, but that kind of weird blobs suck...
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 5169 | Posted: 2013-09-05 10:47 am Permalink
Congratulations on your beautiful mugs. Good Job. It's really fun to watch you work. Wendy
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-05 6:22 pm Permalink
From the factory... The second parts for Kanaloa and skull shot are poured and today I opened them... Almost satisfied, the nose of the... well... the nosehole for the skull got not so perfect, but it ain't problem... I guess I found out, as it is mentioned earlier, that all the parts of mold should be poured in one day and also opened the same day, few hours later... because the wood distends while getting water inside of it from mold...
And here's the man and his tiki...
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (7 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 7517
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2013-09-05 6:51 pm Permalink
ROCK ON Jürka! Is that you?
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-05 7:21 pm Permalink
Yeap, me and my polynesian guy... He's gonna hold drinks for me... 
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-06 6:31 pm Permalink
For the next corps, which I guess will take to kiln at Monday, I make one special for present to gal, who was there when the idea of making tiki mug was evolving... It's just the name in pretty-much-my-own tiki font... Yeap, I didn't stole that font from anywhere, all by myself... pretty-much...
Kane is ready... The last one of four main tiki gods seria... That thing is huge! Tall as Lono and wide as Kumuhonua and Ku...
...and poured into the mold... all three pieces in same day... And one more mold for skull shot mug also...
I removed the box also the same day, but couldn't open the mold yet... This time I didn't sink them into the first part too deeply, so in this thing I hope it's little bit easier to get it out of the halfpart... but we'll see... I guess the distending woodguys will press the parts of mold open... So... tomorrow... well... we'll see...
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-07 11:17 am Permalink
Today I opened molds... Well... Wood was distended and it li'l bit broke while opening it... Skull shot from exactly the same place (nosehole from the same side; but otherwise pretty good) and Kane... pretty many parts was rub off, but the important ones I glued back and others are not so important (easy to clean up on clay-guy), so both totally usable...
And group-photo of my tikizoo...
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 5169 | Posted: 2013-09-07 6:23 pm Permalink
Oh, the girls are going to love that you are so cute. Besides that you make great tikis. Wendy
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-07 10:28 pm Permalink
Nope, not correct... But the other one... She sure likes tikis too (at least she should!), I hope she likes it... and hope her man will not mind... Well, he won't, he's friend... But thanks!
[ This Message was edited by: Jürka 2013-09-10 05:06 ]
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-19 3:01 pm Permalink
Problems, problems, always problems...
Today I received my second army of tikis... Kus are almost... some has too much glaze, one has too less... Lonos are alright... but they are not straight (I'm not talkin' about orientation, I'm talkin' about shape), some are bended one side, others are other side, but really for me it's not a problem, they are allowed to be like this (by the way, Lono is a god nevetherless)...
But the problem is with Kumuhonuas... The first corps was glossy, but the second ones are dull (only brown glaze)... Also Hibiscus which I sent for second time firing and which was glossy before, is dull now and the crack on the glaze is still there (I'm gonna put one more coat to it and will send it third time... actually fourth time... back to kiln, I'm not gonna leave it this way, it's too important for me)... Do you have any idea how brown glaze got faded this time?
Here is picture of my fourth special...
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (7 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 7517
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2013-09-19 3:26 pm Permalink
Jürka, overfiring (too hot) could account for both the slumped ceramic and for the loss of gloss. It will also fire the color out of some glazes. It's hard when you rely on someone else to fire for you, it's especially bad is they are charging a premium price and then don't fire correctly  Be sure you have communicated correctly to them the Cone that they should be fired at. If you are using low fire clay & glaze and he is high firing, there will be a problem
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When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-19 4:29 pm Permalink
Well, he has been said that he is firing 1250 degrees... Clay requires firing 1000...1250 degrees and the glaze requires 1220...1280 degrees...
I guess the temperature of clay cannot be question here, because clay is not on the surface... I also sent the question to him, I'll see what he thinks about it...
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Jürka
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Posts: 78
From: Estland
| Posted: 2013-09-20 05:10 am Permalink
Well, the guy thinks that first time mugs were on middle floor, second time they were upper floor, where temperature is little bit lower and that's why possibly got glossy on first time and not on second time... Could it be?
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danlovestikis
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jun 17, 2002
Posts: 5169 | Posted: 2013-09-23 2:00 pm Permalink
I personally do not have the answer. Maybe he would let you take of photo of the inside of the kiln to show us. I have an aerovent attachment that pulls the air from the top to the bottom to keep it uniform throughout the kiln. All my work fires the same. Wendy
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