VanTiki Studio Notes

Tiki Tweets

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 15:36:14 -1000

I’m happy to report that the VanTiki Facebook page is a growing success, and that I’ve recently added to the up-to-the-minute goodness by setting up VanTiki on twitter. Hopefully a steady dose of Facebook updates and Tiki Tweets will keep everyone in the VanTiki loop. FaceBook and Twitter are much easier for me to update than this website, and don’t get me started on how much simpler it is to announce mugs and tiles this way as opposed to wresting with the mailing list. Don’t get me wrong - I’ll still email everyone when new mugs are done - but the FB and Twitter folks will get the news first!

Hawaii Potters’ Guild Tiki Mug Night

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:56:49 -1000

I’ve been enjoying the classes offered by the Hawaii Potters’ Guild (or HPG) for a while now. My dad and I drive over the mountain once a week to talk story with talented artists while pushing around clay. For anyone interested in learning about ceramics on Oahu, it is a great place to get your hands dirty! Last week the folks in Shigeru Miyamoto’s tuesday handbuilding class wanted to do a tiki mug, and asked if I could do a demo. How could I refuse? I made a variant of my early Pongo Log mugs, a mug that is entirely slab-built. A big mahalo to Mary for firing up the Tiki Mug madness in the class, and to Shige for letting me do the demo. Looking forward to mai-tais when everyone’s mugs are done!

Tiles Take 2

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:12:49 -1000

I’ve decided to (finally) expand the line of Tiki Tiles. I spent today sketching out some new ideas (such as the Marq Squared you see above), and can’t wait to start sculpting them tomorrow. Don’t hold your breath for them, though, because the tile mold making/drying/pressing/drying process is a long one. For starters, it is gonna take at least 2 weeks for the plaster molds to dry out. But I’m getting ahead of myself here, as I haven’t even sculpted them yet!

Threadless

Fri, 6 Mar 2009 09:41:13 -1000

The “Caution: Giant Squid” sign I created for the Giant Squid mug got such a positive response on Tiki Central, I decided it would be a perfect fit for my first submission attempt at threadless.com. Threadless is a nifty t-shirt company that depends entirely on on-line submissions for their artwork. Once they accept your design, they put it up for 1 week of public voting. If it gets a good enough rating, they go ahead and print the design (and the artist gets $ and prizes!).

Glaze Daze

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:07:55 -1000

Spent the weekend getting some glaze on the Robot Prototype and the Giant Squid Tentacle. Here you see the freshly glazed robot looking quite different from its final fired appearance! As this is the first of many robots, I wanted to do a lot of experimenting with various glaze application techniques. Did a lot of airbrushing, and a lot of masking (using blue painter’s masking tape). The eyes and mouth grill are gloss black. After the initial glaze firing I coated those areas with a white gold luster glaze to give them a chrome effect. The mug is in the kiln now on a cone 019 firing to set the luster glaze. My fingers are crossed - If all goes well I’ll be wiring up the robot’s eyes tomorrow morning. Can’t wait!