VanTiki Mugs: Octopus Time Lapse - Other Crafts

V VanTiki Member Hawaii Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 1046	V VanTiki Posted posted on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 3:49 PM Aloha Folks! First off, a warning: If you are a Tiki purist, you may want to look away. This next mug isn't a tiki (well, I guess the last 2 weren't tiki either, but at least they were nautical/tropical). If you are anti-robot, or if you feel that all mugs must be tiki shaped, please avert your eyes :) So I love robots. There. I said it. Some of you may have seen some of my stainless steel robots in my "non-tiki" thread in the Forum of Mystery. I was going to talk about this mug there as well - but I decided to not be ashamed of its robotic roots and share it with everyone :) I sketched a few robot mugs last year - one was "The Rusting Remains of Attack Robot 12" and I had another called "Robot 3 - some assembly required" (it consisted of a head and hand shaped mug set). I would occasionally look back at the sketches, but I never felt the spark to make them till I had a bit of an LED breakthrough yesterday afternoon. I love making light up mugs: http://www.vantiki.com/VanTiki/Fire_God.html and yesterday I thought of a way to wire the LEDs through the clay walls of the mug! Yes! Now, lemmie just say I am sure I'm not the first to think this up, but I am really stoked about the possibilities! I ran out to Radio Shack and Kailua Hardware before they closed, and this morning I put together a "test Bed" robot mug. Consider this fellow a prototype - I wanted to test both my wiring idea and some glaze application techniques before going all-out. WHat is the idea? Well, I was cleaning up my workbench when I came upon a box of wax wire sprues that I use for casting rings and other metal goodies. I suddenly realized that I could imbed them into clay - and that after firing I'd have perfect hollow channels running through the clay that I could slide wire through! The wax is a bit delicate - so I ran to the hardware store to look for possible substitutes. I settled on the rubber gasket wire used to hold the screen into a screen-window frame. Here are some shots of this morning's mug taking shape. This was all put together with my new friend: Paper Clay (but I am sure it would work with any kind of ceramic body). Photo 1 - Roughed out the body and head shape. I then used a loop tool to carve out 2 channels for the rubber to sit in (1 for each eye) photo 2 - rubber wire pressed into place. the ends of the wire run into the hollow bottom of the "upper body" shape photo 3 - using coils of clay, I fill in the wire channels and smooth out the surface. photo 4 - I begin detailing the mug, and add on eye shapes that will help to hold and protect the LEDs. photo 5,6 - more detail, and done! The top dome has a straw hole and is removable. Eyes will light up via a push button on the robots back. Batteries stored in the body at the base of the mug. This fellow is just a test - I am VERY excited about the possibilities this may open up for future mugs! Whoo! Mahalo for peeking, Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha Folks!

First off, a warning: If you are a Tiki purist, you may want to look away. This next mug isn't a tiki (well, I guess the last 2 weren't tiki either, but at least they were nautical/tropical). If you are anti-robot, or if you feel that all mugs must be tiki shaped, please avert your eyes :)

So I love robots. There. I said it. Some of you may have seen some of my stainless steel robots in my "non-tiki" thread in the Forum of Mystery. I was going to talk about this mug there as well - but I decided to not be ashamed of its robotic roots and share it with everyone :) I sketched a few robot mugs last year - one was "The Rusting Remains of Attack Robot 12" and I had another called "Robot 3 - some assembly required" (it consisted of a head and hand shaped mug set). I would occasionally look back at the sketches, but I never felt the spark to make them till I had a bit of an LED breakthrough yesterday afternoon. I love making light up mugs:

http://www.vantiki.com/VanTiki/Fire_God.html

and yesterday I thought of a way to wire the LEDs through the clay walls of the mug! Yes! Now, lemmie just say I am sure I'm not the first to think this up, but I am really stoked about the possibilities! I ran out to Radio Shack and Kailua Hardware before they closed, and this morning I put together a "test Bed" robot mug. Consider this fellow a prototype - I wanted to test both my wiring idea and some glaze application techniques before going all-out.

WHat is the idea? Well, I was cleaning up my workbench when I came upon a box of wax wire sprues that I use for casting rings and other metal goodies. I suddenly realized that I could imbed them into clay - and that after firing I'd have perfect hollow channels running through the clay that I could slide wire through! The wax is a bit delicate - so I ran to the hardware store to look for possible substitutes. I settled on the rubber gasket wire used to hold the screen into a screen-window frame.

Here are some shots of this morning's mug taking shape. This was all put together with my new friend: Paper Clay (but I am sure it would work with any kind of ceramic body).

Photo 1 - Roughed out the body and head shape. I then used a loop tool to carve out 2 channels for the rubber to sit in (1 for each eye)

photo 2 - rubber wire pressed into place. the ends of the wire run into the hollow bottom of the "upper body" shape

photo 3 - using coils of clay, I fill in the wire channels and smooth out the surface.

photo 4 - I begin detailing the mug, and add on eye shapes that will help to hold and protect the LEDs.

photo 5,6 - more detail, and done!

The top dome has a straw hole and is removable. Eyes will light up via a push button on the robots back. Batteries stored in the body at the base of the mug. This fellow is just a test - I am VERY excited about the possibilities this may open up for future mugs! Whoo!

Mahalo for peeking,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Post #430067 by VanTiki on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 3:49 PM