Post #601344 by MadDogMike on Sun, Aug 7, 2011 11:47 AM

Henrik and Paul, thank you. Melvin sold to one of our great TC Ohana, I get to deliver him at Oasis.

Chuck, Wendy, Robb - sorry to pull your leg with the fake amber but I was feeling mischievous :wink:

This next one is not really Tiki but I'll add a tip and a little technical info and maybe I'll be forgiven.

I made a Cobra Mug a few years back and decided to do another version for a friend. I didn't really improve on the cobra much but the basket is better (and holds more rum too!)

The left is the original and the right is the "New and Improved!" version. They are about the same overall height so you can see the volume is significantly increased. Like the original, the cobra serves as a straw, you suck on the head to get the drink :D

The basket was done by making 2 identical bowls. joining them together and cutting the top off. Then I cut strips of clay and wove them around the bowl. Since the inner bowl was already sealed, the woven strips are purely decorative and don't need to seal together. In fact, they are only slipped to the bowl at the top and bottom - this creates little crevices under the strips for more texture.

If you are making several pieces of one shape, you would make a plaster mold but I often want just one of something. I find interesting objects that I can wrap clay around to make something. But it can be difficult to remove the clay from the form. If you are using something simple like a PVC pipe, you just wrap it in newspaper before you put the clay on but that won't work for more complex shapes. Here are a couple of found objects; a Captain Morgan tin that held a pair of pajamas and a $1 plastic pilsner glass from WalMart.

I took a sheet of gift wrapping tissue and cut it into wide strips (I used white because the dye can bleed out of colored tissue, ask Kinny). I wrapped the strips around the can and sprayed them with water, kinda like paper-machie without the machie. Be sure to cover everything with at least 2 layers and smooth it down well. Minimize the wrinkles as much as possible - there will still be some wrinkles in the paper which will show up as wrinkles on the inside of your clay, but these can be smoothed out later.

Put it out in the sun to dry and it will be ready to use shortly. I'll wrap a slab of clay around this form, let it dry for a while to firm up, cut the clay down both sides to remove it from the form and join the 2 pieces back together. Some of the paper will probably stick to the clay but it will peel off as the clay dries. This will show up soon as a deep sea rum barrel inspired by this commercial.

I know I'm over my allotted time, anyone still with me? :lol: My little kiln has a manual control and no pyrometer (thermometer) so I recently got an inexpensive digital pyrometer. When I glaze fired my Cobra Mug yesterday, I tracked and graphed the temperatures.

The red line is Orton's 270 degree/hour maximum ramp recommendation. The blue line shows my kiln temps. I have been firing for 2 hours on low, 1 hour medium, and then to high until the kiln setter shuts it off. I have had pretty good luck with that firing schedule but it looks like I'm firing a little too quickly. I was following the red line pretty closely until I switched to high, then the temp went up a little too quick. Next time I'll try 2 hours on medium to see if that's better.

Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear?

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2011-08-07 14:56 ]