This is my Cargo Cult version of the traditional Tiki Bob mug, it glazed in earthy oxides with a gloss interior. I've had a bit of intrest from fellow collector and may produce a limited run of these mugs this summer.
This is my Crargo version of the Trader Vic's Aloha Coconut Bowl I'm going to see if anyone will swap me an original for my handmade version. 
I moved from using te terracotta clay into using paper clay which is lot more forgiving and more importantly is a white clay, so the glaze colours are more true.
This new mug is made with Paper Clay, which is an amazing clay with paper pulp mixed with the clay, this gives it amazing properties, you can work dry clay with wet, you just have to wet the clay to get the bits to stick together. Fantastic stuff, I don't think I'll go back to using normal clay.
The mug to the right has been biscuit fired and you can see its first layer of glaze, I'll finally get my three other mugs back glazed on this coming Thursday.
The streaky lines didn't work as well as I thought on the third mug, so for this one I went for a much stronger golf ball texture.
The finished mug it should be fired for Thursday and ready for glazing, I've only got three weeks left of my course, so I'll have to plan my remaining time wisely.
A snarling tiki face rising above the ruins on R'lyeh , imagine if you will the type of mug that would be used in Trader Vic's, if the Trader had been equally influenced by the dammned idols of Cthulhu as Polynesian Tikis.
Slabs of clay around a cheap glass bud vase I found in Poundland.
Re-using that nose design from my last mug.
Looks a bit like a cyclops moai.
The other face on the back, continuing the joined face theme.
Sharp pointy teeth.
Thats as far as I got that week and then I dropped it, so I had to do a bit of repair before I started more details.
Adding the slabs around the base.
Strange layers of slabs.
I used the tines of fork to add the texture on the body of the mug, once its dry I'll clean them up and remove any little bits of clay. I've seen a lovely dark chrome glaze which would add a lovely other-worldy look to the mug, that or some ichor like drip glaze.
I think this face is too human looking face on so I'll try and fix it next week with some texture...
See the human-ish face is much better from the side.
This is my favorite face and I only created it in a rush, to fit the space left by the the other two having taken up too much space.
You get some lovely abstract half faces where the two faces meet.
I think this face needs fixed as well.
Oh well we'll see what we can do next week.
Since the clay was close to "leather hard" I couldn't add more clay to the mug so had to just concentrate on adding texture to the design. I tried various things like faux wood grain and cross hatching but ended up using a broken clay tool to push little glyph like marks.
I sent this image to my brother and he asked me if I had covered the mug in Sumerian cuneiform and I responded "Ur no, it just looks like it". Well we laughed.
The first mug is now waiting to dry before firing and then I get to explore glazes and such. Then I started on a second mug which will have three joining tiki faces. Hopefully next week tat will be finished and then I can get started on making my slip cast mold.
Since I'm trying slab building the mugs a bit flat, I'm sort of treating the clay like cardboard but I'll loosen up once I finish my first sculpt.
The class is only 3 hours long, the same as my one of the shifts in my unloved job, those three hours feel like they last three days but the three hours of class were gone in seconds.
This is not the sum total of my slinging I just worked right up to the end and forgot to take a final picture. So I have all the major bits added and I've loosely wrapped the clay and placed it in the wet cupboard for next week, this will let the clay dry to "Leather hard" and let me carve into the clay and leave clean marks.
