Don coats the inside of the tankards with a two-part food-safe epoxy resin, so the mugs can be used for hot or cold drinks. We coat the tankards once, let them dry, then coat them a second time.
Tankards drying. This was about half of the production run.
After the second coating dries (usually about 24 hours), we bake them in the oven to force-cure the lining. Each oven batch takes 1 1/2 hours.
A twisted example. Both these pieces came from the same "blank." The one of the left we cut up, twisted the pieces, and glued them back together. We call these crooked mugs our "public service tankards"... when they look straight, you've had enough. Yeah yeah, pretty lame...
The very final step, once the tankards are out of the oven and cool, is to fill them with water to test for leaks. After this, the pieces are ready to ship.
There! That's all there is to it. Now wasn't that easy?
Where can I buy the tankards? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWe're exclusively wholesale except for a couple of retail shows a year we do. For example, we have a booth at the Kansas City Renaissance Faire which opens Labor Day weekend. We have a couple of awesome booth managers who have been selling at KC for us for well over a decade.
ReplyDeleteDon and Patrice, those things are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they're so popular.
A. McSp