Born and raised in Hawaii, Henrik Van Ryzin began his artistic career making rubber movie monsters in Hollywood. The call of the islands proved too strong though, and after a brief stint hunting Obake in Japan he returned to Oahu in 2000. Currently, he is based out of Eugene, Oregon.
He began selling tiki mugs in 2006, with his "Jabber Pod", "Trepanning Skull", and "Log" series.
At first, his work was focused purely on hand-built projects, but he began doing slip-cast projects before too long with larger runs and for events and commercial tiki bars as well as individual sales.