I have not worked on the lion this week till tonight, but that’s good because it allows the clay to “set” a little and firm up slightly.

I added more clay tonight, for a total of 475#, what looks like a muzzle is approximately the lower jaw’s location, the head still needs to be built up and that “muzzle” is about half of the jaw, but now I will be adding clay more slowly to the top and allowing the clay to firm up a bit more.

The back of the head needs to be built up a few more inches as well.

Rapidly now to the neck area of the lion and the need to give the upper body some temporary support. I needed to move things around in the studio so I could roll the model under my chain hoist so as to suspend a strap from that for support.

My hand for scale reference

The most recent photo is directly below, compared to the photo below that one taken earlier today, it can be seen that I made some large corrections as I work.

The torso was heading mostly vertically whereas the original lion leans forward a little, a fact not immediately obvious due to the shield, wings and other surface detailing, but he does lean a little forward.

I also bulked up and moved forward the stifles, “knees” for those not versed in animal anatomy.

Rapidly reaching the upper chest of the lion, and here is where care needs to be taken as there is now 350# of clay here, and the building up is now proceeding towards the outward and bulking out the upper chest area which will make it more front heavy.

Some temporary support will likely be needed shortly untill the clay stiffens and some of the moisture dries out and it is more capable of supporting itself.

Progress view so far, I started this yesterday oct 22nd and worked on it about 2 hours I guess, and today about that long. There is 325# of clay there so far.

I am rough laying the clay on and will be adjusting it a lot. I added a rudimentary elbow at approximately the right height for reference, chances are it will move outward a bit as I bulk up the torso as the clay gets a bit firmer and can support more weight.

Louis Sullivan’s designs were very symbolic, and included a lot of organic forms and shapes, with that in mind and knowing the winged lion is both considered symbolic of peace, as In alchemy, the lion is symbolic of gold. Alchemical texts and artwork will depict a lion when a specific magical/spiritual goal is to be achieved.

It would seem fitting Sullivan would used a winged lion on a bank, and that furthermore, they are restrained closed-mouth, non-aggressive standard bearers that are holding up a shield with the bank’s name and date on them.

It makes perfect sense to not have roaring aggressive looking lions by the entrance where you want to welcome banking customers inside, so they were given very mild platonic, expressions:

This model is officially started now, no turning back!

In looking at photos of the original terra cotta lions that were removed, and referencing the 1914 rendering’s measurements, it became clear the lion’s base was made thicker than the drawing’s specified 2″, it appeared to be closer to 3″ than 2″ so that I what I am doing, starting out 3-1/2″ thick and with the shrinkage it should wind up about 3″ or 2-3/4″ thick.

Almost impossible to see unless you know it’s there and look carefully, the top of the modelling stand has a sheet of glass. I decided to use the glass rather than sheet plastic to prevent moisture from the clay from warping or damaging the plywood top even though it is urethaned, because over weeks of constant contact even that polyurethane will be affected by the constant moisure.

The glass is the perfect solution, it’s totally flat, smooth,and impervious to water.

The base of the lion shown is 17″ wide and 25-1/2″ long, all measurements are to be 10% larger than the 1914 drawing.

Now I stop here on the model so that I may study the drawing and photos, make notes, adjust measurements on a scrap of paper for that +10%, and print out some reference photos to look at while working.

Oh, that is 150# of clay in the photo, or 3 of those white boxes shown in the other photos.

In alchemy, the lion is symbolic of gold – a spiritual quality that is luminescent and rich in value. Alchemical texts and artwork will depict a lion when a specific magical/spiritual goal is to be achieved.

Since the original winged lions on the bank were either gilded or painted gold, the winged lion’s symbolism and color fits a bank well.

Having rec’d my shipment of a half ton of clay, I think I can say this model has begun.

I finished the special steel and ply stand, its shown below.

In the background are 20, fifty pound boxes of clay stacked up. Off to the right is another 750 pounds of raku clay, so I’m glad when I added this room on I built the floor especially strong, but then I knew I would be putting concentrated loads in like this.

Closer shot of the new modelling stand, this is made of welded 1/4″ thick steel angles and flats, with 3 layers of 3/4″ plywood laminated for the bottom and another for the top.

The casters are ball bearing equipped, lockable and rated for 550# each. The stand weighs a little over 150#

Below is a crop of a scan of the original Sullivan architectural rendering of a portion of the entrance doorway, all of the original 1914 measurements for the lions are right there for me to make use of. The clay model will want to be 5% larger to compensate for shrinkage, but in all actuality I will make it 10% larger as there is a good possibility eventually I may press clay casts of it, which means 2 times that 5% shrinkage.

In other words my model should wind up 5% larger than the original, and after making a mold and a cast in clay, it’s 5% shrinkage will make it about the same size as the originals.

The measurements on the drawing are written in sideways, the other numbers such as 119, 120, 121 etc are setting numbers given to the terra cotta blocks making up the rest of the doorway.

I decided to go with the course red clay for the Grinnel bank lion model, cone 06 to cone 4 firing range, this test sample was fired to cone 1 where it takes on a nice deep rich brick red color, the brick red I’M familiar with, not the so called “brick red” clay I’ve seen that looks more salmon or brown than red to me. At cone 4 it says it turns “brick red” but the sample photo on their web site looks more like leather brown, definitely brown and that’s not “brick red” to me at all.

The clay has 20% of 20 mesh grog and I believe also 30 mesh, and it’s made for handbuilding large 4 foot high pieces with thick walls.

I ordered a half ton of it today @ $330 and with the truck shipping on a skid running about $125, I’ll have $450 into it for clay, plus the steel stand materials, plywood and 4 casters. Looks like about $600 is what it will cost me to get this started.

I could order a ton of this clay for around $550 and the shipping would only go up a little, but since I already have 750# of the raku clay on hand I just bought what I needed for this model.

Hand building the Sullivan bank lion out of wet clay, with an estimated weight of 800# or more requires not only some mobility method, but something to raise it up to working level, at least the most important portion of it- the face.

So I designed and built this custom made modelling stand out of heavy steel for this task.

I used 2″ x 2″ x 1/4″ steel angles for the 4 legs, 2″ x 1/4″ flat steel for the diagonal bracing, and heavy wall 1″ tube for the top and bottom with which to bolt the top and bottom plywood to, and to hold it all together nice and secure.

I have the steel portion finished, and primed now as shown, and Tuesday the heavy duty 4″ casters with a capacity of 550# each will arrive. Next week I’ll laminate a plywood top and one for the bottom using 3 layers of 3/4″ thick plywood.

Modelling a panel after Louis Sullivan for a Chicago client last summer;

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Now that this model is done and hollowed out in back, it is off the easel and laying flat to dry out, all the modelling is finished. Since I used the same templates I used on my wolf roundel, the 4 egg and dart border pieces made for the wolf roundel would fit this lioness.

I’m starting to set up shortly for the next model, the companion piece for this, a lion which will face to the right so they could be used as a pair.