• Lion block expanding

    July 27, 2017

    The expandable mold rubber is still expanding, now about 6-3/8″ from 4-3/4″ and still going. Hopefully it will level and even out soon once it’s fully saturated all the way to it’s center. I figured it’s 160% expansion

    Aug 4th

    The little expanding rubber lion looks like he has expanded about as much as it’s going to, some distortion evident on the sides but fairly easy to fix along with a few defects, so I’ making a quick and dirty plaster mold of it to press clay into and I’ll use that clay pressing as a model to work on, square up, refine and get a mold off that while it’s still moist and hasn’t shrunk.

    Aug 5th

    I pressed some white clay in the little lion mold, probably in a couple or 3 hours I can take it out and see what I can do to it.

    I was able to pull the clay pressing out after only an hour, I set it aside under plastic wrap to work on to-morrow and square him up too. I want to get that done quickly so it doesn’t shrink any and I can get a rubber mold off it while the clay is still full sized and moist since the final mold of it will be used to press clay in and when thay dries and shrinks and is fired I want to end up with about 6″x6″ and right now this model is 6-3/4″ x about 6-3/4″

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  • 294 keystone terracotta

    July 27, 2017

    A little more cleanup on her and she can sit around air drying for the next 4 weeks before firing in the kiln

    Aug 13th

    Getting ready to fire my Nr 294 keystone, she weighs 30# dry and has been drying for almost 3 weeks since I pressed her, so I’m going to wait until Friday to turn the kiln on, meanwhile I have her set up in the kiln ready to go.
    I can only fit one piece this size in my kiln, another dry panel I have ready to fire won’t fit in with this too.
    I have my full shelf on the floor raised off the floor with the 1″ posts, and the sculpture is raised up further on 3 large posts laid horizontally to let the heat/air circulate and to raise the sculpture up a bit higher off the “cooler” bottom of the kiln.
    The 3 large posts are set under the 2 side walls and the center of the sculpture which has a web in the center of the upper compartment, so this will give support to these areas to avoid any sagging.

    I’d prefer firing this laid on her back as per the first photo, but the kiln is not large enough.
    I decided to see if I could get a cone high enough to view through the peephole, and there is one on top of one of the large posts at the bottom, which is actually the top of the sculpture so I can see if that part gets the full heat.
    This Continental clay course red with grog and sand will get fired to ^1 which is almost about the edge of where the red starts to turn towards brown.

    We’ll see how this turns out next weekend.

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