Now that I have the half ton of clay I ordered I decided to start with this model scaled to compensate for two shrinkings of clay. It’s inspired by a circa 1900 carved keystone I removed from a buidling facade around 1976. I have the other one I removed and so I was able to get the exact size of the stone and depth of the face etc from it to work with. I always called this one a cowboy due to the hat which years ago I thought suggested a cowboy hat, but it actually doesn’t seem to be, but is some kind of soft men’s hat with an…

The kiln reached final temperature just 11 minutes sooner than I estimated, I’ll open it up in the morning and see what I have. Meanwhile, after finishing another plaster piece mold of a design I used to cast about 30 years ago, I pressed clay into it now and we’ll see how it turns out. It took 10-1/2# of clay, the wall thickness of the clay is about 5/8″, and it is 10″ high, 4-1/4″ wide: Now about 3 hours later I was able to remove the lion, here he is shown next to one of the cut down wall plaque versions: The five pieces in the kiln all turned…