I have added a terracotta version of the single section Art Deco now. This is an exciting development of expanding into this new line of top quality durable kiln fired terracotta. Each hand pressed cast must be carefully dried over about two-three weeks, and hand detailed just as they did in the 1890s, of course production is much slower, and the hand labor is considerably more than the interior cast stone is, this will be reflected in the terracotta line’s price. A number of my other smaller models are planned to be introduced in this material as well. Each of these terracotta sculptures are personally signed, numbered and dated works…

I did more work today on the eyes, eyebrows, cheeks and hair, I’m just now starting to like where it’s going.

I decided that since this model is so deep and heavy, I would rough hollow the back out, so I got it off the easel and standing vertically on the work bench so I could unscrew the backer board to access the inside. I probably took out about 35# of clay from the back, it was a bag and a half worth. With it being lighter I screwed the backer board back on and then laid him down flat so I could unscrew the bottom board to give the bottom a curvature. Once that was done I screwed the bottom board back on so it keeps the side baords stable…

I made three of these before I set the mold aside for now, I really need to make a set of block molds of the five plaster sections before using the mold more because it’s the only mold I have since it was made directly off of the clay model. Here’s a shot of the three pressed clay lions drying out, it’s easy to see how much the clay shrinks in the drying process by comparing the first one on the left with the most recent one on the right, the shrinkage is about 1/2″ to 5/8″ of it’s length.

Done with the model for tonight, I guess I spent about 3 hours so far on it, long way to go yet. I worked on the hat more, moved the eyes out a bit further. The bottom is currently horizontal due to the form, but when the model is done mostly and firms up, I’ll be unscrewing the bottom board of the form and I have a template with a curve, the bottom of the sculpture gets a curve, concave with about a 1/2″ rise in the arc. And now after a little more work, I stopped on this for tonight, I wound up moving the hat down about 1/2…